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A level Spanish

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Reply 20

Manip01

How did you find the A level? And any advice you would give me?

Original post by Nathalieb280

Ask me whatever you want . I’m Spanish therefore I find it easy x

Reply 21

Nathalieb280

Original post by Manip01

How did you find the A level? And any advice you would give me?

I mean I didn’t mean I’ve done , I’m still in year 11 but I find it easy just because it’s my native Language but what I do when learning languages Is to :
- learn the endings of the different verbs in all the different tenses .
For example sin the present tense :
Comer - to eat ends with er
So every verb that ends with er will have these endings
ComO
ComES
ComE
ComEMOS
ComEIS
ComEN

then i will learn so many vocab and that’s it

Reply 22

MyLanguageLab

Original post by Manip01

I'm wanting to do A level Spanish, I did it at GCSE and I really enjoyed it!
I was predicted a 6/7 - at school.
Can anyone tell me how hard it is?
And also what can I do till September to help me prepare for A level Spanish? x

There’s def a really big jump from GCSE to AS level, like there is in most subjects but the main differences are these IMO:

1. Generally speaking, you need to develop your ideas and justify opinions a lot more. So basically you need to defend your point of view in a more sophisticated way. For each syllabus topic, I'd recommend learning some of the main advantages, disadvantages, solutions and general knowledge on facts and figures. Become comfortable with learning topic-specific terminology, sophisticated verbs and using more complex grammar structures (practice question drills).

2. You need to watch and listen regularly to news sources such as El País, El Confidencial, BBC El Mundo, 20minutos.es etc. I'd recommend downloading the apps and enabling push notifications, subscribing to their newsletters and reading the headlines every morning so you're on top of Hispanic news. Learn how to scan articles as this is super useful for your reading comprehensions.

3. You'll study 1 film and 1 text (or your teacher might choose 2 of each) so you’ll need to learn vocab on character analysis, critical thinking, cinematic and literary essay writing phrases, symbolism, metaphors, stylistic techniques etc. I'd recommend practising how to draft an essay using techniques such as mind mapping.

4. IRP - this is probably the most challenging because you have to give a 2 minute presentation and engage in a meaningful debate with the examiner on your chosen topic. But I personally think that because you can choose your title topic, it's likely that you're genuinely interested in the subject so plan well in advance, gather your articles, videos, ideas and facts and figures in your dossier of research and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and you’ll feel less anxious about it :-)

Personally, because of Brexit, Erasmus and Covid (It's like one thing after another lol), I think languages are even more valuable than they were before and they're a huge asset and definitely worth sticking with if you can handle the challenge :smile: