How to revise for Spanish A-Level
With exams looming ahead it may seem that revising for Spanish is a daunting task. Never fear because today’s blog post will give you some useful revision tips and techniques which will help you pass with flying colours!
Even though you may have heard this a hundred times it is very important that you prepare for your revision well. This means making a timetable, choosing a time of the day to revise that you feel you can get optimum productivity, finding a suitable place with no distractions and making sure you are sitting at a table with adequate lighting. All this may sound mundane but is very important to make sure you are in the right state of mind before you start revising.
Now that you have organised yourself here are a few useful tips that will help with revising Spanish:
Creating a revision strategy:
Planning out each revision session is important. Have a definite start and finish time as well as allowing for regular breaks. You absorb the most at the beginning and end of a revision session. Therefore it makes sense to split your session with many little breaks.
Also testing yourself throughout the revision process gives you a sound understanding of what level you are at and highlights any weak areas. You learn best by studying for 20-40 minutes and then testing yourself to see how much you remembered. Try to carry out testing and retesting at regular intervals until your exam.
Grammar:
It is important to realise that there are always exceptions when learning grammatical rules. For example, Spanish words that end with the letters o, e, l, n, r, and s are masculine however there are many words such as la calle (the street), la sal (the salt) la carne (the meat) that do not follow this rule. It may be useful to make a summary sheet of the particular exceptions which always catch you out.
Vocabulary:
A useful tip when revising Spanish vocabulary is to write out sentences containing the words you want to learn. This way you will be learning vocabulary in its context, which is particularly important as Spanish sometimes has multiple ways of expressing a single English word. For example, el pez and el pescado mean fish in English. However, in Spanish pez usually means fish that is alive (in ponds, tanks etc) and pescado means fish that is dead (fish on a menu in a restaurant). Also, don't forget about the gender and plural of all nouns. Therefore, learning lists of words in short spells at a time, whilst putting them in context of a sentence, will allow you to remember them easily.
The power of the post-it-note:
Making concise notes on post-it-notes which you can look back at closer to the exam date, is a very effective revision technique. As mentioned above there are always exceptions so it is important to note any key facts about the particular grammar exercise, on your post-it-notes. Always test yourself and re-read relevant sections until you are confident you understand it.
Doing past papers:
By doing past papers, you can familiarise yourself with the layout and style of the exam and so reduce any chance of surprises in the real thing. Here are some useful links to past papers:
So before we end today's post, best of luck with your exams!! And if you would like more exam tips as well as Spanish exercises to practice on, then:
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