Revision Guide – Spanish
SUBJECT: SPANISH
EXAM BOARD AND CODE: AQA 8692
NUMBER OF PAPERS: 4
This qualification is linear. Linear means that students will sit all their exams at the end of the course.
GCSE Spanish has a Foundation tier (grades 1–5) and a Higher tier (grades 4–9). Students must take all four question papers at the same tier. All question papers must be taken in the same series.
LENGTH OF PAPERS:
Paper 1: Listening
Paper 2: Speaking
Paper 3: Reading
Paper 4: Writing
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED: black pen (and spare)
WEBSITE LINK: GCSE Spanish 8692 | Specification | AQA
Topics to be revised
Assessment is set in the context of these three themes.
- Theme 1: People and lifestyle
- Theme 2: Popular culture
- Theme 3: Communication and the world around us
Revision Tips
All students have a Kerboodle login (same as their Student ID number) which gives access to the AQA textbook and a range of interactive activities for all 4 skills.
Useful websites:
Quizlet: Your Sets | Quizlet
Kerboodle: Kerboodle – AQA GCSE Spanish (2024) – Course
Memrise: Learn a language. Memrise is authentic, useful & personalised.
Exam Hints
Regular vocabulary revision using the above websites
Speaking:
Familiarise yourself with the exam format: Role-play, read aloud and describing a photo card and the follow up conversation. Come to Language Clinics and use Kerboodle for extra photo cards and role plays practice. Always try and extend your answers, use a variety of tenses and give opinions. Use your preparation time wisely.
Listening:
Make notes while the audio is being played. Listen for the gist first and gradually pick out more details. Listen out for cognates, but beware of false friends. Before the audio starts you have 5 minutes to look through the paper. Use this time to translate words, pictures. If you don’t recognise a word, don’t panic; listen to the whole phrase and try and guess its meaning. Make sure you know the frequently used qualifiers (very, none, quite, too much etc.) as they can change a meaning. Try to eliminate wrong answers rather than make rough guesses.
Reading:
Read the question first so you know what information you are being asked for. If you don’t know the meaning of a word, try and guess from the context, i.e. the other words around it. If you’re still not sure, make an intelligent guess; the answer is often quite predictable! Check your answers carefully at the end.
Writing:
Spend at least 5 minutes planning your answer to each question. Make sure you include every bullet point in your plan, and plan when you are going to use your bank of ‘examiner-wowing’ phrases. Spend at least 10 minutes checking your writing for common mistakes, such as adjective agreement/verb endings and word order.
