My thoughts on the DELE C1 exam: Listening comprehension

The second prueba that I had in my exam was Comprensión auditiva y uso de la lengua, or listening comprehension and use of language. This consists of 4 tareas, or tasks with 30 questions total that you have to complete in 50 minutes. Below I've put down my thoughts on each of these tasks.

The big picture of this test is that the questions tend to be relatively complex, maybe about an NPR or news opinion-style interview. They speak at a normal conversation pace, but the audio quality can be questionable sometimes. I actually think that this is intentional, to see if your listening skills deteriorate if the recordings aren't given to you in perfect, sterilized Spanish. The conversation sections oftentimes have background noise that can disrupt your understanding (such as people talking, phones ringing, cars driving by, etc.). Sometimes the background noise will be so loud that you miss a word or two, and you need to use context to fill in what they probably said. Luckily, you listen to each recording twice. Some prep books tell you to just absorb the material the first time around and take notes the second time. But I think you should take notes the first time! And then use the second playback to fix your notes or add anything you missed.

After the jump, I've detailed my thoughts on the four tareas from this section.

Prueba 2: Listening comprehension and use of language. 

The first task is to listen to a conference or lecture that typically lasts 8-10 minutes. There were about 5-7 questions consisting of sentences with a blank corresponding to a single word or term. At the bottom is a bank of words that you need to insert into the blanks above. This section is a bit tricky for a couple of reasons. First, there are extra words in the word bank, so you can't necessarily use process of elimination to get you through. Second, the words tend to be relatively complicated vocabulary, so you really need to understand both the passage and somewhat complex words to do well on this section. And third, the vocabulary in the word bank are often very similar to each other, with slightly different shades of meaning depending on how they are used in the passage. To prepare for this section, I would listen to interviews on the news, and really up my vocabulary.

The second task is a series of 8 conversations, each lasting about 2 minutes. The audio begins at the start of the conversation and finishes at the end, so you get the full context of the conversation. Topics range from a customer help line to a person buying a new car, to two old friends bumping into each other on the street. You're then asked two questions about each conversation. One question is usually a detailed factual question, like "When did the travel agent say is the best time to book Airline A over Airline B?" For me, these questions were actually a bit more difficult because they were so specific. The second question is usually a question about the tone of the conversation. For example, "What does the woman think about the new house?" Here, the woman will usually not say anything explicit like "I really like/hate this house!" Instead, you need to pick up on her attitude from the overall tone of the conversation. I actually thought these questions were easier, since they don't require that you understand each and every word. To prepare for this task, I would just watch TV and have conversations with Spanish speakers often in every day life.

The third tarea is typically an interview or extended conversation between two people that lasts between 8-10 minutes. You're then asked a series of questions about the interview. This is probably most similar to something you'd see on a Spanish test in high school or college. The interview topics tend to be somewhat formal, usually something like an interview you'd see on a talk show, the radio, or the news. I don't have that much to say here, except that improving your general listening skills should help you out on this section. I thought this was the easiest task in the bunch, and during my practices I usually got almost all or all of them correct.

The last task is a series of 10 short diálogos, typically lasting between 10-20 seconds. These are really, really short. Unlike int he conversations section, in the dialogues section the audio clip begins in the middle of the conversation and ends somewhere in the middle too. You are asked one question for each dialogue. The purpose of this task is to be able to quickly understand the gist of what people are talking about in a short time. We often do this in real life when we walk into conversations that are already happening, so think of it like that. To prepare for this section, really know your idiomatic expressions, or frases hechas. Oftentimes, the dialogues will consist of two sentences (one for each character, like a question and a response). The response will typically be some common idiom, and answering the question correctly basically requires that you understand the idiom. In my practice exams I usually missed between 2-4 of these questions, and it was probably the same on the exam. These questions are tricky if you don't know your idioms.

In the next section I'll go over the writing portion.

Stay tuned.