Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Spanish GCSE son struggling with speaking and responding to questions

32 replies

Sata · 04/04/2025 08:44

I would like someone to give me some help. My son is studying GCSE Spanish and is struggling with the section on talking and responding to questions. He has a good teacher who recommends the online Pearson work, which aligns with Excel. However, he does not enjoy this, and it is time-consuming and stressful pressuring him to do this. He has been doing Duolingo off and on and likes it, but he needs something more structured and GCSE-orientated. Has anyone had experience with a good app or anything else that focuses on speaking and responding to questioning? He likes apps that give feedback and allow him to monitor his progress. His results for Spanish and translating are pretty good, but he struggles with talking and responding to questions. If there is a Spanish teacher out there, it would be great to hear from you. Private tutoring is an option, but my finances are limited.

OP posts:
Original poster
Sata · 04/04/2025 17:54

This is an example of how they are asked to respond.

OP posts:
clary · 04/04/2025 16:38

Sata · 04/04/2025 15:05

Hi. For his GCSE, he has to discuss a picture and answer questions related to it.

Yes for sure, that’s true of both Edexcel IGCSE and GCSE. I’m trying to establish which he is taking as my advice will vary, depending which one.

Will he supply the picture do you know? Is he at a state school?

Whyherewego · 04/04/2025 15:17

The apps are rubbish for this sort of thing. There are a bunch of YouTube /tik tok folks who do various GCSE language prep advice. I don't know the Spanish ones but the French ones are decent.
The best thing is to find someone who speaks Spanish and get them to ask him questions in thr style of the speaking exam. If you cannot find anyone who can string a sentence together in Spanish then you could try setting it up in Chatgpt or similar where you upload the pic and then ask it to ask you questions from a set in Spanish and check the response.

Personally I'd be finding a MFL A level student from school to do a few speaking sessions for not too much £

Original poster
Sata · 04/04/2025 15:05

Hi. For his GCSE, he has to discuss a picture and answer questions related to it.

OP posts:
clary · 04/04/2025 14:48

Sata · 04/04/2025 14:38

Hi, thank you. He is in year 10 doing Edexcel. He finds the online Activehub Pearson a bit dry, and its exercises are mostly grammar.

Definitely GCSE not IGCSE? Just bc the speaking exams are very different. Won’t be IGCSE if he is at a state school tho.

Original poster
Sata · 04/04/2025 14:38

Hi, thank you. He is in year 10 doing Edexcel. He finds the online Activehub Pearson a bit dry, and its exercises are mostly grammar.

OP posts:
clary · 04/04/2025 10:40

Is he in year 11 or (hopefully) year 10?
I presume he is taking Edexcel then - it is GCSE not IGCSE? I only ask bc Edexcel is not so popular so wanted to check it’s not the IGCSE.

MFL is my subject (not really Spanish tho) - I’ll post more later but knowing the board is helpful. Also what sort of work is he doing that he does not enjoy? Really for GCSE it’s about doing what you need to do to get a good mark.

Swipe left for the next trending thread