Writing Exam: Tasks and Structure

Paper 4 tests how well you produce written Spanish. Everything you write is in Spanish, and no dictionary is allowed, so vocabulary and spelling have to be secure from memory. The paper is worth 50 marks, and the tasks differ by tier.

Feature	Foundation	Higher
Total marks	50	50
Number of tasks	5	3
Timing	1 hour 10 minutes	1 hour 15 minutes
Longest task	about 90 words	about 150 words

Both tiers include a translation from English into Spanish. The longer tasks are marked on two things kept separate: communication and content (AO2) and range and accuracy of language (AO3). Knowing which task rewards which skill lets you spend effort where the marks are.

At Foundation you answer five tasks that rise in difficulty.

Task	Marks	What you do
1. Photo description	10	Write five sentences about a photo
2. Email (about 50 words)	10	Cover five compulsory bullet points
3. Grammar cloze	5	Choose the correct word from three options
4. Translation into Spanish	10	Translate five sentences
5. Article (about 90 words)	15	Cover three bullet points; choose one of two titles

Task 1 (photo) is marked on communication only: each sentence earns up to 2 marks. Task 2 (email) and Task 5 (article) are marked on both content and accuracy. Task 3 (cloze) rewards precise grammar, and a word only scores if it is totally correct, including accents. Task 4 is the translation, covered later in this lesson.

At Higher you answer three tasks, and the writing is longer and more demanding.

Task	Marks	What you do
1. Translation into Spanish	10	Translate five sentences
2. Article (about 90 words)	15	Cover three bullet points; choose one of two titles
3. Longer task (about 150 words)	25	Cover two bullet points; choose one of two titles

The 150-word task is the biggest single block of marks on the whole paper. Its marks split into 15 for communication and content and 10 for range and accuracy, so a response that is fluent but very repetitive, or accurate but thin on ideas, leaves marks behind. Aim for developed ideas and varied language.

For both the 90-word and 150-word tasks you must write something about every bullet point. A task that ignores a bullet cannot reach the top band, however good the Spanish.

The photo task (Foundation). You write five sentences about a photo, each worth up to 2 marks. Three rules decide the mark:

• describe what is genuinely in the photo (I like this photo scores nothing)
• include a conjugated verb (an infinitive alone earns 1 mark, not 2)
• keep each sentence clear and unambiguous

A model sentence is Hay nueve personas en una clase or La chica lleva una camisa. You may reuse the same structure across sentences.

The longer tasks. For the 90-word and 150-word tasks, content and range are marked together, so plan for both:

• Cover every bullet. Missing one caps the content mark.
• Show range. Use different tenses (a past event, a future plan), a spread of opinion phrases (me encanta, prefiero, es estupendo), intensifiers (muy, bastante) and connectives (porque, aunque, sin embargo).
• Develop, do not just list. Fui al cine y me encantó porque la película era emocionante shows more than a string of short statements.

A major error is one that stops the reader understanding; a minor error (a missing accent, a slip of gender) does not. Aim to keep errors minor.

Both tiers include a translation of five English sentences into Spanish, worth 10 marks. It is marked on two grids: how well the meaning of each element is rendered, and your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.

Genuine specimen sentences show the demand:

Tier	English	Spanish
Foundation	I have lots of friends.	Tengo muchos amigos.
Foundation	He buys a new mobile phone every year.	Compra un móvil nuevo cada año.
Higher	I went to school on the bus this morning.	Fui al colegio en autobús esta mañana.
Higher	We have just seen our new teacher.	Acabamos de ver a nuestro profesor nuevo.

The rule that catches most marks is tense and person: a verb in the wrong tense or person is not credited. Compra is he buys, so writing compro (I buy) loses it; fui is a past, so a present would fail. Minor spelling and accent slips are tolerated, but agreement (fruta fresca, not fruta fresco) and the personal a (ver a nuestro profesor) are worth getting right.

1. Ignoring a bullet point

The 90-word and 150-word tasks each list required bullets, and skipping one caps the content mark. Plan a sentence for every bullet before you write.

2. Describing what is not in the photo

Photo sentences must describe what is really shown. Me gusta esta foto and guesses about what is off-camera score nothing.

3. Leaving out the verb in a photo sentence

An infinitive alone earns only 1 of the 2 marks. Each sentence needs a conjugated verb, such as Hay una mesa or El profesor habla.

4. Writing accurately but with no variety

Correct but repetitive Spanish is held back on range. Vary your tenses, opinion phrases and connectives to lift the accuracy-and-range mark.

5. Changing tense or person in the translation

Compra means he buys, not I buy, and a past verb must stay past. A verb in the wrong tense or person is not credited, so match the English exactly.