gcse spanish

guys what r everyones tips for gcse spanish (edexcel igcse) bc its my worst subject rn, im at a 7 and i wanna get an 8 maybe even a 9 but either of those are probably a stretch...

Hi there,
Neither of those grades is a stretch. I came within a hair's breadth of failing Spanish in year 7, got predicted a 6 at the end of year 10 and got a 9 in my GCSE. You can do it! I also took the same exam board.
Here is my advice:
1. Learn the vocab. As the person above said, you need vocab. There is a list of practically every word you need on the specification. Make flashcards and learn them. Also, ditch Quizlet if you use that. Get Anki Flashcards instead (it's free on desktop). I cannot stress that enough. Seriously. You need it. Learn the tenses and conjugations this way as well.
2. Practice Spanish as often as you can, but not past papers yet. Spanish is a language. If you learn the language, you'll be ok. Past papers are great and you will need to do them later in the year, but for now focus on learning. You can do this by consuming Spanish media (aside from vocab, which is really important). I'm not taking a Spanish A-level, but I still listen to Spanish music and I'm currently watching Ghost Busters in Spanish. I'll give you the names of some good youtube channels for learning Spanish. Don't neglect vocab and tenses though.
3. Thinking in Spanish or talking to yourself is helpful, and work on pronunciation (my accent went from English to Argentinian to Chilean and finally to Castilian over the course of secondary school).
4. However, talking to others in Spanish is great. If you can do this, I highly recommend it. I was lucky enough to have a Mexican relative. However, another student will do.
5. Eventually you will need to start practicing for the exams and prepping your speaking task. Prep the hell out of that speaking task when the time comes.
Good luck, but I hope you don't need it!
Here are some resources.
Websites: Spanish Dict. - great for vocab and some grammar.
El País/El Mundo - Spanish newspapers.
Netflix - Most things are dubbed and subbed in Spanish.
Any music platform - try to find some music you like in Spanish.
Channels:
Easy Spanish - listening to natives.
Spring Spanish - very basic, but OK.
Dreaming Spanish - top notch resources.
Nuria's lab - excellent explanations.
Señor Carlos - cringey songs for when you just need them.
Books:
the Diary of a Wimpy kid (In Spanish) - challenging but rewarding.
PS: My best tip is this... make sure you understand everything. Not just accept, but understand. Including tenses. Practice until they come naturally and understannd the distinctions between them. It will take more time, but is really worth it. If you know what "grok" means (not the weird AI thing but the actual meaning of the word), you have to grok the concepts of Spanish.

heyy, this is super helpful. just one more quick question, we were told as a cohort that the vocab on the spec is not going to be good enough to get passed maybe a 7, idk about this. but yeah ive watched MLWTWB in spanish like a month ago and im now just doing like an hour of vocab every day until mocks in less than a month! will start working on speakign and a bit more grammar when im comfortbale with the vocab.

I'm not sure if I agree with your teachers. It depends. There are some (to use the expression) "wow words" that aren't on there. I even learned how to spell "hipopotomonstrosesquipedaliofobia", but never had a chance to use it. Idioms are also great. Just check that they're Castilian as I'm pretty sure that's the dialect we learn. Learn the stuff on the spec and then add in extra words after. Don't skip the food part. I lost at least 3 marks due to doing that. I would advise you to work on grammar at least at the same time as the vocab. Grammar is more likely to bar you from top marks. You need to be able to use a wide variety of tenses. In my larger mark writing tasks, I managed to cram every tense, the imperative and subjunctive in. Generally you need at least a past, present and future minimum. Ask your teachers on that.