The official titles changed in 2025. Your older certificate is still valid — and the British Council says so in writing.
This is documented: the table in the official February 2025 letter assigns C1 to General, for Teachers and Advanced, and C2 to Advanced only.
At the request of Ofqual, the UK regulator, the British Council changed the formal qualification title printed under «Aptis ESOL International Certificate». The exam did not change — the name of the qualification did.
| Level | Official title from 24 Apr 2025 | Ofqual number |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Aptis Entry Level Certificate in ESOL International (Entry 1) | 610/4316/3 |
| A2 | Aptis Entry Level Certificate in ESOL International (Entry 2) | 610/4315/1 |
| B1 | Aptis Entry Level Certificate in ESOL International (Entry 3) | 610/4314/X |
| B2 | Aptis Level 1 Certificate in ESOL International | 610/4313/8 |
| C1 | Aptis Level 2 Certificate in ESOL International | 610/4312/6 |
| C2 | Aptis Level 3 Certificate in ESOL International | 603/7819/0 |
It is still just as valid, and that is not our interpretation. The British Council letter states it literally: certificates issued up to 23 April 2025 and those issued from 24 April «remain equally valid for the purposes of confirming the English Language level of the test taker».
So you do not need to retake the test or ask for a reissued certificate, even if the body asking for it uses the new wording.
Certificate age is a different matter: Aptis certificates do not expire, but many institutions ask for one issued within the last two or three years.
For each skill (Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking) you get a score out of 50 and its CEFR level. The Core grammar and vocabulary component appears with a score but no level of its own.
If you sit all four skills you also get an overall level, which is not the sum of your points: it is the rounded average of your four CEFR levels. Three B2s and one B1 give you B2; one B2 and three B1s leave you at B1.
That is why the breakdown matters more than the overall figure: many institutions look at each skill separately.
Source: British Council — «Changes to Aptis ESOL International Certificates», 20 February 2025, and «Aptis Scoring System» v2.1 (technical report TR/2024/002).
Aptis® is a registered trademark of the British Council. This page is an independent project and is not affiliated with the British Council.
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