Spanish Oral Exam

anBoMor

Hey!
My school doesn't teach Spanish, but I'm sitting the exam anyway. I got an A1 on my mock, but I lived and went to school in Spain, and my brothers are Spanish, so it's not really thanks to hard work..
Thing is, I now have NO idea what comes up on the oral aside from the roleplays! I was also told you can request which roleplay you get, which seems odd.

So my question is, what are the options (like a project in German or a document in French) if any, and what topics generally come up?

(also there wasn't really a generic Spanish Orals thread so we can have that here too c: )

David1994

Hi I study Spanish too and am pretty sure all that comes up is roleplays and then a general conversation..I have no idea if you can choose the roleplay tbh

Reprazent

From what I know you definitely do not get to pick your role play. They are upside down in front of you and you select one but you can't know which one is which. They will then ask you two questions appropriate to the roleplay. E.g : After the main conversation in the roleplay regarding the bullfight, they might ask what pets you have because in your first reply you mention you have pets at home. At the end of the conversation you may say you would like to go to the bullfight because there is nothing like it in Ireland, they may then ask you is there anything similar in Ireland or what customs you may have in Ireland that other countries don't.

For general conversation they will most likely just throw the basic stuff first and follow the conversation in something you mentioned.

Por ejemplo: Name/age/exam number -> family -> what do your parents to -> School -> favorite subject -> If you mentioned the facilities in your school such as pitches or sports halls they can ask you do you play sports etc -> if not, what do you do -> is it expensive/ how often do you do it

That's just an example now they may not ask you anything there, but generally from what I heard it will start with something basic and the examiner will ask appropriately to something you have mentioned. So basically if you mention sports ya better damn well be able to talk about them :P

Hope this provides you with some clarity, best of luck

David1994

Reprazent do you know if you can look at the roleplays when you are doing it? My teacher told us that they did it last year for the people in our school...

irishdub14

David1994 wrote: »

Reprazent do you know if you can look at the roleplays when you are doing it? My teacher told us that they did it last year for the people in our school...

In the exam papers it says that after the roleplay is selected the examiner gives you a minute to revise over it, but then you must recite it by heart...!

Reprazent

You see when you select one of the facedown role plays you are given what you are meant to say in the roleplay in english.

Take the Bullfight roleplay again as an example. At the top of the card it will say which roleplay it is by given an introduction - "your staying with a spanish family and they want to take you to a bullfight", something like that.
Then under it is the reply you need to translate into Spanish. In the case of this role play its "Say that you don't think you will go to the bullring. Say that you love animals and you have pets at home. Ask if s/he thinks it is cruel".
You then have to translate this into Spanish but you should have something prepared if your bother learning them.

If you have a great level of Spanish you could probably wing it from there giving them the most Pigeon spanish you can think of on the spot as it's in front of you in English. Obviously I'm not recommending you do this because they are very easy to prepare and it will improve your overall Spanish.

This is what I am told by my teacher and my friends who have moved on to college. Maybe different examiners will have different methods of deciding which role play i'm not certain. However, these are friends from 3 different schools in my area and have taken the oral in this method so you can assume this is how they roll.

17Dan21

How have people found this? What was asked? Anything unusual?

Flabangav

17Dan21 wrote: »

How have people found this? What was asked? Anything unusual?

Mine was fine, just normal questions about family and school and stuff. They asked me what my ideal job would be, and if money would be important to me, which were the only unusual ones for me, I think!

Reventon93

I think the oral depends on how you have it planned i.e do you have it prepared so that the examiner will pick up on your hints (I live in Dublin, my brother lives in Canada). It all goes on what you have learned and to make sure that you can talk about anything even if you dont have it prepared. My examiner was really nice, in that i told her about where i went on holidays and she asked me what it was like. Then when she asked me about what i wanted to do next year (law) that was the basis of the oral for about 10 minutes. it was fine until she asked about Anders behring brevik. Luckily i heard the new the day before about his hearing. So be careful in that sense. Make sure to revise verbs. They can be a lifesaver. So good luck to anyone who has yet to do it

David1994

Had a mock oral yesterday with a native Spanish teacher :P He talked sooo fast haha. He told me my spanish was excellent despite me just keeping it basic and my teacher afterwards said it was great I feel pretty comfortable for tomorrow.