A level Spanish

I am in year 12 and studying Spanish at A level, I have found I'm struggling a lot with practice papers in class and at home - specifically the listening. Any advice on how to improve would be really appreciated

I am in year 12 and studying Spanish at A level, I have found I'm struggling a lot with practice papers in class and at home - specifically the listening. Any advice on how to improve would be really appreciated

Hi there! I just finished Alevels, and I did Spanish Alevel. For listening, I would recommend using kerboodle, and answering some listening questions. With the listening questions, I think one important thing is knowing how to pinpoint and choose the key words, or take a keyword and know a synonym for it. Like it might say the word "ayudar" (to support/help) but the multiple choice answers could show the word "auxiliar" (another word fore help).
As I mentioned, it is important to know what is important and what they want you to answer. Like the question might say "State one thing Maria mentions about the use of technology". She might go on about something kinda irrelevant or even something that is relevant to the theme of technology, but not the answer. I think the best thing for that, to improve in that, is to use kerboodle as mentioned, as look at the answers. I dont know if your teacher could possibly give you access to the answers when you ask, but I think that is one way.
Overall to improve listening, I'd say practise listening to spanish music, series, etc, not that that will help specifically with the exam, but it will in general help with your listening, practise makes perfect.
So I would conclude that key words are very important, or key phrases. I dont know what exam baord you are doing, I did AQA, so the quesitons were:

-True/false/not mentioned
-Which 4 boxes are correct
-There are 3 people, they all say 2 things, which two things do they each say

These are the slightly easier ones since you dont have to write in spanish but just write a letter

The more difficult ones, like in this past paper from 2021:
https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2021/november/AQA-76921-QP-NOV21.PDF

Shows: 1) Q2 - in which you have to briefly answer the question
2) Q4 write a summary of 3 different things that someone said

For 1). My advice is, if you look at the question, try to pick some of the key words and think of other similar words. The speaking might mention a synonym. How do I know what to say in response to the question? Well look at the question and think which word is VITAL for the question. For example in the link I sent you, question 2.1 it says "¿Qué tipo de comportamiento antisocial ha incrementado recientemente en Barcelona?" = "What type of antisocial behaviour has recently increased in barcelona?", the answer will likely involve the word "increased", like "_____ has increased in the last 2 years", or "in the last few months, _____ has began to happen more and more". So it might not be as obious, but if you transalte the question and think how could they respond to this type of question, then listen to it, you should be able to pinpoint the answer. As I said, they want a key word or key phrase, if you don't mention 'the behaviour', but you mentioned the information after it, you likely won';t get the mark, because you missed the keyword.

It also says the answer doesnt have to be a full sentence, if you are unsure write a few words, but maybe dont just write one word unless it seems appropriate. Like even for question 2.2, where is asks how the train was described, if the audio says "the recording showed the train was packed and crowded with people", just to be safe, I would sometimes not just say "packed and crowded" but "the train was said to be packed and crowded". Maybe check this with your teacher, because I dont actually know if this is even necessary, it was just something I would sometimes do.

During class, one thing my teacher would do with us was when doing speaking, we would almost like start of with, listen first time, write down any words you hear, listen a second time, fill in the gap between words , and eventually that will form a sentence. I think this is can work, it does depend on your time management, like I wouldnt spend ages on that, but it's a technique, and I think a good one for revision and improving with listening.

Another thing is, I just looked at the transcript of that paper (2021) (https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2021/november/AQA-76921-TR-NOV21.PDF), and what the transcript shows, is the audio but written down, so what you can do, is if you do a past paper the first time, and you see you didnt do too well, go through the listening (using the transcript) and use it almost as a reading. What you can do, is read the listening outloud, maybe even recorded your own voice reading it out, and use your voice recording and do it again. I think using the written transicpt can show how the answer may be a key word that you have to pick out from the audio, and from using the transcript, you can practise picking out the correct key words or key phrases needed for the answer. You also do not necessarily need to write your own phrase, as long as you picked the correct part of the audio that answers the quetion, you can pretty much write it word for word, but know that if the audio says "I think that ____", dont write, 'I think that....', write 'she thinks that...', like make sure you do adapt the answer if needed.

I think the hardest thing for me was the listening summary. There is also a reading summary. Again this is if you do AQA, I dont know if edexcel has this too.

My advice for the summary is by using the empty space under the question to draw like three sections. Like a 'Y'
Like imagine splitting the page into 3 sections.
Write the 3 points they want you to mention in each section.
For example:

The question:
Una entrevista con Carlos Acosta
Escucha esta entrevista publicada en una página web.
Escribe un párrafo en español resumiendo lo que has entendido. No debes usar
más de 90 palabras y debes incluir los siguientes puntos en tu resumen.
Incluye:
• lo que dice Carlos sobre su infancia en La Habana (dos detalles)
[2 marks]
• los objetivos más importantes de su compañía (dos detalles)
[2 marks]
• los prejuicios a los que se enfrentó y sus triunfos (tres detalles).
[3 marks]
Hay cinco puntos adicionales por la calidad de tu español escrito.
Escribe usando frases completas y, en la medida de lo posible, debes utilizar tus
propias palabras.

infancia de carlos | objetivos mas importantes de su compania
|
|
/ \
/prejuicios\
/ y \
/ trunifos \



Then under these, within the sections, you can literally write word for word what you hear, make sure they are under the write section.
The question says that you can get 5 extra marks if you write in in your own words
you can do this by:
-paraphrasing
-using synonyms

So in these sections you can write word for word, and after that, you can think of synonyms, for example,
Maybe carlos says "When I was a child, I travelled a lot to see my grandma, we often baked cookies together, and always went to a country home with my family, where we spent a lot of the time in the swimmingpool"
Instead of saying "viajé", you could say "iba a..." = i went to.
If I were to paraphrase this maybe I would say "I saw my grandma so much during my childhood, and when I saw her, we would bake together. Additionally, my family and I would go to the countryside and there we would swim a lot"

Try your best to mention how many points they ask you to mention, so if the question says (dos detalles) it means two details right, so mention two things.

Let me know if this was helpful at all, if you have any questions. Also what exam board do you do?

Hi there! I just finished Alevels, and I did Spanish Alevel. For listening, I would recommend using kerboodle, and answering some listening questions. With the listening questions, I think one important thing is knowing how to pinpoint and choose the key words, or take a keyword and know a synonym for it. Like it might say the word "ayudar" (to support/help) but the multiple choice answers could show the word "auxiliar" (another word fore help).
As I mentioned, it is important to know what is important and what they want you to answer. Like the question might say "State one thing Maria mentions about the use of technology". She might go on about something kinda irrelevant or even something that is relevant to the theme of technology, but not the answer. I think the best thing for that, to improve in that, is to use kerboodle as mentioned, as look at the answers. I dont know if your teacher could possibly give you access to the answers when you ask, but I think that is one way.
Overall to improve listening, I'd say practise listening to spanish music, series, etc, not that that will help specifically with the exam, but it will in general help with your listening, practise makes perfect.
So I would conclude that key words are very important, or key phrases. I dont know what exam baord you are doing, I did AQA, so the quesitons were:

-True/false/not mentioned
-Which 4 boxes are correct
-There are 3 people, they all say 2 things, which two things do they each say

These are the slightly easier ones since you dont have to write in spanish but just write a letter

The more difficult ones, like in this past paper from 2021:
https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2021/november/AQA-76921-QP-NOV21.PDF

Shows: 1) Q2 - in which you have to briefly answer the question
2) Q4 write a summary of 3 different things that someone said

For 1). My advice is, if you look at the question, try to pick some of the key words and think of other similar words. The speaking might mention a synonym. How do I know what to say in response to the question? Well look at the question and think which word is VITAL for the question. For example in the link I sent you, question 2.1 it says "¿Qué tipo de comportamiento antisocial ha incrementado recientemente en Barcelona?" = "What type of antisocial behaviour has recently increased in barcelona?", the answer will likely involve the word "increased", like "_____ has increased in the last 2 years", or "in the last few months, _____ has began to happen more and more". So it might not be as obious, but if you transalte the question and think how could they respond to this type of question, then listen to it, you should be able to pinpoint the answer. As I said, they want a key word or key phrase, if you don't mention 'the behaviour', but you mentioned the information after it, you likely won';t get the mark, because you missed the keyword.

It also says the answer doesnt have to be a full sentence, if you are unsure write a few words, but maybe dont just write one word unless it seems appropriate. Like even for question 2.2, where is asks how the train was described, if the audio says "the recording showed the train was packed and crowded with people", just to be safe, I would sometimes not just say "packed and crowded" but "the train was said to be packed and crowded". Maybe check this with your teacher, because I dont actually know if this is even necessary, it was just something I would sometimes do.

During class, one thing my teacher would do with us was when doing speaking, we would almost like start of with, listen first time, write down any words you hear, listen a second time, fill in the gap between words , and eventually that will form a sentence. I think this is can work, it does depend on your time management, like I wouldnt spend ages on that, but it's a technique, and I think a good one for revision and improving with listening.

Another thing is, I just looked at the transcript of that paper (2021) (https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/sample-papers-and-mark-schemes/2021/november/AQA-76921-TR-NOV21.PDF), and what the transcript shows, is the audio but written down, so what you can do, is if you do a past paper the first time, and you see you didnt do too well, go through the listening (using the transcript) and use it almost as a reading. What you can do, is read the listening outloud, maybe even recorded your own voice reading it out, and use your voice recording and do it again. I think using the written transicpt can show how the answer may be a key word that you have to pick out from the audio, and from using the transcript, you can practise picking out the correct key words or key phrases needed for the answer. You also do not necessarily need to write your own phrase, as long as you picked the correct part of the audio that answers the quetion, you can pretty much write it word for word, but know that if the audio says "I think that ____", dont write, 'I think that....', write 'she thinks that...', like make sure you do adapt the answer if needed.

I think the hardest thing for me was the listening summary. There is also a reading summary. Again this is if you do AQA, I dont know if edexcel has this too.

My advice for the summary is by using the empty space under the question to draw like three sections. Like a 'Y'
Like imagine splitting the page into 3 sections.
Write the 3 points they want you to mention in each section.
For example:

The question:
Una entrevista con Carlos Acosta
Escucha esta entrevista publicada en una página web.
Escribe un párrafo en español resumiendo lo que has entendido. No debes usar
más de 90 palabras y debes incluir los siguientes puntos en tu resumen.
Incluye:
• lo que dice Carlos sobre su infancia en La Habana (dos detalles)
[2 marks]
• los objetivos más importantes de su compañía (dos detalles)
[2 marks]
• los prejuicios a los que se enfrentó y sus triunfos (tres detalles).
[3 marks]
Hay cinco puntos adicionales por la calidad de tu español escrito.
Escribe usando frases completas y, en la medida de lo posible, debes utilizar tus
propias palabras.

infancia de carlos | objetivos mas importantes de su compania
|
|
/ \
/prejuicios\
/ y \
/ trunifos \



Then under these, within the sections, you can literally write word for word what you hear, make sure they are under the write section.
The question says that you can get 5 extra marks if you write in in your own words
you can do this by:
-paraphrasing
-using synonyms

So in these sections you can write word for word, and after that, you can think of synonyms, for example,
Maybe carlos says "When I was a child, I travelled a lot to see my grandma, we often baked cookies together, and always went to a country home with my family, where we spent a lot of the time in the swimmingpool"
Instead of saying "viajé", you could say "iba a..." = i went to.
If I were to paraphrase this maybe I would say "I saw my grandma so much during my childhood, and when I saw her, we would bake together. Additionally, my family and I would go to the countryside and there we would swim a lot"

Try your best to mention how many points they ask you to mention, so if the question says (dos detalles) it means two details right, so mention two things.

Let me know if this was helpful at all, if you have any questions. Also what exam board do you do?