Aptis scores: 0 to 50 per skill, and why the same total of 169 can be B2 or C1

Each skill gets a score from 0 to 50, and so does grammar and vocabulary. The four skill scores add up to a total out of 200. Separately, each skill gets a CEFR level, and the four skill levels give an overall CEFR level.

The British Council says plainly that there is no direct relationship between the overall CEFR level and the numerical score. The overall level comes from the four skill levels and does not take into account whether a candidate achieved the lower or higher end of the numerical score range for each skill.

Its own scoring document gives two candidates with the same total, 169 out of 200. Candidate A, with 44, 32, 47 and 46, is B2 overall. Candidate B, with 40, 42, 47 and 40, is C1 overall. Neither is a mistake.

The score needed for each CEFR level is different in each skill. So a 40 in listening and a 40 in writing are not the same level, and the British Council tells test takers and employers not to compare scores across skills. Compare the CEFR levels across skills, and use the numbers only within one skill.

For the same reason it says the total out of 200 is the wrong thing to compare between two people, or between two sittings. Compare the overall CEFR level instead.

Grammar and vocabulary is only ever reported as a score out of 50, never as a level. It is used when a skill score falls just below a CEFR threshold: a strong grammar and vocabulary score can lift that skill to the higher level.

That is exactly what happens in the example. Both candidates scored 47 in speaking. Candidate A, with 30 in grammar and vocabulary, got B2 for speaking. Candidate B, with 35, got C1. It is not part of the total out of 200, but it decides the close calls.

Aptis ESOL General (over 16) assesses A1 to B2. A candidate who performs above B2 receives a C1 certificate, but it cannot give C2. Aptis ESOL Advanced covers B1 to C2, with harder tasks written to separate C1 from C2. Aptis ESOL for Teachers follows the General format with teaching content, A1 to B2 with C1 above that. Aptis ESOL for Teens is for ages 13 to 15, also A1 to B2 with C1 above.

So if the organisation asks for C2, General cannot show it: book Advanced.

One more thing to check: the UK Home Office's approved list of secure English language tests for visas names Trinity College London, the IELTS SELT Consortium, LANGUAGECERT and Pearson in the UK, and PSI Services, the IELTS SELT Consortium, LANGUAGECERT and Pearson outside it (our UK guide). The British Council's Aptis is not on it, so for a UK visa, settlement or citizenship application it is not the test to book.

Aptis ESOL results are available 48 hours after the test. The printed and digital certificates are equally valid, and each carries a QR code and link that let an organisation check it.

If you took Aptis ESOL before 24 April 2025, your certificate shows the CEFR level but not the level of the qualification in England. The British Council will issue a corrected certificate free of charge if you ask.

A re-mark is called an Enquiry on Results and costs an extra fee. You can ask for it up to eight weeks after the test, through your test centre, and only for the whole test, not one component. Speaking and writing are re-marked by senior examiners; the other parts are checked by the system. The result comes after ten working days and is final. The fee is refunded only if your overall CEFR level goes up; a change in one component alone does not count.

The Oxford Test of English works the other way: its overall score is the average of the four modules. For how Aptis sits beside IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, Duolingo and TOEIC, see our comparison, and for Cambridge's own scale, the Cambridge English Scale.