How to revise for AQA AS Spanish ORAL EXAM?!

Hello,

My AS Spanish oral exam is in May. I know it's three months away and maybe I shouldn't be panicking, but we had our first mock for it last week and I got a C. I've been getting As in my written mock exams, and this has dragged my result down to a B! I speak three languages fluently, and am very good at Spanish, but when it comes to speaking I just freeze and can't think of anything to say. Our teacher is going to be the examiner, so it does take a bit of the pressure off, but still.

So, for anyone who's done the AQA Spanish oral exam, how did you revise for it?

Please help me. I'm freaking out.
Thank you in advance :frown:

Reply 1

Anna Schoon

13

Original post by yasminkattan

Hello,

My AS Spanish oral exam is in May. I know it's three months away and maybe I shouldn't be panicking, but we had our first mock for it last week and I got a C. I've been getting As in my written mock exams, and this has dragged my result down to a B! I speak three languages fluently, and am very good at Spanish, but when it comes to speaking I just freeze and can't think of anything to say. Our teacher is going to be the examiner, so it does take a bit of the pressure off, but still.

So, for anyone who's done the AQA Spanish oral exam, how did you revise for it?

Please help me. I'm freaking out.
Thank you in advance :frown:

The fact that you "can't think of anything to say" simply shows lack of preparation. If you're getting As in your written work, then you should certainly be capable of a similar grade in the oral!

It helps a lot if you have a good range of general knowledge - so I suggest that you look at a good newspaper regularly (it doesn't even have to be Spanish!) or get "The Week" which gives a good summary of events.

You will need to know your topics inside-out, including specialist vocabulary that relates to each. Use the time before the exam to make notes on your stimulus card - vocab, ideas etc. The cards always relate to the topic areas. For an A grade, you will need to develop a wide range of different points in response to the questions, and show that you are able to express your own opinion. It would be a good idea to get hold of past stimulus cards and work on these - not that you'd ever get the same card, but for the practice of thinking about the cards in relation to your topic areas, retrieving relevant vocab and ideas and developing your own opinions. You'll find it gets easier as you do them regularly.

With AQA, even the general conversation is topic-related. For top marks you need to not just respond to questions but to take the lead occasionally in the discussion - so again, you just need to know your topics really, really well so that you are confident enough to discuss just about any aspect. Again, work on past stimulus cards will give you ideas.

Hope this helps! Bon courage. :smile:

Reply 2

nopizzaleftbeef

8

Hi there
Anna Schoon thank you for unwittingly also helping me

I'm about to do both AS and A2 Spanish exams but my A2 is in a month's time and I'm also getting a bit worried about it bearing in mind I need an A to get into uni

I'm fine with most aspects of the course but my biggest problem is fluency and speaking off the top of my head.
Do you have any tips on how to improve in this area really bloody quickly?
If you don't, that's fine. I'm just desperate to be the very best, like no one ever was

Reply 3

username1788167

OP

11

Original post by Anna Schoon

The fact that you "can't think of anything to say" simply shows lack of preparation. If you're getting As in your written work, then you should certainly be capable of a similar grade in the oral!

It helps a lot if you have a good range of general knowledge - so I suggest that you look at a good newspaper regularly (it doesn't even have to be Spanish!) or get "The Week" which gives a good summary of events.

You will need to know your topics inside-out, including specialist vocabulary that relates to each. Use the time before the exam to make notes on your stimulus card - vocab, ideas etc. The cards always relate to the topic areas. For an A grade, you will need to develop a wide range of different points in response to the questions, and show that you are able to express your own opinion. It would be a good idea to get hold of past stimulus cards and work on these - not that you'd ever get the same card, but for the practice of thinking about the cards in relation to your topic areas, retrieving relevant vocab and ideas and developing your own opinions. You'll find it gets easier as you do them regularly.

With AQA, even the general conversation is topic-related. For top marks you need to not just respond to questions but to take the lead occasionally in the discussion - so again, you just need to know your topics really, really well so that you are confident enough to discuss just about any aspect. Again, work on past stimulus cards will give you ideas.

Hope this helps! Bon courage. :smile:

Thank you very much for answering, this has helped me start my revision this half term :smile:

Reply 4

username1788167

OP

11

Original post by nopizzaleftbeef

Hi there
Anna Schoon thank you for unwittingly also helping me

I'm about to do both AS and A2 Spanish exams but my A2 is in a month's time and I'm also getting a bit worried about it bearing in mind I need an A to get into uni

I'm fine with most aspects of the course but my biggest problem is fluency and speaking off the top of my head.
Do you have any tips on how to improve in this area really bloody quickly?
If you don't, that's fine. I'm just desperate to be the very best, like no one ever was

Hey

Is your examiner going to be your teacher? If so, I found out last week from my teacher that we're allowed to take in questions we've answered in class, which she will be reading to us in the oral exam. So basically what our class has to do is memorise them, or at least use them as a guide, and she will ask us some of those questions randomly.

AQA isn't expecting a lot from you in the first year. In fact if you read the mark scheme it's really easy to get good marks. You don't have to be fluent, and that's pretty impossible after a few months at AS. Hopefully you've been doing these questions in class like we have, so all you have to worry about is the stimulus card you get in the exam. You get 20 minutes to write an answer for this. All you'll have to do is use what you've written but make it sound natural, like a conversation, and not robotic. Your answer for each question needs to be at least 30 seconds long, so that your response is 2 minutes 30 seconds in total.

Edit: I've just realised you said your A2 is in a month. I'm not familiar with the layout for that one I'm afraid, the advice I've given you above is for AS!

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 5

nopizzaleftbeef

8

Original post by yasminkattan

Hey

Is your examiner going to be your teacher? If so, I found out last week from my teacher that we're allowed to take in questions we've answered in class, which she will be reading to us in the oral exam. So basically what our class has to do is memorise them, or at least use them as a guide, and she will ask us some of those questions randomly.

AQA isn't expecting a lot from you in the first year. In fact if you read the mark scheme it's really easy to get good marks. You don't have to be fluent, and that's pretty impossible after a few months at AS. Hopefully you've been doing these questions in class like we have, so all you have to worry about is the stimulus card you get in the exam. You get 20 minutes to write an answer for this. All you'll have to do is use what you've written but make it sound natural, like a conversation, and not robotic. Your answer for each question needs to be at least 30 seconds long, so that your response is 2 minutes 30 seconds in total.

Edit: I've just realised you said your A2 is in a month. I'm not familiar with the layout for that one I'm afraid, the advice I've given you above is for AS!

Yeah I did the AQA AS oral and got an A which I was amazed about but I've moved since and they do WJEC up in Liverpool which means I have to retake the entire course in a year
The A2 exam is more about thinking off the top of your head and preparing for the unexpected and THAT is why I'm so scared of it!

Reply 6

Anna Schoon

13

Original post by nopizzaleftbeef

Hi there
Anna Schoon thank you for unwittingly also helping me

I'm about to do both AS and A2 Spanish exams but my A2 is in a month's time and I'm also getting a bit worried about it bearing in mind I need an A to get into uni

I'm fine with most aspects of the course but my biggest problem is fluency and speaking off the top of my head.
Do you have any tips on how to improve in this area really bloody quickly?
If you don't, that's fine. I'm just desperate to be the very best, like no one ever was

The best way to improve really quickly is to speak French every day, so you get used to using the language. One thing you might be able to do is to meet up with some of your French classmates every lunchtime, for example, and chat in French over lunch - just 15 to 20 minutes every day would be really, really useful. Or decide with a French-speaking friend that you're going to chat in French every day for about 20 minutes, and make sure you do it every day. Regularity is the key and you will find that you will make progress very quickly that way. The more you speak, the more confident you'll get and the better you'll be at both fluency and speaking off the top of your head.

Reply 7

thelondonrager

1

whens everyones as spanish oral exam?

Reply 8

myspanishexam

6

Hi there,

We all agree with what has been said so far here.

Regularity is key to pass your oral exam. Not only to pass the exam, but also to be much better at speaking and get confidence and fluency.

We have just PM you with some advice on how to practise more regularly. We hope it helps you.

Best of luck
myspanishexam

Reply 9

RavenclawPolly

3

Original post by yasminkattan

Hello,

My AS Spanish oral exam is in May. I know it's three months away and maybe I shouldn't be panicking, but we had our first mock for it last week and I got a C. I've been getting As in my written mock exams, and this has dragged my result down to a B! I speak three languages fluently, and am very good at Spanish, but when it comes to speaking I just freeze and can't think of anything to say. Our teacher is going to be the examiner, so it does take a bit of the pressure off, but still.

So, for anyone who's done the AQA Spanish oral exam, how did you revise for it?

Please help me. I'm freaking out.
Thank you in advance :frown:

My teacher gave us a list for potential questions on each sub-topic, and I just practiced answers for those. I sort of created a loose structure of an answer that I could bend to each question. Listing advantages and disadvantages of topics is really useful, because that is often the easiest to fill out an answer

Also use the speaking card to use up some fancy phrases, because you have time to think about it. Have a check list in your of subj phrases, a conditional or something. Obviously you don't have to pack them into one point but if you can slot them in your card at the beginning to get them out of the way. I always freaked about speaking mocks and the exam and it is never as bad as you think it will be honestly! :smile:

Reply 10

RavenclawPolly

3

Original post by nopizzaleftbeef

Hi there
Anna Schoon thank you for unwittingly also helping me

I'm about to do both AS and A2 Spanish exams but my A2 is in a month's time and I'm also getting a bit worried about it bearing in mind I need an A to get into uni

I'm fine with most aspects of the course but my biggest problem is fluency and speaking off the top of my head.
Do you have any tips on how to improve in this area really bloody quickly?
If you don't, that's fine. I'm just desperate to be the very best, like no one ever was

Speaking off the top of your head will come easier when you the course or the types of questions you will get inside out. For example with the book and film expect a question on themes, favourite/most relatable characters, what you might do in that postition etc. For the card knowing both sides of the argument is really useful for the challenges section, so you can sort of predict what the examiner might come back with. The mark scheme is actually relatively lenient about fluency you are allowed a lot of 'um's and 'erm's and still get a high mark.

Reply 11

username1788167

OP

11

Original post by RavenclawPolly

My teacher gave us a list for potential questions on each sub-topic, and I just practiced answers for those. I sort of created a loose structure of an answer that I could bend to each question. Listing advantages and disadvantages of topics is really useful, because that is often the easiest to fill out an answer

Also use the speaking card to use up some fancy phrases, because you have time to think about it. Have a check list in your of subj phrases, a conditional or something. Obviously you don't have to pack them into one point but if you can slot them in your card at the beginning to get them out of the way. I always freaked about speaking mocks and the exam and it is never as bad as you think it will be honestly! :smile:

Thank you!
We've also been answering questions in class which our teacher has marked, and I've only just realised that she'll be asking us those exact questions in the oral exam! So I'm not as worried now... all I've gotta do is practice answering those, maybe memorise some... Thanks again and good luck :smile:

Reply 12

francesca71

When is everyones oral?