How To Prepare for the GCSE Spanish Listening Exam

One of the most daunting parts of the Spanish GCSE is the listening exam. In this blog post we will give you tips and advice as to the best ways to prepare for it and the techniques you need to make sure you do the best that you can in the exam to get the best mark you possibly can.

Tackling numbers

When listening to numbers, listen out for the y which is used for numbers above 30. E.g. 35 = treinta y cinco.
Percentages are often preceded by ‘un’ or ‘el’. For example, “Un cincuenta por ciento de estudiantes …” (50% of students).
Take care with similar numbers such as 60 (sesenta) and 70 (setenta).

When you hear any statistics, focus on words like medio (half), más de (more than), menos de (less than), casi (almost) and unos (some/about).

When listening to prices bear in mind that they can be said in different ways:
3,50 (three euros fifty) can be said in the following ways:
– tres euros y cincuenta
– tres euros con cincuenta
– tres euros cincuenta

Opinions

When listening to positive and negative opinions, be careful and don’t be quick to jump to conclusions. Listen to the whole sentence and listen out to clues such as:
Lo bueno / lo malo – the good thing / the bad thing
Lo mejor / lo peor – the best thing / the worst thing
Lo que más / menos me gustó – What I liked most / least

Watch out for the word “tampoco” (neither/either) which is the negative form of “también” (also).

They often try to mix you up by then using phrases such as, pero (but), sin embargo (however) or por un lado …. por otro lado … (on one hand … on the other hand …).

Multiple-choice questions

Be careful when answering the multiple-choice questions. The answers are never the same words as in the answers. They say things with different words to test your range of vocabulary. They use distractors to mislead you and catch you out! They will probably refer to several of the options but there is only one correct answer! Make sure you listen to the end to gain a full understanding.

Listen out for time expressions

Brush up on the words that indicate when things happened. This will help you work out when things happened. Make sure you recogise the following:
antes – before
después – after
primero – first
por último – lastly

Present:

hoy – today
ahora – now
este año – this year

Past:

El año pasado – last year
Hace dos años – 2 years ago
ayer – yesterday
anteayer – the day before yesterday

Future:

mañana – tomorrow
la semana que viene – next week
el próximo año – next year

Learn frequency expressions

Knowing how often something happens or happened can be key to understanding what is being said. Learn the following really well:

siempre – always
nunca – never
a menudo – often
a veces – sometimes
ya – already
todavía – still / yet

Negatives

Spotting the negative words and expressions could mean getting that extra mark putting you in the next band up. They can completely change the meaning of a sentence, so make sure you learn these ones:

nada – nothing / anything
nadie – nobody
nunca – never
más que nada – more than ever
más que nadie – more than anyone
en absoluto – absolutely not
tampoco – neither
ya no – no longer
ni … ni … – either … or
ningún – no + noun / any (masculine, singular)
ninguna – no + noun / any (feminine, singular)

Learn different forms of the same verbs

When listening you may come across different forms of familiar verbs. For example, estudiar = to study, but estudiando = ‘studying’ which would imply the action is happening right now.

Quantifiers

Try to spot phrases that indicate whether something has increased or decreased:

Phrases that show an increase:

Cada vez más – more and more
Un incremento / aumento – an increase
Ha subido – it has gone up

Phrases that show a decrease:

Cada vez menos – less and less
Perder – to lose
Bajar – to go down
Ya no – no longer

Phrases to show it has stayed the same:

Seguir – to continue/carry on
Mismo – same

Brush up on tenses

Make sure you learn all of the tense endings so that you know if people are talking about the present, future or something that happened in the past. Also make sure you are clear about when the preterite tense is used (past completed actions) compared to the imperfect (descriptions in the past or for things that used to happen).

Make sure you know the subject endings for each tense to know who is being spoken about:
Abre – it opens
Abrimos – we open
Abren – they open

Grow your vocabulary

Try to learn as many words as you can before the exam. You may hear the words but if you do not know what they mean you will not be able to answer the question correctly. Make flashcards for each topic area or theme and use colours to help distinguish different verbs, adjectives, nouns or quantifiers.

Do past papers

Try to do past GCSE listening papers to become familiar with the style of questions and the speed of the recordings. You can also access the transcript so you can later go through the text and highlight key words and phrases they use to spot the correct answers and then note these down to learn and commit to memory.

Listen, listen, listen!

Listen to as much Spanish as you can in the days leading up to the Spanish listening exam and even on the day. This could be songs, podcasts, the radio, TV shows, Youtube channels. This will train your ear to Spanish pronunciation and key sounds.

Do not panic!

Try to stay calm in the exam and do not worry if you do not understand every word. You do not need to understand everything to be able to work out the correct answer. Just try to note as many key words as you can and then if you are not sure, make your best guess based on the words you have understood.