Spanish Revision Help!!!

I am really bad at Spanish but my parents made me put it done for GCSE. I have been getting level 5As, what can I do to get good grades in time for Year 10 in the summer holidays so I can get good GCSE for Spanish?

I don't get preterite tense or any tenses and I can hardly count. I was really good year 7 and start of year 8 but then I moved to a school that only does German for my house. But my teachers said I should stick to learning Spanish for about 2 years until Year 10- so I have been "learning" from the textbook with no help from a teacher.
I am really good at maths, science and English and but Spanish I am horrible.

Reply 1

gluttonyyy

Listen to spanish songs, expand your knowledge by learning interesting vocab, understand the english for phrases in spanish, cognates are helpful like interesante in spanish means interesting, normalmente means normally etc. Practice a little each day e.g before bed seeing as you've got plenty of time before your GCSEs.I've been getting 6s and put down for higher so let me know if you need any help! :smile:

Reply 2

RarRarRae

Original post by custard101

Thank sm but can you tell me how can I learn grammar? Its so confusing and so long and boring. And yh, I really enjoy spanish music.

Reply 3

thrifty_reviser

Read Spanish magazines or articles (this helps to apply all the spanish vocab and tenses you have learnt). And what don't you understand about the tenses, they are just the same in English e.g. present, imperfect, 2 future tenses, conditional, past tenses (preterite, perfect and pluperfect) and the subjunctives - which aren't necessary for GCSE.

Reply 4

thrifty_reviser

Original post by RarRarRae

Thank sm but can you tell me how can I learn grammar? Its so confusing and so long and boring. And yh, I really enjoy spanish music.

Have you looked at this website?
https://studyspanish.com/grammar

Reply 5

gluttonyyy

Tbh i've always struggled with grammar and tenses 😂I'd just use the grammar textbooks in school to help me. But also when we'd do practise writing or whatever my teacher would correct it and I'd learn where I went wrong and what I need to remember not to do. this might help https://studyspanish.com/

Reply 6

RarRarRae

Original post by thrifty_reviser

Oh Ok, thank you so much. Do you know anywhere I can access Spanish magazines for free?

Reply 7

RarRarRae

Original post by custard101

Thanks so much

Reply 8

thrifty_reviser

Original post by RarRarRae

Oh Ok, thank you so much. Do you know anywhere I can access Spanish magazines for free?

https://www.veintemundos.com/en/library/
http://www.ngenespanol.com/

Reply 9

RarRarRae

Original post by thrifty_reviser

https://www.veintemundos.com/en/library/
http://www.ngenespanol.com/

Thank you so much your such a great help!

Reply 10

Maestro88

'HelloTalk' is a free app with thousands of Spanish speakers willing to help you learn Spanish in exchange for your help with English. Also, conversationexchange.com is the same idea and an excellent option.

There is also Duolingo which you probably know about.

I have been self studying Spanish for about 18 months though I did start 2 hour a week classes last October.

You will get huge confidence early on from learning a lot of vocabulary - when you come across new words fire them into an excel sheet and revise periodically. You can include past tense words etc in this and you will start to notice patterns. Its a good base to build on to start speaking exercises, which ideally should be started early as possible in the process too. And as your vocabulary increases(which can happen pretty quickly at the start) you'll have no excuse not to!

Good luck!

M88

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 11

RarRarRae

Original post by Maestro88

Thanks x

Reply 12

FroopSploop

I'd highly recommend sites like Duolingo and Memrise. You can also buy inexpensive textbooks which will help. On top of that, it helps to actually SPEAK to Spanish people. In my case, we have a native Spanish speaker at my school so she often helps me to improve my Spanish skills, but if you don't have that option it's quite easy to find someone online to speak to you. There are pen pal websites where you can get a Spanish pen pal, so they're definitely worth trying. While many people would discourage you from trying to self-teach, with languages like Spanish it's fairly easy to self-teach. With something like Japanese (which I study alongside French and Spanish) it's a different story, but Spanish? As long as you have relevant resources and expose yourself to the language often (so, through music, television, podcasts and light reading) you'll pick it up in no time. I'm doing my Spanish GCSEs right now, and I can tell you right now, as long as you know what to study, they're not too difficult. Just try to do a little bit every day and by Year 11, you'll have nothing to worry about! If you have Netflix, there are some great Spanish shows on there to get started with. "La Casa de Papel" (Paper House, or 'Money Heist') is a really good one. It's quite popular with English-speakers as well (there's an English dub, but go for the original Spanish). There's also "El Ministerio del Tiempo" (The Ministry of Time) which errs heavily on the historical side of things, so you'll pick up some interesting Spanish from that. Also, on Youtube, there's a Spanish series called "Extra" which is REALLY good for beginners. They speak slowly, and the American guy Sam often recaps everything in English so the plot is really easy to follow. If you'd like any more recommendations about music/podcasts/etc. feel free to ask! I hope this was helpful.

Reply 13

Maestro88

True, self study is always good imo even if you eventually take classes in your subject of interest.

I studied Spanish myself for about a year from scratch at age 34 never having studied it before then got the desire to progress further so took a level test at Instituto Cervantes with a view to taking a course. I was able to skip two full levels based on the knowledge I'd gained from self studying. In fact, the first time I'd ever spoken Spanish was in that level test (luckily I anticipated a couple of the questions!)

Good luck

M88