An introduction

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British Council

The British Council is the United Kingdom's leading cultural relations organisation and India is our largest

operation worldwide. British Council builds engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge

and ideas between people worldwide. The British Council was established by the Government in 1934. It was

incorporated by Royal Charter in 1940 and granted a Supplemental Charter in 1993. The British Council is a

registered charity (no. 209131). The British Council has over 7,000 staff that are based in the UK and in 110

countries. Each year it

Welcomes 7 million visitors to Council libraries and information centres.

Employs over 1,800 teachers who teach over a million class hours of English to 325,000 students.

Issues 7.5 million books and videos to 300,000 British Council library members.

Administers over 1.7 million professional and academic examinations.

Collaborates in 1,720 arts events globally.

Helps more than 15,000 young people take part in international activity.

Provides networking opportunities for a thousand people at approximately 35 professional seminars

Gives over 56 million people worldwide an experience of the UK.

Examinations Services

Internationally recognised qualifications offer a route to personal, professional and career development which

helps people to realise their personal goals. We administer English language exams and other UK qualifications

which allow candidates to determine their competence, gain employment or take up places in higher education.

We deliver UK examinations overseas as part of our cultural relations work as a means to raise educational

standards worldwide, attract more people to UK educational standards and widen our networks.

Aptis Aptis is a new and innovative global English assessment tool from the British Council. It is designed to help

organisations reach more people, connect with them and raise standards of English. Aptis is designed to be

flexible, adaptable and accessible, which means more people can be assessed quickly, affordably and with

minimum fuss. Developed by testing experts and based on the latest research in assessment, Aptis is a smarter

way to evaluate English reading, writing, listening and speaking.

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Why Choose Aptis Aptis has been developed by the British Council, a trusted organisation with more than 70 years experience in

English assessment. The British Council’s status as a global leader in English testing make choosing Aptis the

right decision for your organisation’s English development needs.

Aptis is used around the globe by corporate businesses, government organisations, educational institutions and

NGOs. It is a business-to-business product for sale to organisations, rather than individuals.

Benchmarking employees

Language audits to identify training needs

Filtering potential employees for interview

Filtering current employees for promotion

Evaluating language development projects

Benefits of Aptis Based on latest testing research

High quality and accurate

Variety of delivery options to suit different contexts

Flexible and adaptable content

Affordable, accessible and cost effective

Quick results turn-around

Quick and simple to administer

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Aptis Test Structure

Grammar and Vocabulary (Core Language Component): The grammar paper is composed of 25 questions,

which sample from a range of grammatical forms. The Vocabulary section also consists of 25 questions. These

are presented in five blocks of 5. All questions are developed to reflect different levels of ability (with a

progression through the test paper from low to high frequency words

Speaking: The Speaking paper contains a total of four tasks. The design of the test means that the tasks

become more and more linguistically and cognitively challenging, thus aiming to elicit performance that typify the

different levels of language ability

Writing: The Writing paper also contains a total of four tasks. The tasks are, like the speaking paper, designed to

provide increasingly complex challenges to the test taker. This design allows each test taker a number of

opportunities to best demonstrate their language ability.

CORE [Grammar & Vocabulary]

[25 minutes]

Writing

[50 minutes]

Reading

[30 minutes]

Speaking

[12 minutes]

Listening

[25 - 50 minutes]

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Reading: The reading paper, like the speaking and writing papers, consists of four increasingly complex tasks.

Each of these tasks is designed to elicit performance at a particular CEFR level( please see annexure: 1)

Listening: The listening paper focuses on the three different aspects of the ability . These are:

Listening at the phoneme (or sound system) level

Listening for literal meaning

Listening for inference

Since Aptis is made up of a variety of different components it can be taken in packages rather than individually. If

you require a mix of skills, you can add any other component to your package. This will allow you to test only the

areas you need to. The package includes the core module of Grammar and Vocabulary and the additional module

of Reading or Writing or Listening and Speaking. There are 15 different packages:

Listening Package

Reading Package

Speaking Package

Writing Package

Listening and Reading Package

Listening and Speaking Package

Listening and Writing Package

Reading and Speaking Package

Reading and Writing Package

Speaking and Writing Package

Listening, Reading and Speaking Package

Listening, Reading and Writing Package

Listening, Speaking and Writing Package

Reading, Speaking and Writing Package

Listening Reading Speaking and Writing Package

By allowing you to choose which skills are tested, when, where and how, you get the best and most meaningful

results for your organisation

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www.britishcouncil.org

21/10/2016 Suman Thakur

BC Commercial - India New Delhi

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Candidate Report Candidate Name:

Organization:

Test Date:

Test Package: Aptis - Listening Reading

Speaking and Writing Package

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Scale Score

Skill Name Skill Score

Listening 40/50

Reading 38/50

Speaking 47/50

Writing 36/50

Final Scale Score 161/200

Grammar & Vocab 39/50

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CEFR Skill Profile

Please turn over for CEFR Skill Descriptors

C

B2

B1

A2

A1

A0

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www.britishcouncil.org

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CEFR Skill Descriptors

Listening

A0 Not enough to allow for any meaningful inferences about the candidate’s ability.

A1 Can follow speech which is very slow and carefully articulated, with long pauses for him/her to assimilate meaning.

A2 Can understand enough to be able to meet needs of a concrete type provided speech is clearly and slowly articulated.

B1 Can understand straightforward factual information about common everyday or job related topics, identifying both general messages and specific details, provided speech is clearly articulated in a generally familiar accent.

B2 Can understand the main ideas of propositionally and linguistically complex speech on both concrete and abstract topics delivered in a standard dialect, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation.

C Has no difficulty in understanding any kind of spoken language, whether live or broadcast, delivered at fast native speed.

Reading

A0 Not enough to allow for any meaningful inferences about the candidate’s ability.

A1 Can understand very short, simple texts a single phrase at a time, picking up familiar names, words and basic phrases and rereading as required.

A2 Can understand short, simple texts on familiar matters of a concrete type which consist of high frequency everyday or job-related language.

B1 Can read straightforward factual texts on subjects related to his/her field and interest with a satisfactory level of comprehension.

B2 Can read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading to different texts and purposes, and using appropriate reference sources selectively.

C Can understand and interpret critically virtually all forms of the written language.

Speaking

A0 Not enough to allow for any meaningful inferences about the candidate’s ability.

A1 Can produce simple descriptions on mainly personal topics.

A2 Can give a simple description or presentation of people, living or working conditions, daily routines likes/dislikes, etc. as a short series of simple phrases and sentences linked into a list

B1 Can reasonably fluently sustain a straightforward description of one of a variety of subjects within his/her field of interest, presenting it as a linear sequence of points.

B2 Can give clear, systematically developed descriptions and presentations on a wide range of subjects related to his/her field of interest, with appropriate highlighting of significant points, and relevant supporting detail.

C Can produce clear, smoothly flowing well-structured speech with an effective logical structure which helps the recipient to notice and remember significant points.

Writing

A0 Not enough to allow for any meaningful inferences about the candidate’s ability.

A1 Can write simple isolated phrases and sentences.

A2 Can write a series of simple phrases and sentences linked with simple connectors like ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘because’.

B1 Can write straightforward connected texts on a range of familiar subjects within his field of interest, by linking a series of shorter discrete elements into a linear sequence.

B2 Can write clear, detailed texts on a variety of subjects related to his/her field of interest and shows an ability to use different registers within written texts.

C Can write clear, smoothly flowing, complex texts in an appropriate and effective style and a logical structure which helps the reader to find significant points.

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