The Student Room Group

How to improve my GCSE spanish reading/listening skills?

Okay well i did my mocks before christmas and got an A in my spanish which pleased me greatly, the problem is that i got A* in my writing and oral and then As in my reading/listening.
Being the perfectionist that I am I have since done every past paper in existence and still cant get past the high A low A* boundary. My teacher is amazing and is helping me so much even giving me specimen papers and then going through them with me but i feel guilty taking up his lunchtimes when he could be doing something more productive like helping students that are struggling way more than I am...
I intend on studying AS spanish and so its not just a case of getting an A* i actually want to have the best possible reading/writing skills that I can
Thanks for any help I am sort of having a nervous breakdown!
Reply 1
do more of them. read spanish newspapers. listen to spanish tv.
Reply 2
NoHands
do more of them. read spanish newspapers. listen to spanish tv.

How can I do more papers when there are no more- seriously I have done like 20 each of reading/listening.
I have tried reading spanish newspapers and listening to spanish tv but i find it so hard to understand and end up just getting insanely confused and stressed.
Thanks for the advice though x
Reply 3
Go on Spanish google and type in things that interest you, that way your attention will be held for longer.
Spanish music is always good, if you go on youtube.
And see if your school is on linguascope.com, its very useful, but higher level like yourself use linguastars, which is linked on the same website.

I did German GCSE and these are a few things I picked up, and am currently doing German A Level.

Hope this helps =]
Just want to point out that you will get an A* overall if you get an A* in both the oral and the writing.

Im doing A Level Spanish,its a matter of getting your ears accostomed to listening to Spanish, just 15mins of radio, tv, listenings watever! My teacher told me this when I was doing my GCSE's and it works, but not overnight. Go over the listening you have already done, read the transcript and you will understand it better. As far as reading goes just be familiar with the grammar and the vocab, remembering that it is very repititive.
Reply 5
Good ideas here already :smile:

Whatever genre(s) of music you like, there'll be Spanish/Latin American bands or singers that do it. Get hold of some, listen to it, try to understand. Get the lyrics and read at the same time if it's really fast or you don't quite get it.

Also, check out podcasts. There are language podcasts aimed at expanding your vocabulary and helping you understand things, there are news podcasts, there are podcasts about all sorts of random stuff in Spanish.

Look up simple topics on the Spanish wikipedia page. Anything that interests you. It's perhaps especially useful if it's something you know something about already (a country? A band?).

The suggestion about getting the Harry Potter books in Spanish is a really good one (unless you detest them, I guess). I found that helped me. You could get other books too, though you'd probably want to stick to something quite simple with a non-technical vocabulary. Please note that I've not taken Spanish in the UK, so I'm not sure of the level/rate of progression — in case I'm saying anything stupid :P

Suerte!
Reply 6
Thanks for the advice what you suggested seems way more interesting than doing the mountain of past papers i have :smile:
get a penpal?
Reply 8
¡Hola! ¿Cómo está? thort id roughen up my spanish lol. i kinda stopped before GCSE but we had this great spanish teacher. For the exams she made us record ourselves reading spanish and buy tapes of other people speaking the language. comedies etc..then u can listen to them on ur mp3, in the car on way to school or wherever. but u'll hav spanish constantly runnin thru ur head. hope that helps x
tbh, you need to gt a life because to get an A in GCSE is pretty good so feel lucky that you can even get a grade like that.
and tbh you cant get a A* in A level.
Its much much harder, i know im just finishing A2 spanish at college and as much as I try I wont get any higher than a D, so feel lucky that ur even getting A's. Stop bragging
Original post by daydreamerangel
tbh, you need to gt a life because to get an A in GCSE is pretty good so feel lucky that you can even get a grade like that.
and tbh you cant get a A* in A level.
Its much much harder, i know im just finishing A2 spanish at college and as much as I try I wont get any higher than a D, so feel lucky that ur even getting A's. Stop bragging



Be nice!
Duolingo is good for vocab however I found that it's only over a long period of time 2-3 months of doing it for about 20 minutes a day that it noticeably helped.
There is a website called viki, put Spain as the country and watch Spanish to with Spanish subtitles this will help you stay on track. Pause the film and put the vocab you don't get in on Google translate. Also listen to Spanish podcasts
Learn vocab as well as doing past papers, since it's probably not practicing understanding the questions that you need. Things to focus on include false friends (examiners love them) and negatives.
Reply 14
Original post by mammamia:0
Okay well i did my mocks before christmas and got an A in my spanish which pleased me greatly, the problem is that i got A* in my writing and oral and then As in my reading/listening.
Being the perfectionist that I am I have since done every past paper in existence and still cant get past the high A low A* boundary. My teacher is amazing and is helping me so much even giving me specimen papers and then going through them with me but i feel guilty taking up his lunchtimes when he could be doing something more productive like helping students that are struggling way more than I am...
I intend on studying AS spanish and so its not just a case of getting an A* i actually want to have the best possible reading/writing skills that I can
Thanks for any help I am sort of having a nervous breakdown!



Try the following websites:

- DELE A2 (equivalent level to GCSE) Sample papers - http://dele.cervantes.es/en/general-information/level-a2.html

The DELE is the exam you need to take to be able to prove your Spanish is good in Spain!

- Linguistadores - great site for reading, gives you a quick language test then gives you articles at your level. Any new words you click on are saved in your own custom list for later.

- Spanish podcasts - just try to immerse yourself at every opportunity.

Suerte, eh!

Steve