Edexcel A Level Spanish (9SP0) — Written exams (Papers 1 and 2)
Teacher Guide: The Written Exams
An overview of Paper 1 and Paper 2, the patterns across sections, and where to find the detailed guides and practice materials
This guide sits above seven detailed section guides. Each detailed guide is based on the question papers, mark schemes and Principal Examiner reports for all eight series from June 2018 to June 2025, saved in Past Papers. References such as (ER 2024) mean the examiner report for that year, (MS 2023) the mark scheme and (QP 2019) the question paper. The blue links open the files; they work as long as the folder structure is kept together.
1. The two written papers
| Paper | Section | Marks | Time (Pearson) | Answer in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Paper 1 2 hours, 80 marks |
A: Listening (Q1–Q4) | 30 | 50 min | Spanish |
| B: Reading (Q5–Q9) | 30 | 50 min | Spanish | |
| C: Translation into English (Q10) | 20 | 20 min | English | |
Paper 2 2 h 40 min, 120 marks |
A: Translation into Spanish (Q1) | 20 | 30 min | Spanish |
| B: Literary text essay (Q9 for Bernarda Alba) | 50 | not stated | Spanish, 300–350 words | |
| C: Film essay (Q16 for El laberinto del fauno) | 50 | not stated | Spanish, 300–350 words |
Sources: front covers and section headings of QP 2018–2025. No dictionary in either paper; no copies of the works in Paper 2.
Paper 2 choice rules: students write two essays, either two from Section B or one from B and one from C. The first must be on a literary text, and the second must not be on the same work (QP 2018–2025). Two films are not allowed (ER 2022). This school’s route is one essay on La casa de Bernarda Alba and one on El laberinto del fauno.
Paper 2 timing: Pearson recommends 30 minutes for the translation and gives no time per essay. Splitting the remaining 2 h 10 evenly gives about 65 minutes each; that is our arithmetic, not Pearson guidance.
Paper 3 (speaking) is not covered by this pack.
2. Section by section
One row per section, with the headline findings from its detailed guide. The counts are our own tallies from the papers and mark schemes; each detailed guide explains how they were made.
| Section | Format and marks | Headline findings | Detailed guide |
|---|---|---|---|
Paper 1 Section A: Listening |
Q1 multiple choice (4) Q2 open (5) Q3 open, longest recording (9) Q4(a) open (6) Q4(b) summary, 2 speakers × 3 details (6) |
Structure identical in all 8 series. About 7 minutes of audio in total, and students control the recording. Most frequent reasons for lost marks: Q4(b) details bunched under one bullet, misheard word boundaries (medio / me dio), similar numbers (seis / siete), and keeping the speaker’s first person. | Teacher Guide - Listening |
Paper 1 Section B: Reading, Q5–Q7 |
Q5 choose endings (4) Q6 choose 4 of 9 statements (4) Q7 open (6) |
Q5 endings containing sólo, siempre, todos or cada were wrong 15 times out of 17. Q6 statements with a number or date were false 12 times out of 14. Immigration is the most common topic (6 of 24 texts). Q7 marks are lost mainly by copying the text (5 of 8 reports). | Teacher Guide - Reading (Q5 to Q7) |
Paper 1 Section B: Reading, Q8–Q9 |
Two long texts, 8 marks each, open questions in Spanish | Always one literary and one non-literary text. Questions asking for two or three ideas rose from 29% (2018–2022) to 61% (2023–2025). “¿Cómo sabemos…? / ¿Qué evidencia hay…?” appeared 13 times. The article was about the Civil War or Franco in 3 of the last 4 years. | Teacher Guide - Reading Comprehension (Q8 and Q9) |
Paper 1 Section C: Translation into English |
About 110 words, 20 sections × 1 mark | Most-tested points (sections out of 160): preterite 22, relative clauses 21, imperfect 13, subjunctive 12, prepositions that change in English 11. Vocabulary is at stake in 85 of 160 sections, including 22 false friends. Average scores reported: 10/20 (2018), 11/20 (2019). | Teacher Guide - Translation into English |
Paper 2 Section A: Translation into Spanish |
About 107 English words, 20 boxes × 1 mark, each box completely correct | Most-tested points (boxes out of 160): definite articles 20, agreement 17, relative pronouns 16, adverbs 16, subjunctive 15 (4 of the 6 subjunctive-only boxes are si-clauses). Paraphrase gets no credit. | Teacher Guide - Translation into Spanish |
Paper 2 Section B: La casa de Bernarda Alba |
EITHER (a) OR (b), 50 marks: AO4 20, AO3 range 20, AO3 accuracy 10 | 16 questions since 2018: theme 7, dramatic technique 5, character 4. Command words across all Section B: Analiza 111, Evalúa 79 (only these two since 2023). No question has quoted the work. Examiners warn against linking the play to Franco. | Teacher Guide - Literary Essay (La casa de Bernarda Alba) |
Paper 2 Section C: El laberinto del fauno |
EITHER (a) OR (b), 50 marks, same three grids | 16 questions since 2018: theme or context 5, technique or symbolism 5, character 4, ending or genre 2. One Analiza and one Evalúa every year since 2019. Most popular film in 6 of 8 series. Top answers link every technique to its meaning. | Teacher Guide - Film Essay (El laberinto del fauno) |
3. Patterns that run across the sections
These points come up in the examiner reports for several sections. Teaching them once, and reinforcing them in every section, is efficient.
| Pattern | Where it appears | What to teach |
|---|---|---|
| Answer the exact question. Match the question word; don’t give information that is true but not asked for. | Listening, Reading Q7–Q9, both essays (all 8 essay reports) | Circle the question word; re-read the question after writing the answer. |
| Don’t copy chunks. A copied phrase only scores if it answers the question as it stands. | Listening, Reading Q7–Q9 | Change the person, the verb or the noun so the answer fits the question. |
| Make it clear who did what. A verb without a subject is read as the person named in the question. | Listening, Reading Q8–Q9 (ER 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025) | The cold-reader check: would someone who hasn’t read the text understand it? |
| Two marks, two different ideas; best idea first. Only the first answers up to the number of marks count. | Listening, Reading Q7–Q9 (MS 2021–2025) | Highlight two separate places in the text before writing. |
| Numbers must be exact. Keep casi, más de, al menos; don’t drop digits. | Listening, Reading Q7 (ER 2022, 2024, 2025) | Number dictations; spot the qualifier. |
| Read the whole text first and translate what is there, not a paraphrase. | Translation into Spanish (ER 2018–2025) | Read, then translate sentence by sentence, then re-read in the target language. |
| Analysis, not narrative. Explain how and why. | Both essays (all 8 reports) | PEEL paragraphs that end by linking back to the question. |
Topics. The four themes appear throughout, with Spanish and Latin American settings. The Civil War and Franco feature strongly in recent Q8–Q9 articles, and immigration is the most common Q5–Q7 topic.
The papers are stable. Paper 1 marks per question and Paper 2’s structure have not changed from 2018 to 2025. The main recent change is in Q8–Q9: fewer questions, more of them worth two marks.
4. Where to find everything
4.1 For students
Written Exams - Student Guide (PowerPoint handout): 14 slides covering both papers, section by section, with a checklist.
4.2 Detailed guides and practice materials
Practice texts are original, written for this pack in the style of the real papers. Each set has a mark scheme in Pearson’s format.
4.3 Past papers
Past Papers holds, for every series from June 2018 to June 2025, the question paper, mark scheme and examiner report for Papers 1 and 2, named “Paper N – YYYY-MM Month – …” so they sort by paper and date. The October 2020 and October 2021 series are the autumn sittings.
5. Things to know
Audio for real past papers is not in the pack. The Listening guide works from the transcripts printed in the mark schemes; the recordings have to be obtained from Pearson. The Listening practice sets include MP3s made with synthetic voices.
No specification document was used. Topic groupings in the guides are ours, not Pearson’s official sub-themes, and the weighting of each paper towards the A Level is not stated here.
Pearson’s documents contain a few slips (for example, mislabelled exemplar essays and a name error in one mark scheme). The detailed guides flag these rather than repeat them.
Statistics are our classification. Counts of grammar points, question types and essay focus are our own tallies; each guide explains its method.