GCSE Pearson Edexcel Spanish - Oral exam - questions - help please!

[stopthatrightnow]

My son has his GCSE Pearson Edexcel Spanish speaking exam in two weeks, but we're quite confused about what he’s actually supposed to be preparing.

He’s been told that students choose one theme for their presentation — he’s chosen to talk about his recent and future holidays (Theme 2: Holiday and Travel). That part makes sense.

However, for the follow-up questions, he’s only been asked to prepare answers about where he lives, if he likes it, and what he did last time he went into the city centre — all of which seem more about local area, not holidays. This seems to contradict what’s stated on the Pearson Edexcel website, which says the follow-up questions should form part of a conversation based on the same theme. It doesn’t make sense to follow a short speech about holidays with unrelated questions about his town, so we’re unsure if there’s been a misunderstanding.

His revision booklet also only has circled questions from Theme 2 — but none are about travel or holidays. They’re all about home and town, which just adds to the confusion.

He was also told that the second theme (for the general conversation) could be chosen in advance, and he gave his preference which the teacher noted. But from what I can see in the Edexcel specification, the second theme is supposed to be chosen by the teacher — and not by the student — and may even be selected on the day. That’s a big difference, since it affects whether he needs to prepare just one additional theme or potentially revise material from all five.

Unfortunately, the school is closed for Easter and slow to respond to messages. His speaking exam is straight after the break, so any insight from teachers or anyone with recent experience would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

Theme two is 'Local Area, Holiday and Travel'. When I've done speaking exams I've tried to stick to follow up questions on holidays if that's what their introduction was on, but sometimes there just isn't enough to talk about at that level, so you have to broaden it to the other half of the theme.

His initial choice of theme dictates which roleplay and photo card he will be given (all three will be different themes, although I don't think theme 5 can come up in the roleplay). The teacher then chooses one of the two remaining themes for the second general conversation topic.

I think your DS should have prepared answers for all five themes. He is then ready for anything in the speaking exam, and he will have a bank of potentially useful preprepared sentences he can use in his writing exam too. That's what I've tried to get students to do in the past (with varying degrees of success...)

I examine this spec (French and German not Spanish but it’s the same) for speaking - I know AQA better so I will post again in a bit (not near my notes just now) when I have double checked as the specs are a bit different. But broadly yes, I would expect after the one-minute pres at least a couple of questions on the same sub topic. But will post again in a bit.

@Janek i just checked the spec quickly and the second general theme is not chosen by the teacher, it is chosen by the board via a randomisation grid. Will check in more detail tho I agree it’s possible the teacher is concerned that all their questions will be covered in the presentation

Hey @stopthatrightnow OK have rechecked my notes on this.

There are five themes altogether as you are aware (too many I think – there's a lot of overlap) and the student picks one to do a 1-min pres. I would then expect more questions on the sub-topic but the teacher has discretion to widen the convo out to the rest of the theme.

Before the general convo they have a role play and photocard on two other themes and then the final element, the second convo, is, as I said, selected via a grid from Pearson (so eg "student 1 chooses theme 2; they get photocard A, roleplay 5 and the final general convo is on theme 1). None of this is at the discretion of the student nor the teacher and if teachers are picking the second theme I wonder how that squares with the provided grid.

But basically Janek is right that he needs to have all themes covered, as he will be examined on all but one of them, and should have a bank of good phrases and expressions to get him the top marks, as well as mastery of tenses and using opinions with reasons.

In any case revising just one extra theme would not be enough even if he knew it (most irregular) as he will have two more themes on photocard and role play.

Hope this is helpful but please ask if any more concerns.

Thank you very much. This aligns with the Spec in Edexcel’s pdf but my son stated the teacher had told them differently! ie that she would be choosing the second convo theme which is why they were asked to volunteer one. She also ringed only certain questions in each theme! Smells a bit malpracticey to me.

I'm not sure why you say it is malpractice that the teacher has circled some questions. That's theme 2, the theme he's chosen?

Pretty sure that the teacher is not supposed to say which questions they will ask on the chosen theme.

Also pretty sure everyone does it.

But I think the concern may be about the teacher saying the student can choose the second theme, or direct the teacher’s choice. In fact of course they cannot – if the theme the student or teacher chose was in fact the photocard they were allocated by the randomisation grid, they couldn't also have that as they second general theme so they would be in trouble if they had prepped a specific series of questions for that.

Honestly @stopthatrightnow while I am aware that teachers tell students which questions to revise for the chosen theme, I really do not see how any teacher could try to fiddle this. They cannot just pick the set tasks at random and surely if they did, Pearson would realise and flag it? I wonder if this is an inexperienced teacher, or one inexperienced in conducting speaking exams?

Yes, the teacher directed them to circle ONLY certain questions in each theme.

Teacher told them to all select their preferred 2nd choice for the conversation and to tell her. Therefore my son had a nasty shock today when I reported back to him (on the back of this thread) that he will actually get a randomised choice of any of four other themes for the second part of part 3.

I'm just glad I asked the questions now, rather than allowed him to blindly prep only the two themes the teacher told them to and then for him to find on on the day of the exam that it's actually randomised.

And does he realise that two other themes are covered in RP and photo? So he will need to revise all (even if he does get his "chosen" theme for convo 2)

Sounds as tho the teacher has told them they will only be questioned on two themes? But four out of the five will be covered. Unless your DS has missed the bit where he was told about photo and RP? And btw the photo and RP have set questions so the teacher a) will not know them in advance (well they could have seen them by now but it would obviously be massively irregular to tell students) and b) cannot change them to suit what candidates have or have not revised,

@claryhe did not realise that four out of the five themes would be utilised, no. He knew about the one minute speech being from theme 2 but had been told there would only be the circled questions on their worksheet. So today I’ve made him prepare the other questions of same worksheet.

Plus I’ve told him he needs to revise all five themes.

He is not very pleased.

I, meanwhile, am not best pleased with the lack of info or downright wrong info they have apparently been told about the whole speaking exam.

@stopthatrightnow I've just checked the spec again for the randomisation grid and in fact thexteacher does pick the second convo theme - but from the two remaining after the other tasks are done. So in a sense the teacher picks, just not from all four other themes. So @Janek's post is quite correct, sorry.

But anyway, as DS can't know the topic of RP or photo in advance, that doesn't help him know what the final topic will be and still needs to prep all 5 themes. He presumably knew about the RP and photo elements of the test? He gets prep time for those. Does sound as tho it's not been made clear to him very well, but I am sure he will do well. Best of luck to him.

Or it could be a student who hasn't been listening.
Last lesson before the holidays a student 'confirmed' with me that they only had to do a role play task for the speaking exam and that was it!
What I've been talking about and prepping them for for the last year has clearly gone straight over her head 🙃

Oh no @Sevenandahalf ! I examine privately so I do lots of different specs (hence my own confusion for which apologies) and every year I am amazed at how badly prepped some candidates are (while many are amazing).