In the flurry of preparation for the DELE C1 Spanish exam, about the time those doubts set in and I started wondering why on earth I’d signed up, I ended up buying a second book, the aptly named Preparación al Diploma de Español Nivel C1, published by Edelsa. This was in addition to El Cronómetro which I had been hoping would get me through.

my DELE prep books

I had managed to book myself ten private sessions of an hour each to practise the Oral, and although the teacher told me I was at the right level for the exam, she also reminded me that the mark only shows how good you are on the day. And to be honest, most days I really didn’t feel the right level. The teacher also pushed for me to do model listening exams during my sessions but there was no way I was going to waste 20 euros on a practice listening test when I could buy six of them for 25 euros, along with the rest of the six model exams that are found in Preparación.   So I did just that. I had worked my way through most of El Cronómetro (you can read my review of the Cronómetro B2 version here), and I figured that the extra practice I’d get from the listening exams in a second book was a good compromise between what I needed most and what I could feasibly fit into my schedule around the kids. I didn’t cover all of Preparación. I have plenty left to do in case I fail! But I did use parts and especially the Listening. So here is a brief comparison of both exam prep books side by side:

Contents of El Crono

Contents of Preparación

Preparación Pros:

• There are six model exams, compared to four in El Crono.
• The answer booklet (sold separately) highlights why the answer is correct, and sometimes why the other options are wrong. It also includes transcriptions, which for El Crono are found online.
• At least with a separate booklet, you cannot see the answers accidentally. In one or two places I found the Crono answers placed too close to the questions.
• Each exam focuses on one theme – mundo laboral, bienestar y salud, educación y formación, etc. This isn’t realistic as of course they are mixed in real life, but each starts with a page of vocab for that theme, so I suppose that could help you to master a wide range in a consistent way.

themed vocab and exam – Preparación

Cons:

• The Listening exams were too easy. This was my main complaint. First of all, the audio felt markedly shorter and slower. In the Chronómetro audios, you had longer texts to listen to, making it harder to unearth the correct answers. Secondly, in Tarea 1, where you have to fill in gaps choosing from ten expressions to complete several sentences about the conference talk, the Preparación talk actually contained the same expressions which were the right answers. In El Cronómetro they used synonyms, which meant you had to understand the sense of the sentences.
• It had no strong Latin American accents unlike the Argentine accent in El Crono only quite easy ones. You really do need some practice with these …as I found out in the actual exam (post coming).
• From a practical perspective, the way the recording is organised does not reflect the exam. For one thing, you have to play each track twice manually rather than the CD having them recorded twice in the first place. This is fiddly when you are supposed to be filling in the answer sheet. Also, the tracks do not include the reading of the instructions, and at no time is there any time included to read the text before the audio begins, whereas the official website includes this. So you have to guess how long to leave yourself.  I tried to underestimate to be on the safe side and managed to complete the 50mn test in just 32mn while scoring 29 out of 30. Having done the actual exam, I’m pretty sure my score was a far cry from that!
• The answer book comes separately, that is, costs more. About 5 euros on top of the 20 for the book, but this is comparable to the 24 euros I paid for El Crono. Possibly you could consult one owned by a friend or your language school.

El Cronómetro Pros:

• It has a lot more exercises all the way through. I only got it four months before the exam but I could have done with more time for the exercises.
• Working mostly on my own with very little feedback from teachers, I appreciated having a place to record your progress and compare your results from each section of the exam over time.

Resumen de preparación – El Crono

• Listening audios are recorded in a very similar way to the official exams, so you can learn to judge approximately how much time you have to read ahead.
• An Argentine accent represented in each listening test, albeit only one poor guy they dragged in each time.
• It contains answer sheets at the back which you can photocopy and get used to filling in the little boxes with a pencil if you so desire.
• It has several pages of idioms with a multiple choice definition quiz plus the answers.

Idioms – El Crono

• It also has several pages of contenidos gramaticales, one of those things that looks really useful to go through as a checklist of learned skills, but somehow never made it into my top priority tray.

Los contenidos gramaticales – El Crono

All in all, if I had to pick, I would definitely go with El Crono. I think it’s crucial to get the listening prep right because along with the oral, it’s one where if you get completely lost in Question 1 you could be thrown off course for the whole rest of the test from sheer nerves. So that weighs heavily in my consideration. In addition, it would be misleading to think that the level in Preparación is sufficient for the listening test, even though the other parts seemed in line with El Crono, and the actual exam. Either way, you will need back-up to correct writing pieces and give feedback on your oral practice.

To prepare the writing part of the DELE exam I have been churning out as many writing pieces from old exam papers as possible. About three texts a week is all I can manage, although in the C1 exam I’ll need to produce two pieces within 80 minutes. It takes me an hour of absolute concentration per piece (not to mention the preceding hour of procrastinatory coffee-making and paper-shuffling), 40 minutes to write, plus extra to work myself up to it and ensure I won’t be interrupted. Mentally, it’s tougher than facing up to a sinkful of dirty pans. In fact it made attacking the mess in the attic room look positively manageable.

What I’ve noticed, working with a stopwatch and counting the words at the end, is that there is no time to write about anything outside of the pautas, the guidelines. By the time I’ve covered the four to six points in the description fairly succinctly, I’ve not only run out of time, I’ve hit the upper word limit. Especially if you take the trouble to link the different ideas in (hopefully) a natural way. You are only given a certain number of answer sheets to write on (three for task 1 and two for task 2) so you can’t just write an essay even if you are a perfectly fluent speed-writer. You obviously don’t want to waste time counting words in the exam so (now the printer is working) I have been printing the official answer sheets from the website and using them each time. That way I have a clear idea how full the pages have to be, so I can see at a glance how I’m doing in the exam and I can adapt while I’m writing.

Blah blah blah

Speaking of word limits, nobody can quite agree on the exact figures. Task 1 is usually listed as 220-250, and task 2 is down as either the same, or less: 180-220. El Cronómetro disagrees with itself on the issue (see p.45 vs p.46), and no wonder because the official DELE website is not entirely consistent. The teacher I paid specifically to prepare me for the oral seems to think it is impossible to know. Apparently there has been a change in recent years so I’m sticking to the current guide which gives the longer word limit (sigh) for both and ignoring old test papers that give a lower limit.

I’ve also discovered that in contrast to what it says in El Cronómetro (p.47), there is NO time to write a draft copy – no way. This website corroborates. A brief outline maybe, but then again the pautas act as a rough outline anyway. There are fewer instructions for the first task, the one based on a 5-minute audio, because a lot of the information has to be surmised from the audio. Usually the instructions could be summarised as the following: What does the speaker argue and what do you think and why.

The official website is helpful with old exam questions and an example of a failed prueba and one which passed. From this I was able to work out that I should make more direct reference to the speaker in the audio, saying thinks like: “El punto de vista expuesto por el conferenciante es que…” Or “En la conferencia se exponen tres perspectivas…” It is important to present clearly in the text which ideas are from the speaker and which are your own.

Since Tarea 1 includes a 5-minute audio which is played twice, I figure that text will take me more than half of the 80 minutes, so I need to practise completing Tarea 2 in around 35 minutes. Tarea 2 often includes the option of a letter; I was told by one teacher that you should put your address at top of the page (as in real-life letters) but the example text marked APTO in the official guía only bears the place of writing and date, so I will not be wasting time on a full postal address.

I get my texts corrected and then I review the corrections, sometimes recopying them in categories. Although it’s been a struggle to find the time and the quiet to work, I’ve been buoyed by a noticeable improvement in my writing. I find now I can start a sentence without knowing exactly how I will end it and yet I still manage to end it. I’ve also seen my word count rise very slowly from below 200 in February to 250 words in 40 minutes, and I feel like my texts are more nuanced than before.

I want to keep up the writing practice until the exam, but I somehow have to squeeze in some proper Oral and Listening practice too. If nothing else, this autonomous exam prep is forcing me to be more self-disciplined. And the attic looks a lot better now.

In my house, all worthwhile projects begin with… buying a new book. Because nothing says working hard like spreading lots of resources out on the dining table. With a tonne of papers out, and maybe a highlighter or two, it’s practically a given that I am going to accomplish something. At least I can’t forget I actually have work to get on with.

The countdown to the DELE exam has begun. I won’t sign up until I really feel capable of passing as I don’t relish the thought of paying twice and working myself up to it twice! But I have undertaken to prepare seriously in the hope I’ll be ready. Plus it would be good to justify six months of clutter on the table.

Books out, so I must be working, right?

However, doing occasional Spanish mock exams is not going to be enough. I have a strong feeling I’m going to need an extra push to get to the lofty C1 level. So here is my action plan, including extras:

• Work through my C1 preparation book of choice, El Cronómetro, completing one of the four mock exams about every two weeks. This allows time to do all three writing options for each mock exam (only two are required in the actual exam) and get them corrected, as well as practising the mock orals. By spacing them out I’m hoping to actually see an improvement. When you are studying alone you need some kind of motivation!

• Writing prompts, lots of them. When you struggle for vocabulary it can block your whole text. You have to express such specific things in such a short time. I was shocked to find out that the writing exam is the same duration as for B2, that is, 80 minutes, but you have to write more words (instead of 2 x 150-180, it’s 220-250 + 180-220, and there’s a 5 minute audio to listen to first for Task 1). It’s already cost me a fair amount of primetime, those rare quiet moments when the laundry is out, the dishwasher is sloshing away, the kids are at school, and I have that thing called FREE time. Since January I have churned out a dozen B2 writing prompts and I am now ready to begin El Cronómetro C1.
• Read novels – a good way to use even a few quiet minutes. Following a recommendation, I brought La Sombra del Viento home from the library, I think the level is right (B2/C1) but it’s a lot longer than I had expected!
  

  La Sombra del Viento

• Read books about Spanish (or about Spain) in English – at the moment I have In the Garlic on my bedside shelf. It’s so easy to read a few entries at a time.
• Watch a Spanish sitcom (or whatever takes your fancy). Documentaries and more serious telly would be good for the writing exam. But the listening includes a fair few colloquialisms, so lightweight watching is good for this, better even than reading dialogues perhaps, since you get the body language. It’s also a way to do some easy Spanish when you just can’t face all those great books you ordered off Amazon.
• Talk more. I’m not someone who normally strikes up conversations with strangers, but drastic measures are required here, so you might find me chatting with old biddies in the park, with the librarian who thinks he has Irish roots because he likes whiskey, and with anyone else who crosses my path. Just one way that learning a language can alter your personality!
• Listen to the radio. In France I had the radio on all the time because I was living on my own. But now I have my own family I barely ever turn it on. The house is rarely quiet enough, and if it is then I enjoy the fact that I can hear myself think for once! I got through the B2 listening by speed-reading the texts before the audio came on, but I won’t be able to do that with the C1 as the texts are longer as well as harder, and the options are much more subtle. These days at least you can choose a podcast on a topic you are interested in.
• Get some professional help for the oral. I am considering going to the language centre where the exam takes place for a few private lessons in which I could practise the oral in the month or two before the exam. I could do with some guidance from accredited examiners as this is by far my weakest point.

La Sombra del Viento

Here are some of the expressions I’ve been learning to squeeze into writing pieces:

• no obstante – nevertheless, however (makes a change from sin embargo)
• ahora bien – however (less formal), that said
• o sea – or rather, in other words
• por lo tanto – therefore
• a modo de ilustración – a variant of por ejemplo
• en cuanto a – as for
• no se puede negar que – it cannot be denied that
• de toda evidencia – evidently
• esto nos lleva a la conclusión inevitable que – this leads us to the inevitable conclusion that

El Cronómetro – Edición Nuevo DELE B2

I got this book about 2.5 months before the exam which, I have to be honest, is not enough. Unless, of course, you are studying Spanish full-time and are lucky enough to focus on one project at a time. I imagine this is highly unlikely if you are reading my blog (or rather, my hotchpotch of child education, multilingualism, parental stress and blank spaces) instead of one of those super-focused, determined, ambitious, successful blogs Linkedin keeps throwing in our faces.

To help you pass fast

THE OBJECTIVE

El Cronómetro is not a book for learning Spanish; instead it aims to teach you how to squeeze your existing knowledge in to the shape of the DELE exam. The book cost me about 20 euros. Given that it is not the first edition, I was surprised to still find a few inaccuracies and typos which I thought ought to have been smoothed out by now. More on that later.

THE CONTENTS

This book includes 4 model exam papers, a CD, and the answers (claves). Four may not seem a lot. However, bear in mind that one of the writing exam tasks has two options, meaning you can try out a total of 12 writing tasks using this book. The CD provides the listening exams and the oral prompts. Private Spanish language schools will usually provide you with past exam papers (- ask before you sign up -) but if you are doing things on the cheap like me and taking municipal classes or no classes at all, you really need to get hold of some old papers along with the couple that can be found online.

Tracking your progress

Personally I find there is nothing better than sitting mock exams to prepare you for timing and content. You can correct yourself using the answers included in the book for the listening and reading tests. I liked the idea of the Resumen de la preparación, where you record your scores. Hopefully you should see an improvement as you work through both the exam papers and extra exercises, though I didn’t see much probably because of only spending two months with the book. I only filled in my overall scores for each of the reading and listening tests I did, as I couldn’t really grade my writing and oral prep. Having boxes for my grade in each exercise (tarea) of each test was overkill for me, and I noticed that the headings (Lectura, etc) were missing.

Of course there are no answers for the writing and oral tests but I paid a friend to correct my writing exam prep, and I figure it was a very worthwhile investment. Although I didn’t have actual grades for these parts, it was still helpful to tick off the exercises in the resumen table as I completed them.

Ticking off the writing tasks

After the old exam papers there’s an appendix of exercises. This section is practically the last half of the book, almost as long as the model exams. The exercises are divided into three sections linked to the reading, listening and writing tests. I genuinely found these helped to develop one skill or another for the exam, along with a fair amount of vocab and grammar reminders. Again, the answers are included so you can correct yourself, and isolate and eliminate your failings be that por vs para or Latin American accents or whatever. Some exercises were a bit bland. I also didn’t feel inclined to note my opinion down about all sorts of things, as encouraged by the book. The author recommends you do the exercises prior to and in between the model exams. I didn’t have time to do most of them before (reminder: two months of normal-commitments life is not enough!) and chose to focus on the test papers instead, but after the exam I did them as I’m sure I’d need these issues resolved before the C1 exam.

GOOD ORAL PROMPTS

I thought the book wouldn’t help much for the Oral, but fortunately I was wrong. I found that the simulated oral prompts on the CD were as good as you could expect in terms of a substitution for a living breathing native Spanish speaker with time on their hands to help you practise the oral exam. The book suggests you record your speaking, and I found this a really good idea. I used the app Easy Voice Recorder on my phone and it was dead simple. I couldn’t bear to listen to the recordings much, but just the fact that I was recording made me continue talking instead of trailing off, or starting over, which really isn’t an option in the real thing. With one hand I’d play and pause the CD to get the examiner’s questions, and with the other I’d record on my phone, and it resulted in a better simulation than I had thought.

So it wasn’t just me…

ANNOYING ERRORS

There were a few printing errors (typos, and more, eg p. 135) and also one of the recordings of the exercises was done with the wrong person speaking the wrong lines, but it was a practice exercise, not one of the exam tasks (pista 51, p. 158).

ALL IN ALL…

Overall this book was worth the money. It is good for when you feel you already have the knowledge for the exam but need to practise writing/talking with prompts and keeping to exam time; it helps you identify which of your weaknesses you need to improve to pass.

Disclaimer: I benefit in no way whether you buy the book through a link you find here or not. I write purely out of linguistic interest and unfortunately cannot be bothered to monetise.