How To Smash Your Spanish Gcse Role Play

Most students are intimidated by their GCSE Spanish Speaking Exam. It`s not as hard as you think. With a few tips you can easily navigate your way through your exam and reach those top marks. The exam is split into three parts: Role Play worth 15 marks and 25 percent of the exam& Photocard worth 15 marks and 25 percent of the exam& General Conversation worth 30 marks and 50 percent of the exam. Let`s take a look at the first task in your speaking exam - the Role Play.

A good Role Play should take around a minute. As a student you are constantly told that you need to extend your sentences, give opinions and justify them, and use complex language. That`s true, but not the for Role Play. The Role Play is about you demonstrating that you can understand something and respond to it - and that`s all. You don`t need to do anything impressive or fancy, and often you can get away with one word answers and still earn full marks. The key is to keep it simple.

Every Role Play starts out the same way. You have instructions which tell you the scenario, e.g., "Your teacher will play the part of your Peruvian friend and will speak first." This is followed by how you should address your friend, what to do when you see an exclamation mark, and what to do when you see a question mark followed by a prompt, e.g., Fumar. Below that is a box with a first line that might look like this:

Estás hablando con tu amigo peruano/tu amiga peruana sobre la salud.

Most students will look at that statement and wonder what it says and what to do. Well, it says what the first line of the instructions says, that you are talking with your Peruvian friend. The important word in that sentence is sobre, which means about. What comes after that is what your Role Play is about, in this case la salud - health. Once you`ve read the instructions and you look at the Role Play itself, find the word sobre in the first line and what comes after it is what you have to talk about.

Now we move on to the bullet points. There are five of them, each representing a task that you have accomplish. You`ll have to answer three questions, ask one (that`s where the ? with the prompt is), and answer one surprise question. You can`t do anything about the surprise question, so forget about it and deal with it when you get there.

Let`s go back to our Role Play about health. Here are your bullet points:

tu deporte favorito

!

un aspecto positivo de tener una vida activa

tu opinion sobre la comida rápida (un detalle)

? Fumar

You have to know your vocabulary, obviously, or you won`t be able to understand the prompts. You also have to know your question words or you won`t understand what you`re being asked. For example, if you hear a question that starts with ¿Cuánto...? that`s your cue that the examiner is looking for a quantity, because ¿cuánto? means how much or how many. You should reply with a number and only a number unless you are specifically asked for more information like un detalle &(one detail).

Right, back to the Role Play. The first bullet point wants to know about your favourite sport. Just say a sport. Fútbol. You`re not asked for any more information so don`t give any. You don`t get any more marks if you give more information than what you`re asked for, and you`re creating opportunities for yourself to make a mistake.

We can`t do anything about the second bullet point. It`s the surprise question so just listen carefully, ask for it to be repeated (in Spanish, please) and do your best. Remember to keep it simple.

The third bullet point is asking for one aspect of having an active lifestyle. Give one aspect: Es interesante. Es divertido. &Yes, they are simple answers but that`s all you need. lt;/p>

The fourth bullet point wants to know your opinion of fast food and is asking for one detail. Give one detail. Me gusta. No me gusta. Es sabrosa. Es buena. Es malsana. Keep it simple and only give the information you are asked for.

The last bullet point is where you ask a question, in this case you have to ask about smoking. They`ve given you an infinitive verb so put te gusta in front of it and ask if the examiner likes smoking: ¿Te gusta fumar? You`ve just asked a great question in Spanish and you didn`t really have to think that hard. lt;/p>

To summarise, keeping your language simple and your answers short is the key to a great Role Play. In less than a minute you`ll have completed 25 percent of your speaking exam and with full marks to boot.