Spanish Ab Initio: How do you study?

[stylusdef]

I'm a May 2010 candidate taking Spanish Ab Initio. I'm the only one at my school who takes this subject, and I basically I have to follow the syllabus on my own, since my teacher is not familiar with the IB-program. Consequently, I don't know if I should work harder or less.

What have you done for Spanish Ab Initio so far?

I have, in broad strokes, taught myself the regular verbs in every tense: present, perfect, imperfect, conditional, etc. Now I can just pump my head full of regular verbs and I'll know them in each tense. ^^ Soon I will start with common irregular verbs in each tense. Meanwhile, I learn new words and try to read, etc

[EconSurvivor]

Getting a 7 in spanish is about a lot more than just learning verbs, because most 7 are already fluent in spanish (natives looking for an easy grade) you need to be nearly fluent as well.

For general revision through year i recomend you visit sites likes this [url="http://www.larouchepub.com/spanish/otrosart.html#"]http://www.larouchepub.com/spanish/otrosart.html#[/url], and try to read 1-2 articles every week. Circle words you don't understand that appear more than once, look them up and learn them. In the AB Inition IB exam you will be expected to read and understand articles of this language level.

I'm taking the exam in may 2009; so far we've covered verbs/words in technology, politics, the media, housing, art, nature, wellbeing, health, and other smaller topics like the family, colors, dates, etc at the beginning of 2008.

What you definitely need to know is:
the past tense
present tense
imperfect tense
future tense
verbs done to yourself and between people (with se)
personal pronouns (me,te,le,...)
Gerundio
Command forms
Subjuntive (I think includes how to phrase recomendations, accidents, etc)

I might have forgotten a few things, but these are the main areas you need to know for the exam.
I can upload my AB Inition notes if you want, but it'll be at least a week before i get access to a scanner. Meanwhile i can upload some of my private notes on words (tell me if i should), which might be useful to you.

How hard you need to work is up to you. A 7 means you need to work unless you're already fluent, a 6 means you have to work well enough to know every topic, but probably won't need to do that much extra work, a 5 is nothing. If you want a 5 you can probably just slack off since that's about an average grade anyway.

Hope i was of help.

Edited January 6, 2009 by EconSurvivor

[Aether]

Learning a language is going beyond learning how to structure a sentence. I am not familiar with Ab Initio, since spanish is my native language, and I have it as my A1. However, I believe the best way to practice is by reading. It is easier to familiarize yourself with the structure of a language when you read it from someone who is fluent, than when you are trying to just make your sentences as grammatically perfect as possible.

[shreya123]

On 1/6/2009 at 10:47 AM, EconSurvivor said:

Getting a 7 in spanish is about a lot more than just learning verbs, because most 7 are already fluent in spanish (natives looking for an easy grade) you need to be nearly fluent as well.

For general revision through year i recomend you visit sites likes this http://www.larouchepub.com/spanish/otrosart.html#, and try to read 1-2 articles every week. Circle words you don't understand that appear more than once, look them up and learn them. In the AB Inition IB exam you will be expected to read and understand articles of this language level.

I'm taking the exam in may 2009; so far we've covered verbs/words in technology, politics, the media, housing, art, nature, wellbeing, health, and other smaller topics like the family, colors, dates, etc at the beginning of 2008.

What you definitely need to know is:
the past tense
present tense
imperfect tense
future tense
verbs done to yourself and between people (with se)
personal pronouns (me,te,le,...)
Gerundio
Command forms
Subjuntive (I think includes how to phrase recomendations, accidents, etc)

I might have forgotten a few things, but these are the main areas you need to know for the exam.
I can upload my AB Inition notes if you want, but it'll be at least a week before i get access to a scanner. Meanwhile i can upload some of my private notes on words (tell me if i should), which might be useful to you.

How hard you need to work is up to you. A 7 means you need to work unless you're already fluent, a 6 means you have to work well enough to know every topic, but probably won't need to do that much extra work, a 5 is nothing. If you want a 5 you can probably just slack off since that's about an average grade anyway.

Hope i was of help.

Hi, if you still have your Spanish notes could you please send it? It would be very helpful.

Thank you.