GCSE Spanish – Edexcel
Tiers of Entry: Foundation Grades 1-5, Higher Grades 4-9 (you must enter all Spanish exams at the same level)
Exam Details and Provisional Dates:
| Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking |
| F: 40 minutes
H: 50 minutes |
F: 45 minutes
H: 1 hour |
F: 1 hour 10 minutes
H: 1 hour 20 minutes |
F: 9 minutes*
H: 12 minutes* |
*you will also have an additional 12 minutes preparation time before the exam (both tiers)
There is NO coursework in this qualification. Each exam is worth 25% of the overall grade.
At both Foundation and Higher tiers up to half of the instructions will be written in Spanish. There will be no assistance with understanding of target language instructions in the exam.
Speaking Exam Details:
The speaking assessment involves three tasks – a role play, a picture-based task and a conversation on 2 topics. You will have 12 minutes’ preparation time to consider the role play card and the questions on the picture-based task. During this time candidates may make notes (up to 1 side of A4) for both tasks, which they make take into the examination to refer to. Task 3 involves a discussion which is pre-selected and prepared for by the student and an additional conversation on a totally different topic.
Course Overview:
| Year 10 Topics | Year 11 Topics |
| Module 1 – Holidays
Module 2 – School Module 3 – Friends, family and socialising Module 4 – Interests and influences |
Module 5 – Cities and local area
Module 6 – Festivals and local customs Module 7 – Future aspirations, study and work Module 8 – Global Issues |
Exam Board Assessment Criteria: One of the biggest foci of the exam board is accuracy with grammar in translation and writing tasks. Students cannot afford to make grammatical errors as they will not be able to gain full marks if any mistakes are made. In addition, students are expected to be able to ‘read between the lines’ in reading and listening tasks. Therefore, excellent knowledge of vocabulary and synonyms is essential to gain marks at both tiers of entry.
Revision and Intervention at school: After-school revision sessions have started – these will be made compulsory for selected students. There will also be a drop-in study session on a Tuesday lunchtime for extra support. There is a Spanish speaking club every Tuesday and Thursday with Lourdes Trula a native Spanish speaker from 3.30pm-4.00pm which all students are urged to attend.
Revision at home: Please ensure that you are reviewing vocabulary as much as possible (ideally daily). ‘Memrise’ is an excellent app that supports language learning – it is incredibly addictive and tailors study sessions to your needs. In addition, you can use: www.studystack.com and www.pearsonactivelearn.com to reinforce what we have learnt in lessons. You can also complete pages in your Grammar & Translation book.
GCSE Spanish can be a very demanding course – YES it is challenging but YES it is also very achievable providing revision is done effectively
Any concerns please email: [email protected]