12F Consejos para el examen escrito

F. Consejos para el examen escrito

1. EXAM TIMING

Exam candidates, particularly Higher Level students, need to be conscious of time during the exam. Don’t spend too long on a question. If you get stuck, it is better to move on and come back to the question later. You might be able to figure it out with fresh eyes. The following charts are guidelines for how to time your exam. These are simply estimates and can be adjusted to your individual needs.

Ordinary Level – Guide times TIME QUESTION MARKS

5 minutes Read through the whole paper carefully.

90 minutes Section A Reading comprehension 30 minutes Section B Informal letter or email 160 marks

40 marks

15 minutes Section B Note or diary 20 marks

10 minutes Check back over the paper carefully. Make sure you’ve answered all the comprehension questions. If anything is left blank, have a guess.

Higher Level – Guide times TIME QUESTION MARKS

5 minutes Read through the whole paper carefully.

30 minutes Section A Prescribed literature or journalistic text 15 minutes Section A 2 short reading comprehensions 30 minutes Section B Long reading comprehension 30 minutes Section B Link question (opinion) 20 minutes Section C Dialogue translation or formal letter 50 marks

20 marks

50 marks

50 marks

30 marks

15 minutes Section C Diary entry or note 20 marks

5 minutes Check back over the paper carefully. Make sure you’ve answered all the comprehension questions. If anything is left blank, have a guess.

2. LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Use the few minutes before the exam begins to read through the paper carefully. Highlight or underline key words in the questions (‘what time’, ‘date’, ‘why’, ‘possible problems’, ‘temperatures’, etc.). Make sure you have studied the topic of weather, as it is a guaranteed section on the exam every year. Revise the vocabulary list on page 177 the night before the exam. Try not to leave any blank spaces. If you’re not sure of an answer, go with your best guess. If it is wrong you get zero marks, but if you leave it blank you get zero anyway, so you’re better off having a guess and potentially picking up some marks. If you’ve already filled in answers on the first or second hearing, double check your answers on the third hearing.

3. READING COMPREHENSION

• Look for clues as to what the text is about before you start reading. Look at the title, the questions and any image accompanying the text. • Once you have an idea of the topic of the text, read through it carefully. • Work through the questions. Make sure you take the answers from the paragraphs as indicated on the exam paper and pay attention to any instructions written in bold. • If you get stuck on a question, move on and come back to it later. • Write as much information as you can in your comprehension answers. Sometimes the marking scheme will require two, three or four points for full marks. So if you see a few points that answer the question, write them all down rather than just a single point. You will not be penalised for writing too much information, but you will be penalised if you leave out part of a required answer. If the question asks for FULL details, this is generally an indication that more than one point is required for full marks. • For Higher Level students, the only time you shouldn’t write anything extra is when you are asked to find synonyms. Remember, the synonym question needs you to find an exact word or phrase, so be careful not to include any extra words. If you are asked to find a synonym of a word you don’t understand, try to figure it out grammatically if you can’t figure out the meaning. For example, a feminine plural adjective could only be replaced by another feminine plural adjective, while a third person plural verb in the pretérito indefinido tense is likely to be replaced by another third person plural verb in the pretérito indefinido tense. Work out what part of speech is required (noun, verb, adjective, adverb). This will narrow down your possible options before having to make a guess.

4. WRITTEN WORK

Revise the following sections of your textbook for hints and tips on how to best approach these questions:

H

QUESTION

Informal letter/email (Ordinary Level only) Note writing Diary entries The link question (opinion) Formal letter

PAGE REFERENCE

32–4 212–13 92–3 60–62 236–7

Dialogue translation 265–6 Always plan your answers in advance. For example, in an opinion essay make sure you know your three points before you start writing. Use rough work paper to outline your points or brainstorm ideas and vocabulary. Always read back over each written piece when you’ve finished it. Check your work for spellings, verb tenses, adjective agreements and gender of nouns. Writing simple sentences in accurate Spanish will get you good grades. Higher Level students aiming for top marks can embellish their answers by using connectors to make longer sentences to develop an argument or by using adjectives and adverbs to add description.

Desarrollar una opinión

para empezar… ...................to begin with… al principio… ........................in the beginning… durante ...................................during mientras tanto ......................meanwhile además ...................................in addition/also luego........................................then entonces.................................so/then mientras .................................while sin embargo...........................however por una parte.........................on one hand por otra parte........................on the other hand desafortunadamente..........unfortunately finalmente..............................finally para terminar ........................to finish

Los adverbios

In English, many adverbs end in -ly, for example, perfectly, comfortably. In Spanish, these adverbs are formed by taking the feminine form of the adjective and adding -mente.

ADJECTIVE FEMININE FORM MEANING ADVERB MEANING

básico básica basic básicamente basically cómodo cómoda comfortable cómodamente comfortably lento lenta slow lentamente slowly perfecto perfecta perfect perfectamente perfectly Adjectives that are the same in masculine and feminine forms simply add -mente to the adjective to form the adverb.

ADJECTIVE MEANING ADVERB MEANING

constante constant constantemente constantly fácil easy fácilmente easily feliz happy felizmente happily alegre cheerful alegremente cheerfully • The following adverbs are not formed with -mente.

Adverbs of time Adverbs of place

luego ..........................later cerca............ near entonces....................then lejos ............. far siempre......................always delante ....... in front a menudo..................often detrás.......... behind a veces .......................sometimes aquí.............. here nunca .........................never allí ................ there pronto........................soon encima........ above antes...........................before debajo......... underneath después .....................after hoy..............................today mañana .....................tomorrow ayer.............................yesterday anteayer ....................the day before yesterday pasado mañana ......the day after tomorrow

Adverbs of manner

bien.............................well mal..............................badly así................................in this way bastante ....................quite de repente ................suddenly despacio....................slowly poco............................little por desgracia ...........unfortunately mucho........................a lot

5. PRESCRIBED LITERATURE HIGHER

At Higher Level you have the option to answer questions on a prescribed novel rather than on the journalistic text. The novel changes every few years, but for Leaving Certificate 2021 the novel is

Relato de un Náufrago by Gabriel García Márquez. If you are opting to answer this question, you should prepare yourself well by reading the novel carefully and thinking about the characters, themes and plot. Looking at past exam papers will give you ideas of the kinds of questions you could be asked to write about.

THE AUTHOR

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) was a Colombian journalist and writer, considered to be one of the best Spanish language authors of all time. His most famous works include Cien años de soledad and El amor en los tiempos de cólera. In 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

THE NOVEL

Relato de un Náufrago (‘The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor’) is a work of non-fiction, which was originally published in 1955 in fourteen instalments in El Espectador newspaper. Gabriel García Márquez ghost-wrote the story from the first-person perspective of a 20-year-old sailor, Luis Alejandro Velasco Rodríguez. The story was published as a book in 1970 and García Márquez gave the rights to the story to Velasco.

THE PLOT

The story gives readers an in-depth view of what it is like to be stranded at sea. Velasco (of the Colombian destroyer Caldas) is returning to Colombia after eight months in Alabama. Not long into the voyage, the ship is hit by strong waves and Velasco and seven others are washed overboard. Velasco is the only one who makes it to a life raft and after watching some of his shipmates drown, he spends ten days drifting in the raft. The search for the missing sailors is called off after four days and Velasco and his shipmates are declared dead. After ten days of drifting on the open sea, his raft arrives on the Colombian coast.

THE THEMES

The theme of solitude is explored in the book, as is the complexities of the human mind when faced with catastrophe.

THE CHARACTER

For most of the novel there is just one character to focus on, Luis Alejandro Velasco, a seaman returning to Colombia after a long stay in the United States. When stranded at sea, he is tested physically and mentally as he survives ten days without food or fresh water, battling with sharks, solitude and the blistering sun.

CONTROVERSY

The story serialised in El Espectador caused a political stir and embarassed the dictatorship of Rojas Pinilla. García Márquez exposed how the Caldas had been dangerously overloaded with a contraband cargo of household appliances such as televisions, refrigerators and stoves. The shipwreck was therefore due to negligence on the part of the Colombian Navy, who overloaded the ship, and not to the non-existent storm that was reported in the official account of the event.