How To Ace Your Spanish Coursework And Oral
Spanish coursework is around the corner. Specifically, the Spanish Oral. Be it GCSE Spanish or A Level Spanish, fear not, my gift to you is five handy tips to help you through!
1. MIND-MAPS. In preparation for the day, create mind-maps of the various topics you’ve covered in Spanish class over the term. Your teacher should give you a general topic, health for example, and it’s your job to think of sub-categories to try and get an idea of what could be asked of you. A good place to start is looking at positives (eg. sport) negatives (eg. unhealthy eating) and then your personal approach (what do you do?). Make a mind map full of useful phrases and vocabulary, then have fun with making sentences to link them together.
2. Learn how to stall in Spanish (it gives you that extra thinking time if a question isn’t quite what you were expecting). Instead of “ummmm” use “eeeeh” (in that Spanish accent) and instead of “well…” use “bueno” or “pues.” These will help you to sound Spanish when you are working out what exactly it is that you are trying to say.
3. Stalling done, it’s probably time to think about what you can say that will give you some extra marks. Link words are important for getting those marks for continuity and structure. Here are a good few examples:
También (as well)
Además (also)
Pero (but)
Sin embargo (however)
A pesar de (despite)
Porque (because)
Debido a (due to)
Entonces (then)
Así que (so)
Por lo tanto (therefore)
4. Be sure to pop in the magic ingredient – THE SUBJUNCTIVE! Here are a few phrases which I have always learnt before oral exams to gain a few extra marks. Slip them in whenever you can, your teacher will be very impressed!
Sea como sea (no matter how)
Ojalá sea pronto (I hope it’s soon)
Cuando este hecho (when it’s done)
5. Finally; relax, be calm, you’ve got this. Take a deep breath and walk into that Spanish Oral as if you are Enrique Iglesias or Penelope Cruz. Keep your cool, there is nothing stopping you!
¡Buena Suerte!
THESE REVISION TIPS WERE BROUGHT TO YOU BY CATRIN H. SHE IS A SPANISH, ENGLISH, FRENCH AND HISTORY TUToR WITH US AT LOVE LEARNING.