Spanish

James

Higher Level

Meánscoil San Nioclás

Really glad to have Spanish done and dusted. I thought the exam was surprisingly nice this year, definitely made easier with the changes. I skipped the prescribed literature and went straight to the Journalistic text (as I imagine 90% of the country did) and was really happy with the text provided.

For Question 2 of Section A I answered the second reading comprehension. I won't lie I thought I must have been missing a question as it seemed like a particularly short reading comp. Section B was undoubtedly more difficult and I spent a lot more time on it. The opinion pieces provided were broad enough but I'm not sure the addition of a third prompt really made much of a difference to me as I felt they were all a bit similar. I answered “Ser volountario es una experencia fantástica”. I just tried to get as many of my tenses in as I could while still making a coherent essay.

Section 3 was a lot easier thanks to the changes to the exam. I answered the diary entry question and spent the rest of my leftover exam time combing over my opinion piece for mistakes. I found the listening test to be surprisingly hard as it's usually one of my stronger points on the exam. The questions seemed particularly long with almost every question asking you to give full details. I’m not sure whether I’m happy with the exam or whether I’m just happy it's over but all in all I think it was a grand paper even if the listening was a bit beyond me.