How to Tackle the GCSE Spanish Reading Exam & Get a Top Grade

The Spanish GCSE exam is worth 25% of the overall marks that make up the final grade therefore it is worth doing your very best. The exam is one hour long and is split into 3 sections:

• Section A you answer the questions in English.
• Section B you answer in Spanish.
• Section C is a short passage in Spanish that you translate into English.

In sections A and B you are given texts such as emails, letters, surveys, articles and literary texts to answer questions on.

In today’s blog post we will give you tips and advice as to a few simple things you can do to help you prepare for the reading exam and get the best mark possible.

1) Skim read the text first

Firstly you should scan the text to get a general idea of what it is about. Then read the questions to make sure you know what information you are being asked. Do not panic if you do not understand all of the words as you can still answer the questions correctly and get a high mark without knowing what every single word means.

2) Use the clues in the questions

A good technique is to underline the key words in the question. This will then help you to find the answer in the text. Make sure you learn the key question words in Spanish so that you understand what information you need to provide the correct answer:

¿Qué? – What?
¿Dónde? – Where?
¿Cuándo? – When?
¿Cómo? – How?
¿Quién?/¿Quiénes? – Who?
¿Por qué? – Why?
¿Cuál/¿Cuáles? – Which?
¿Cuánto/a? – How much?
¿Cuántos/as? – How many?

Underline or highlight parts of the question that are important to help you find the answer – things like the person’s name, the day, any specific detail that you then need to scan the text to find these words in Spanish and that is where the answer will be found.

3) Pick out negative words

Often they try to catch you out by using negative words which can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Watch out for:

No – no
Nunca – never
Nada – nothing/anything
Tampoco – neither
Ningún/ninguna – none/any
Nadie – nobody

Also watch out for other traps they like to throw in – connectives often change the ending of a sentence to what you think they are saying at the beginning. Make sure you recognise the following words:

aunque – although
Sin embargo – however
pero – but
No obstante – nevertheless

4) Answer all the questions

Do not leave any question blank. Even if you do not know the answer, have a guess at what the logical answer could be. You may be right. Gaining a few additional marks here and there may mean an extra grade. Try to re-read your answers and the texts to see if you have any other ideas.
Many questions involve multiple-choice answers or true or false answers which means it is worth making a guess even if you are not sure.

5) Answer in the right language

Make sure you answer the questions in either English or Spanish. Do not lose marks carelessly by not taking this into account. Remember if the question is in English, you answer in English. If the question is in Spanish, answer in Spanish.

How to prepare before the exam

1) Boost your vocabulary

The best way to improve your grade is to try to learn as much vocabulary on the syllabus as you can. A good way to do this is to separate vocabulary into word families: identify topics, tenses, adjectives, verbs, nouns. You can make yourself a set of flashcards or use programs such as Quizlet or Memrise to make your own online vocabulary sets. Search on there for key topics as there will already be sets of GCSE vocabulary ready for you to use.

2) Brush up on your tenses

Knowing your verb endings for the different tenses; present, past (preterite or imperfect), future and conditional is vital to your success in the exams. Practice with lots of repetition as this takes time.

3) Revise little but often

The key with memorising languages is to revise regularly but for short bursts of time. For example, you may look through your flashcards for 10-15 minutes but twice a day and every day.

4) Do past papers

By going through some past GCSE papers from recent years will help you become familiar with the style of questions to expect, the vocabulary used and you can also time yourself to make sure that you don’t run out of time in the actual exam. You can find past papers on Revision World or on the AQA website.