About

Task: read a passage and summarize it into one sentence.

Passage length: normally within 300 words

Answer word limit: 5 - 75

Number of questions in the exam: 1 - 2

Exam Tips

SWT is a very simple question type. There are two steps in answering:

1. find key sentences in the passage

2. connect key sentences into a grammatically correct sentence

Follow the following 3 Rules to look for key sentences:

Rule #1 Find out about the topic of the passage. Any sentence that is not closely related to the topic is not a key sentence.

Rule #2 Do not choose examples or elaborative sentences.

Rule #3 Choose conclusion sentences. Choose topic sentences that are elaborated on. Do not choose sentences with repeated information.

When connecting sentences, you don't need to paraphrase any sentences. Make sure correct conjunctions are used. For example, words like “however / therefore / moreover” are not conjunctions. They cannot be used to link two sentences into a single sentence. And please pay attention to punctuation and spacing.

Answer Time

The maximum time given for each SWT task is 10 minutes. It is an individually timed task, meaning that even if you finish this question early, say, in EIGHT minutes, the remaining TWO minutes will NOT be added to the next question. Therefore, there is no need to rush, and responses should be carefully checked before submission.

Practice Goal

Practice until you can score almost full marks on APEUni’s website. You have to score full marks in Grammar, Vocabulary and Form.