My thoughts on the DELE C1 exam: Integrated skills. Listening comprehension and written expression and interaction

The third prueba tests on proficiency in written Spanish. This was actually my worst section (possibly due to lack of practice). I got a 15/25, or 60%, which is the minimum passing score for the DELE C1 exam. Overall, I believe this was most likely due to my lack of practice. I didn't practice writing any formal essays in the months preceding my exam (thinking that my writing was my strongest skill in Spanish), but I was definitely wrong. The DELE knows that people generally read and write better than they can speak and listen. As a result, they make the writing test more complex than the other sections. Don't get me wrong, the task and the writing prompts themselves are fairly simple. However, the grading rubric is pretty harsh. It's not enough to just write an essay that's coherent and correct. At the C1 level, you need to demonstrate sophistication in your writing style, using adequately complex vocabulary and sentence structures where they fit. I would say that the writing section in Spanish is probably similar to taking the SAT Writing section in the United States.

After the jump, I'll detail the couple of sections that I was given in this prueba.

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.