Listening and Reading Strategies

Listening and Reading Strategies

Both exams test comprehension across difficulty tiers. These strategies help you maximise marks.

Before the Exam

• Read the questions first — know what information you need before engaging with the text/audio.
• Underline key words in questions: who, what, where, when, why, how many.
• Note the question type: multiple choice, true/false, gap fill, answer in English, answer in Spanish.

Listening Strategies

During Playback

• First listen: general meaning — who, what topic, what mood?
• Second listen: specific details the question targets.
• Don't panic over missed words — meaning comes from context, not individual words.
• Watch for distractors: speakers often mention something then correct it. The answer is the final statement.
• Numbers, days, times — practise until automatic. Spanish numbers 16–19 and 21–29 are single words.

Common Listening Traps

Trap	Example
Missed negatives	"No voy nunca al cine" (never, not "I go")
Correction mid-sentence	"el martes... bueno, el miércoles" — answer is Wednesday
Similar sounds	pero (but) vs perro (dog); caro (expensive) vs carro (car)
Contractions	"pa'" for "para", "'stoy" for "estoy" (informal speech)

Reading Strategies

Approach

1. Skim the whole text for the general topic.

2. Scan for information each question asks about.

3. Re-read the relevant section carefully.

Decoding Unknown Words

• Cognates: interesante, importante, diferente, necesario, televisión, hospital.
• Near-cognates: slight differences from English.
• False friends (falsos amigos):

Spanish	Looks like	Actually means
actualmente	actually	currently
asistir a	assist	attend
atender	attend	serve / pay attention
la librería	library	bookshop
la carpeta	carpet	folder
sensible	sensible	sensitive
simpático/a	sympathetic	nice/friendly
el colegio	college	school
éxito	exit	success
la salida	—	exit
embarazada	embarrassed	pregnant
realizar	realise	achieve / carry out
constipado/a	constipated	having a cold
la fábrica	fabric	factory

• Word families: if you know trabajar (to work), guess trabajador (hardworking) and el trabajo (work).
• Prefixes/suffixes: in-/im-/des- (not/un-), re- (again), -mente (-ly), -ción (-tion), -ero/-era (person).

Answering Techniques

• Answer in English: be precise and specific. "She went to the cinema" beats "she went out".
• Answer in Spanish: you can often lift phrases from the text — check spelling.
• True/False/Not mentioned: if the text doesn't address it, it's "not mentioned" — don't infer.
• Multiple choice: eliminate obviously wrong answers first.

Exam Tips

• Practise past papers regularly — familiarity with format and timing is crucial.
• In listening, always write something — even a guess from a word you caught.
• In reading, manage your time: Foundation = 45 mins, Higher = 1 hour.
• Learn question words in Spanish: ¿Quién? ¿Qué? ¿Dónde? ¿Cuándo? ¿Cómo? ¿Por qué? ¿Cuánto/a/os/as?
• The biggest gain comes from learning false friends — they cause more errors than anything else.