Listening Exam Technique and Dictation

Paper 1 measures how well you understand spoken Spanish. Native speakers read the recording at a steady, clear pace, and you hear everything through the same audio played to the whole room. The paper splits into two sections that are marked in different ways.

Section	What it tests	Language you write in
A — comprehension	Understanding message, details and opinions	English
B — dictation	Transcribing short sentences	Spanish

The mark split depends on your tier:

Feature	Foundation	Higher
Total marks	40	50
Section A	32	40
Section B (dictation)	8	10
Approx. timing	35 minutes	45 minutes

Section B is worth a fifth of the paper, so the dictation is not a minor add-on. It rewards students who can map Spanish sounds to Spanish spelling, which is why pronunciation work pays off directly here.

Before the recording begins you get 5 minutes to read through the whole question paper, and at the very end you get 2 minutes to check your work. You may write at any point during the test, and no dictionary is allowed.

Each Section A item follows a fixed routine:

• the question number is announced, then there is a pause to read the questions
• you hear the recording, and read the questions again
• you hear the recording a second time, then answer

So you always hear each Section A item twice. A bleep signals that the next question is about to start. Spend the 5 minutes of reading time wisely: underline what each question actually asks, note whether it wants a past, present or future detail, and predict the Spanish words you expect to hear. Walking into an item already knowing what to listen for is the single biggest gain available on this paper.

Section A uses a small, predictable set of formats. Recognising them in advance means you spend the recording listening, not decoding the layout.

• Letter-matching to a grid — choose the option (A–F) that matches each person or day, and write the letter in the box.
• Multiple choice — pick A, B or C to complete a statement.
• Positive / negative opinions — write P, N or P+N for each aspect a speaker mentions.
• Comprehension questions in English — write a short answer that captures the key idea (for example, he is getting married).
• Activity and when — write the number of the activity and a letter for its time frame (P = past, N = now, F = future).
• Area and problem — match each speaker to a place (letter) and an issue (number).

At Higher you also meet sentence-completion items where you infer a speaker's attitude, such as deciding whether a character is apologising or blaming someone. Every answer here is written in English or as a letter or number.

The recording is full of small words that decide the answer. Train yourself to catch them.

• Time frames. Ayer (yesterday) and fui (I went) signal the past; ahora and the present tense signal now; voy a and mañana signal the future. The activity-and-when questions are won or lost on these.
• Opinion words. Me encanta and genial are positive; odio, aburrido and no me gusta are negative. A single pero (but) can flip a statement to P+N.
• Negatives. No como mucha carne means the person does not eat much meat, the opposite of what a rushed listener hears.

Beware distractors: the recording often says a word that appears in a wrong option. Hearing fútbol does not mean the answer mentions football; listen for what the speaker actually claims about it.

For English answers, write the key idea the mark scheme wants. In a forest and in the woods both earn the mark for in a wood, so you do not need perfect wording, just the correct meaning.

In the dictation you transcribe short spoken sentences into Spanish. This is where the reformed spec rewards secure spelling and sound knowledge.

The format is fixed:

• Foundation: 4 sentences, worth 8 marks.
• Higher: 5 sentences, worth 10 marks.
• Each sentence is played three times: first as a whole sentence, then in short sections, then as a whole sentence again.

Use the three plays for different jobs. On the first hearing, grasp the overall meaning. On the sectioned hearing, write each chunk. On the final hearing, check that what you wrote makes sense as Spanish and that agreements and accents look right.

Here are genuine specimen sentences to show the level:

Tier	Example sentence	Meaning
Foundation	Mi hermano juega al baloncesto.	My brother plays basketball.
Foundation	Hay cuatro torres en el castillo.	There are four towers in the castle.
Higher	La plaza estaba llena de turistas.	The square was full of tourists.
Higher	No debes compartir tus datos personales.	You must not share your personal data.

The dictation is judged on two separate criteria, considered across all your sentences as a whole.

• AO1 — communication of meaning (4 marks Foundation / 5 Higher): would a native speaker understand what you wrote?
• AO3 — transcription and grammatical accuracy (4 marks Foundation / 5 Higher): how correctly are the words spelled and formed?

Two rules matter most. First, perfection is not required: a wrong accent or a spelling that keeps the sound correct (for example castilio for castillo) is a minor error that does not block a top mark. Second, if you leave a gap, the examiner assumes any attempt would have been highly inaccurate, so blanks cost you on AO3. A rough attempt beats an empty line.

Worked example. For Muchos turistas admiran la plaza, a student who writes Muchos touristas admirar la plaza still communicates the meaning clearly (AO1 credit), even though touristas is misspelled and the infinitive admirar should be admiran. Fill every line with your best attempt, then use the final play to fix agreements.

If your AO1 mark is 0, your AO3 mark is also 0. Meaning comes first: aim to write something sensible before you polish the spelling.

1. Wasting the reading time

The 5 minutes before the recording are for predicting vocabulary and spotting whether a question wants a past, present or future detail. Students who sit idle lose their biggest advantage.

2. Answering Section A in Spanish

Section A is answered in English. Writing a Spanish phrase you half-heard wastes time and often misses the key idea the mark scheme rewards.

3. Falling for distractors

Hearing a word from a wrong option is not the answer. Match the speaker's actual claim, not the first familiar word you recognise.

4. Leaving dictation lines blank

An empty line is assumed to be highly inaccurate. Even a rough phonetic attempt can pick up communication credit and never scores less than a blank.

5. Ignoring accents and agreement in the dictation

Meaning comes first, but the final whole-sentence play is your chance to make the Spanish look right: check gender and number agreement and add missing accents where they change a word.