Strategy to Pass Spanish Exam DELE B2 ?
I passed my Spanish proficiency Exam DELE B2. When I tried it for the first time for the same level B2 approximately six months back, I failed. However, the question one should ask themself regarding the failure
Was it a surprise ?
I will answer this frankly and honestly. No, it was not a surprise. I saw this coming when I had left the exam centre. I reflected upon the shortcomings and I found out I missed two things:
Preparation and Time
Why I say this and how it can help you to achieve success? Lets deep dive into this comprehensive guide to help you pass Spanish proficiency DELE B2 exam in first attempt.
What is a DELE B2 Exam ?
The Spanish exam DELE B2 Spanish Diplomas are official qualifications certifying the degree of competence and mastery of Spanish, granted by Instituto Cervantes on behalf of Ministry of Education and Vocational Training of Spain and, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain.
The Spanish exam DELE B2 examinations have been designed following the guidelines of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) of the Council of Europe.
Spanish exam DELE B2 is the fourth of the six learning levels. This diploma accredits the ability of the user of the language for: The DELE Spanish Diploma level B2 accredits language users’ capacity to:
- Interact with native speakers with a sufficient degree of fluency and spontaneity to enable easy and natural communication between interlocutors.
- Produce clear and detailed texts about diverse topics, as well as defend an opinion about general topics, expressing the pros and cons for each argument.
- Understand the gist of complex texts about both concrete and abstract topics, including technical texts, provided they are within the candidate’s area of expertise.
DELE B2 exam pattern.
Exam Pattern:
The level Spanish Exam DELE B2 includes four parts:
Group 1
- Reading comprehension test (70 min, 4 tasks)
- Written expression and interaction test (80 min, 2 tasks)
Group 2
- Listening comprehension test (40 min, 5 tasks)
- Oral expression and interaction test (20 min + 20 min to prepare)
The final grade is either PASS or FAIL. To obtain a diploma the candidate must earn a minimum of 60 points out of 100 on the examination, getting at least 30 points out of 50 in each test group.
It is necessary to get a minimum of 30 points in each group to obtain the grade of “Apt”
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Personal Story: Why Spanish ?
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”
A wise person once said “Never say no to anything “. Here I am with my fourth language certificate. Yes Fourth !!
I am from India and I can speak two languages proficiently, one is Hindi (my mother tongue) and other is English which thanks to the British Colonial System is second most common language in India. My motivation to learn Spanish started after getting married to my wife in the summer of 2018, who is a Spanish citizen from Madrid.
During this time we were still living in Tokyo, Japan. Now you would ask what was I doing in Tokyo, Japan. Well you can find more about it here in this other article. So by the time of my marriage I was already in Japan for 5 years and had cleared Japanese proficiency exam test (third language) and was working as a manager for an American company in Tokyo managing Japanese operations. At this point English and Japanese were my go to languages and I wanted to learn Russian.
Yeah I wanted to learn Russian because I have always liked the accent and I started to learn it. Though after meeting my wife, Spanish came in to my life. The Russian took a backseat but sooner or later I will catch up on that 😉.
Doesn’t matter whatever is your reason but you will need some good motivation to be able to reach level B2. Trust me it is no piece of cake.
We decided to move to Spain and my plan was to learn Spanish and then look for opportunities in Spain. I had the following motivations to learn Spanish:
- The thought of being in Spain and be able to communicate with family and friends in Spanish was enough. I did something similar with Japanese in Japan. Therefore, I had the confidence in my abilities.
- Spanish is the 3rd most popular language on the planet, so the idea of being able to understand the other half of the world gave me an adrenaline rush.
- Last but not least, the support of my family specially my wife gave me the final push.
I left Japan for Spain in August of 2019 before COVID-19 was a thing 😂. Once in Madrid, I enrolled in a Spanish language school, which when I now reflect was expensive but also a very good decision.
Why you should enroll into a Language School for Spanish Exam DELE B2 ?
Image by Sam Balye on Unspalsh
With professional help from teachers thing will become 10 times more easier than doing it by yourself. I enrolled myself at a language school even though I was living with my Spanish family in Spain. Many people asked me or wanted to ask.
Why did you not learn from your wife ?
The answer is very simple. Couples can never learn or teach each other 😭. They always end up fighting. Every bilingual couple I have asked, has told me the same. Hence, I enrolled in a Spanish school, short after leaving my full time job in Tokyo with the hope joining the same company in Madrid once I had reached a decent level of Spanish.
Also, from my experience of learning Japanese I decided that it is important to learn CORRECTLY from the very beginning. I studied Japanese mostly without a school, I learned myself by socializing or going to meetings with old and young Japanese or traveling in Trains or Buses, or walking on streets. This is good to work, sruvive and go by your daily life, however if you are going to take JLPT exam (Japanese language proficiency test) then you need to study from books. It was not easy to switch from colloquial to official language style. With JLPT also I failed in my first attempt. From this experience it was clear I did not want to repeat the same mistake and do it RIGHT from the very start.
The same is true for everyone out there who are serious about passing Spanish exam DELE B2. Go out there and look for one or ask me if you are coming to Madrid. I have experience from two different schools.
How much time you need to study ?
Normally it takes around 10 months to study up till B2 level in Spanish. That means four books, one for each level, A1, A2, B1 & B2. However, as was the case with Japanese and almost every other language in the world there is a huge difference between the requirements of an exam and the ones you need for communicating on a daily basis. For an exam you need to study formal language and pay attention to details like orthography and grammar structures. However, when communicating in the street you can be a bit more careless with these aspects and you will still achieve the goal of being understood.
I joined a Spanish school in late 2019. My aim was to have DELE B2 certificate which is a minimum requirement to work in Spanish language. To give you an Idea A1 is the beginner level and C2 is the highest level, which even native people say they would find it hard to clear. Currently I am studying the C1 level.
Did English knowledge helped? How about Italian, French, Portuguese speakers?
Knowing english helped. I started from A1 where I had students who did not have any English language. When we started moving up the ladder suddenly I realized that Japanese or Chinese students took more time than me. That is to say, English did help me, because I had been using English all my life without thinking much about grammar. None of the languages that I knew other than English had a complex grammar structure like Spanish, it was difficult.
In my personal experience learning Japanese was easier than Spanish due to the simpler grammar. Spanish is a very redundant language, you repeat the same thing many times within the same sentence. For example:
Le estoy escribiendo una carta a Ana.
I am writing a letter to Ana.
It is said that english books translated to Spanish are almost twice the size of the original, which gives you a scale of the redundancy in Spanish grammar.
As I moved to B1 level I saw many new students from Italian, Portuguese or french origin. For them many of the grammar concepts and vocabularies matched their own native language and therefore, they would skip A1 & A2 and start directly from level B1 which is a big convenience if I tell you.
Life is much easier if you know the difference between Indicativo and Subjuntivo. That is why, for French, Italian and Portuguese speaker it was more easy and fast to reach high level in Spanish language
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Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash
Strategy to pass Section 1: Reading comprehension
To pass the comprehension part which also happens to be the first part of the Spanish exam DELE B2 vocabulary is very important. Start learning vocabulary from day one and make a list of words at least 10 words per day with their sentences. To find the meaning of words I referred to two dictionaries online. My first recommendation and also the ones I used on daily basis even now is Spanish Dict. From the very basic level A1 to the very highest level, this one is helpful because you can use english or Spanish words to find the meaning, sentence examples and verb Conjugation. This application is quite handy and basically has proved to be a life saver. Second recommendation is is Word reference. This one is useful after B1 and the translation os more accurate with synonyms and many other features. The mobile application in both cases is more developed than desktop site.
Now using these tools make your own list of words with sentence examples and keep them repeating from time to time. Whenever, you have a unknown word first refer to the list that you have created in this way you will revise many words from your list unknowingly.
Key is to keep adding new words and define them using the old the old ones
Reading one article every alternate day from newspaper online will help you immensely in increasing your vocabulary as it did to me. You do this for at least 1 month regularly and you will thank me.
Strategy to pass Section 2: Listening, the hardest to master
In the exam each audio will be repeated twice but and you will have to mark your response during that time. Use a timer and create exam like conditions when you practice.
Listening part of level B2 will be the toughest nut to crack if you have never heard anything similar to Spanish language in your life. Partly because Spanish is spoken very fast, the speech rate for Spanish is super high and partly, lack of intonation in the Spanish language spoken by natives form Spain. Since, DELE is based on European standard it is mandatory to master the Spanish from Spain than any other latin American nation.
In my experience listening has been the hardest part because there is no short cut to improve the hearing capability. The time dedicated is proportional to your listening ability. The more time you devote to listening Spanish podcasts the better you will become.
To speed up the process listening to Radio and news on television definitely helped. Try to avoid using subtitles as much as you can. In my opinion Radio will give you the biggest buck for your money and time. Then, of course socializing with your Spanish family and friends will be the cherry on top. For some people , listening Spanish podcasts on the go is has also worked. Just make sure you listen to the podcast from Spain and not from Latin America as the accent from Spain is more difficult to get used compared to others.
Note: There is no extra time to mark your responses on the sheet and there is hardly any gap between two exercises. Make sure you answer the each exercise in the time period awarded and since there are no negative markings do not leave them blank. Please do not wait till the last moment. Time is very precious in this section.
Image by Nick fewings on Unsplash
Strategy to pass Section 3: Writing skills
To tackle the writing section of the DELE B2 exam the best strategy is to start practicing with mock exams. Try doing for mock exams and get it checked by a professional with experience DELE. Even if you start this 1 month before the exam you can still manage to pass. The important thing here is to get professional help on your writing because the examiner will look for certain grammatical mistakes and the use of certain type of structure which you yourself or an un experienced person won’t be able to judge.
The key phrase-1 & 2 Image below contains lot of helpful phrases that will assist you in writing faster and better.
Note: The topic for both the parts of writing are usually very similar to the mock exams that you would find in the book of EDELSA for DELE B2 preparation.
Strategy to pass Section 4: Oral expression & Interaction
To pass the section 4 which is oral expression and interaction I am going to share two very important notes with you. As you can see in these pictures I have made a note of some important phrases and keywords which you will have to include in your conversation. Start by speaking with native people so that you are able to open up. Participate in group activities. However, this exam depending on the place of examination you chose will be carried on a separate day or at the end of all exams. In any case there will be some gap of about minimum 1 hour between this and all other sections.
Key phrase -1
Key phrase -2
You will be given choices 3–5 choices of topic for Part-1 and Part-2 and if you have done practice from EDELSA DELE B2 preparation book it is likely you will find something that you have already practiced. Then you will be give 15 min to prepare the topic and usually the possible questions are also presented in there or if yo have done your practice yo will know it easily what to expect.
The first part of this section 4 is about a discussion based on 3–4 point of view which have presented in the paper. You will begin with presenting your views utilizing the key words I mentioned in picture above for 3–4 min and then in the end examiner will also question you.
In the second part you will be presented a picture and you will have to discuss about that picture for 5 minutes. You will start by describing the surroundings and the condition. Then move to describing the characters and their expressing. The enxt will be to tell what are they doing and or what is possibly going on. The last would be what would happen in future. The key here is to use the spatial vocabulary like Izquierda, derecha, girar, fondo, enfrente, delante to describe surrounding and then use adjectives to describe the character.
Last the third part in this section will be very short and quick. You will not be given any time to prepare. They will just show you some survey and ask you to fill within 2 minutes. The same you will be asked to compare with response of general population. Here, you will be checked on your ability to make a conversation on the spot.
Note: Do not stop to speak or pause in this section of exam. It can be detrimental to your score.
First Attempt at Spanish exam DELE B2 — — → Failure
After studying 8 months I applied for DELE B2 exam last year. That was during lockdown and I was over confident that if I do the mock-up exams etc, passing the exam would be a piece of cake. The exam costs 195 Euro for every attempt so it was not cheap. My mentality while going into the exam was to earn experience rather than clear it from the very beginning. There I made my first mistake. Secondly, as I mentioned in the beginning of the article Preparation and Time were other factors.
- Preparation: For anyone who never has had a brush with Spanish grammar reaching level B2 is difficult. I studied till B1 at my school and then came COVID-19 so I decided to study the rest and prepare for exam on my own. Which was a stupidity on my side when I think about it now.
- Time: To reach up to a certain level in a language you need time. It is needed to develop your listening capacity and ability to create a structure in your mind. I required at least six months to shed the hesitation and get the sentence structure right. However, the most difficult part of Spanish language is listening, specially the Spanish from Spain. In Spain people speak very fast and in a flat tone compared to other Spanish speaking countries where the tone is more accentuated. It took me longest to develop my listening skills by listening to Radio, News, Netflix. Now I can watch anything in Spanish without subtitles.
When I started speaking, I was mixing English, Spanish and Japanese unknowingly
In my first attempt the listening and oral abilities were the two sections where I lost most marks. Once you have failed oral it is impossible they will let you clear the exam. For any language, your communication ability in that language is the prime requirement. At home I was not talking much with my wife not because we had issues but because she naturally doesn’t speak much 😂. Due to lockdown, I was not seeing my in-laws with whom I used to practice. Basically, going into the exam I was only doing written and reading section practice by myself and the rest was left to chance and that showed in the results.
Image by Nick fewings on Unsplash
SECOND ATTEMPT at Spanish exam DELE B2 — — → SUCCESS
After having failed in the first attempt and after some self introspection I was back again in a Spanish school studying B2 level and preparing for the exam. This time I was more focused and planned in my approach. I used different techniques like listening to podcasts, radio, going out more and to participate in more conversations and reading articles from mainstream newspapers daily. Ultimately, when I sat for the exam I was still nervous from the results of the first attempt, but I was better prepared, which showed in my result.
Failure is the next step to success
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