APTIS SCORING SYSTEM
KAREN DUNN
PAGE 6
The CEFR levels give guidance about language in use across the main language skills. These are
fully elaborated in the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001), with additional scales and descriptors
in the Companion Volume (Council of Europe, 2018). Descriptive information, illustrative of the
type of performance to expect at the different proficiency levels, is given in a range of scales for
communicative activities and strategies, including overall reading and listening comprehension,
spoken and written production, and spoken and written interaction
2
. Scales for linguistic competencies
address aspects of grammatical and vocabulary range and accuracy but only in very broad terms.
These are deliberately under-specified in the CEFR, as the CEFR was intended as a common
framework applicable to multiple languages. The CEFR makes clear that aspects of grammatical
and lexical knowledge need to be fleshed out in local applications for different languages (Council
of Europe, 2001, p. 33).
The range of CEFR levels it is possible to be awarded in Aptis depends on the test variant taken.
Aptis General, Teachers and Teens do not differentiate at the higher end of the scale between C1
and C2 level because the tasks included in the test are designed and written to challenge English
language learners with a range of abilities between A1–B2. If a candidate does exceptionally well in
one of these Aptis test variants, it is clear that their proficiency level exceeds B2, and will be in the
C range. It is recommended in these cases for candidates to sit the Aptis Advanced test, which
includes targeted tasks that can discriminate between performances at C1 and C2 level.
See Table 2 for a summary of the CEFR level coverage across major Aptis variants.
Table 2: CEFR level coverage for major Aptis variants
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