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How to go from a D grade to an A/B by June? (Spanish)

I'm currently in year 12 at the moment studying AS Spanish. We recently had mock exams & in Spanish I got a D (C in writing/reading & E in speaking). What can I do to bring this up to an A/B by June?
I listen to the radio in Spanish occasionally & watch films but it doesn't really help :s-smilie:

Any ideas? I would say my weakest areas are speaking and listening. Also does anyone have any tips on how to structure essays - my exam board is Edexcel. Thanks in advance :smile:

(edited 11 years ago)

Bump!

No replies so far, so I'll see what I can do - not Spanish-specific, I'm afraid as I teach French! But hopefully some of the advice I can give will be useful.

Essay structure:

The standard structure is: introduction - body - conclusion. I tend to advise my students who struggle with structure to start by planning a conclusion - that way you know where you're going and you can build up to that in your body. The conclusion should be a direct answer to the question, with your opinion if that's relevant. Once you know how you're going to end, you should be able to find the points you're going to use in the body of your essay easily enough. The introduction can be tricky - don't be tempted to give your opinion here! It's good to start an introduction with some sort of an explanation as to why this topic is particularly interesting; and you also need to say how you are going to tackle the question in your essay.

General language improvement:

If your weak point is speaking / listening, I should imagine your vocab isn't really wide enough. You've still got time to do something about this, but it'll require a daily effort! Take a paragraph on an exam-related topic (from your textbook, a newspaper article, anything) and look up every single word you do not understand. Make sure you have a top-notch dictionary to hand (online dictionaries, and "pocket" dictionaries don't give enough contexts) - I like the Collins dictionaries myself, but get the biggest one you can find and afford. Make a list of these words, and try to learn them using the look, cover, repeat, check method. Write them down if it helps. The next day, re-read the same text and check you still know the vocab, then do a second text. Build this up and every day, go back over at least some of the previous texts to reinforce your knowledge of the vocab. Half an hour a day, every day!

Grammar is never, ever, known well enough. The basic, absolutely essential thing is to make sure you are faultless on your verb conjugations. Go to your Spanish syllabus to find out which tenses you need to know - learn how to conjugate these. Then do exercises to work on how to use these tenses in context. My sons used 501 Spanish Verbs (published by Barron's) which is brilliant. Work your way through as many verb exercises as you can - there's plenty of stuff freely available on the internet, too. Verbs are the backbone of any language, so if you really know these and your vocab you'll be on the path to a decent grade.

For speaking practice, it's a good idea to get together at least two or three times a week with other Spanish students - perhaps over lunch, for example? - and just chat in Spanish. Even if you're all struggling for vocab and making mistakes, at least you're building up your confidence. Regular practice is of the essence and you will soon see that you are all making progress.

Hope this helps! I know that this advice has helped some of my students go from Ds to As and Bs in just a few months, so it is possible - but you will really need to put the regular effort in. Good luck!

Reply 3

Harve

I can't speak for the exams themselves but you need to constantly expose yourself to the language. Is your Facebook in Spanish? Is your phone in Spanish? Computer? I learn it passively and go out of my way to check up on any points I'm not sure about.
You could also find people on the internet to speak Spanish with, be it in real life or typed or Skyped. I know it all sounds quite radical but for me, it's the most effortless way to learn as you're only doing what you'd normally do anyway, simply through a different language.

How to go from a D grade to an A/B by June? (Spanish)

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