Spanish is an interesting language to learn, particularly if you want to travel in the future. However, mastering the Spanish tongue requires plenty of practice. Getting a grip on all the verb tenses and the insane number of irregular verbs is a chore in itself. Luckily, you have lots of tools at your disposal:

  • BBC Bitesize
  • Spanish Revision - a site tailored to the GCSE exams
  • Spanish Resources offers a menu of worksheets and exercises to practise your Spanish
  • Oye! offers an interactive experience where you choose what topics to work on
  • Quizlet GCSE Spanish Revision provides you with a complete range of revision tools

The standard go-to's are great but finding resources that can help you to improve your listening and pronunciation skills is especially important. In this article, we go over all of the 'usual suspects' before investigating some great sites that can help you to boost your language skills.

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GCSE Spanish Standard Revision Tools

When you started your GCSE courses, your teachers likely handed you a long list of revision resources. You probably dropped in on The Student Room to search for any conversations about websites to advance your Spanish language skills. Your mates and older siblings (if you have any) might have tipped you off to a few pages and utilities, too. So did your parents, probably.

Thus, these next few entries should come as no surprise. In fact, you may have accessed some of them when preparing for other exams. If that's the case, you know how helpful they are. For students who don't know, let's take a moment to explain.

BBC Bitesize

Our trusty and reliable BBC has a really fine section for students studying GCSE Spanish. The site includes a tutorial on study skills for the different exam sections. It also presents reviews of what you need to know for the speaking, listening, reading and writing sections of the course. As well as notes on each topic, you will also find some engaging activities and even quizzes to help you to gauge how much you have learned.

The BBC has a separate site for language learners. It's loaded with extra games and resources to break up your study routine. Their video content is particularly helpful. There, you'll also find some tips on pronunciation, a few online tutorials, and an activity designed to test your Spanish capabilities. The BBC even provides resources to improve your listening skills. They've truly elevated their resource design to an art form.

Two arms, one wearing a black plastic bracelet, pointing to a laptop monitor while a third person's hand works the trackpad.
BBC has been helping students hone their exam skills for decades. Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Past Papers

Do you know yet whether you'll sit AQA or Edexcel exams? It's an important question; you need to know which board your school has contracted with so you can access the right documents. Admittedly, the two aren't wildly different from one another. Still, you should download and revise the past papers for the exam you'll sit.

Most students use past papers as mock exams. They set their phone clock app to the papers' indicated completion time to see how well they meet that standard. This exercise also introduces them to their exam's structure. How many papers? How many questions for each? What type of questions - multiple-choice, essay questions, translations?

When you go through the marking schemes, be sure to note the qualities that make for an acceptable answer versus an outstanding one. Often, you'll find that information on the right side of the page. It's listed as "Award 2 points for this response but only 1 point for that one." or words along those lines.

Students tend to overlook the examiners' reports. You'll find those treasures on the same web pages as you do the past papers. This is where your gold stash lies! You need to know what past students did wrong on their exams so you can learn from their mistakes. That's the point of examiners' reports.

AQA and Edexcel are usually generous about providing these reports. I was surprised to find them even for the Physical Education GCSE! On the downside, we have to note that AQA isn't quite as generous as Edexcel with its past papers. A few years ago, they changed their guidelines to make only a couple of years' worth available. Use them wisely!

Memrise and Duolingo

Apps such as these have some good Spanish learning tools that can help you to improve your vocabulary a little at a time. They are designed so that you can learn incrementally, so that you'll come back regularly to boost your memory. Both Memrise and Duolingo base their lessons on the spaced repetition learning theory. It says that if you repeat the same words at regular intervals, you will soon master them.

Both apps have plenty of courses to choose from. You may feel that some of the information they present is a little bit too basic for GCSE Spanish. You might try resetting your level to get more challenging words. Still, they can both be great additions to your revision schedule. 

S-Cool

What about this familiar site? S-Cool is loaded with all sorts of GCSE and A-Level preparation materials. Unfortunately, they do not yet support Spanish language learning. We'll keep tabs on them, though, and report back as soon as they make that resource available.

Resources Tailored to GCSE Spanish

Beyond those traditional resources, many other companies have jumped on the GCSE resource bandwagon. Their pages are designed for maximum learning efficiency; they're loaded with learning and revision tools. Often, they're vastly different from what you'd find on the go-to sites mentioned above. A bit of diversity can keep your studies fresh so let's see what they have to offer.

Spanish Revision

This page has a good selection of resources, including reading, writing and listening activities as well as practice exam questions. It is particularly helpful if you want to practise what you have learned in class, as it is all about active learning.

Don Quijote

Odd spelling aside, this page runs quality Spanish courses. They also have loads of useful resources for GCSE students, including a tool to help you with verb conjugation - the bane of every Spanish student. You'll like their 'word of the day' feature to boost your vocabulary. You'll find some word games, too, and jokes and sayings that can enhance your understanding of the language. You can also sign up for a free membership to access weekly lessons, videos and exercises to enhance your learning.

A desk with a stack of books to the left of the computer's keyboard.
Some websites offer more general Spanish instruction. Photo by Kirke Incorporated on Unsplash

Languages Online

This site is more of a general language learning portal. It is not targeted specifically at Spanish, nor is it aimed at GCSE candidates. Still, this page has a useful Spanish section filled with activities to help expand your vocabulary. Some of the material goes beyond what you need to know, but that's not a problem as you're likely keen to learn as much as possible, right? Still, there are some good GCSE-level resources that can help you to remember the vocabulary you have been learning in class.

Spanish Resources

This is a good website if you want to practise your listening skills. It has a selection of different listening tests covering the topics that are covered at the GCSE level. If you explore the rest of the site, you'll also find some useful material in the resource sections intended for students taking other types of courses.

Quizlet

This learning site has been around for over 10 years but it's still one of the internet's best-kept secrets. Fortunately, somebody discovered it and built an entire study set for GCSE Spanish. You only need to create your free account to access extensive flashcard decks full of Spanish vocab and verb conjugation. Once you're done with the study utility, you may take a test or amuse yourself with the platform's match game.

When you download the Quizlet app, you can take all those flashcard decks with you wherever you go. It's probably best to not access this resource when you're skating or riding a bike but nothing says you can't go through a few cards while on the bus. Incidentally, you can find a Quizlet for just about any GCSE subject, including Religious Studies.

Lingolex

This page has a selection of different language resources, not all of which are designed for GCSE-level students. Their most valuable tool is their pronunciation guide. The vocabulary and grammar pages can also be useful. You can read their trove of texts that are presented alongside the English versions. This dual-language format can be useful if you want to work on your reading comprehension.

Games and Other Utilities For GCSE Spanish

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. James Howell

Revising for exams is a serious business but you can't keep your nose in a book for months on end. Not only is that the least successful study strategy ever, but it will actually lessen your enthusiasm. Isn't it good, then, that there are ways to can keep up with your revision schedule even when not sitting at your desk, head buried in a book?

Studies show that language learners speed up their learning when they immerse themselves in their target language's environment. These next few resources give you the chance to do just that.

Oye!

This page has lots of games and activities that give you a chance to practice your language skills in a less serious way. Many of the topics covered at GCSE level are covered on the site. Rather than reading vocabulary lists, flipping through flashcards or reciting grammar rules, you can challenge your knowledge against the clock or complete a few word games.

Broadcasts and Podcasts

Listening to news reports or watching TV programmes in Spanish can be a great way to improve your listening skills. You will get a better feel for the language as native speakers use it. Even if you don’t understand every word, your listening and speaking skills will improve. RTVE provides plenty of good quality content online, so you can spend some time immersing yourself in the language.

Reading Materials

The newspaper El Pais also has an interesting site if you want some more material to read. If it proves too advanced or maybe not quite your cup of tea, try 20minutos, Metro and El Diario Popular. They should all be fairly easy for you to read and understand.

For more advanced fare - reading materials more in line with your abilities, check out El Pais. It's Spain's largest daily paper; it covers local Madrid news as well as international affairs. And if you wanted a more cerebral read, go for Geomundo. It's the Spanish-speaking world's version of National Geographic.

A rack of magazines showing various titles.
Build your Spanish reading skills by reading magazines in Spanish. Photo by Charisse Kenion on Unsplash

GCSE Spanish Speaking Practice

For many English-speaking Spanish students, trilling is particularly difficult. Many of our regional dialects, and even our standard Received Pronunciation omit the R sound altogether. That makes the Spanish rolling R - the trill, especially hard to master.

Many Spanish learners intent on sounding as Spanish as possible don't hesitate to find a speech therapist. There's no shame in it; even in countries whose language features trilling, speech therapy is a common part of language learning. That's because trilling does not happen naturally; it is a learned skill.

It only takes a few sessions for a logopedic specialist to train your tongue to trill. You'll be delighted to discover how easy it is to master trilling! Soon, you'll be rolling your Rs every time you speak Spanish. But who will you converse with?

Italki

This amazing app connects language learners around the world. You only need to open your free account and set a few parameters like what your Spanish level is and such. Once that's done, you can start chatting with Spanish-speaking people in whichever region interests you.

Italki offers three services: teacher-led instruction, community-based tutoring and language exchange. The first two options require payment. Language exchange is free. It calls for you to choose a few prospective learning partners from among the listed profiles. If they accept your invitation, congratulations! You have a language-learning partner.

Your part of the deal involves helping your partners learn how to speak English. No need to worry about syntax and grammar lessons unless your conversation partner asks. Italki exchange revolves around speaking skills. You can chat via Italki to build up your fluency in Spanish and learn about Spanish culture, all while helping others understand British culture and master English.

Superprof Spanish Tutors

Let's say you were looking for Spanish lessons in the London area. You'd direct yourself to the Superprof site and select Spanish from the 'What do you want to learn?' menu. And then, you would type in your location - that pull-down menu presents several London districts. After that, it's simply a matter of choosing the right Spanish Superprof for your needs.

What if you live outside of London? The same process, tailored to your location, will highlight every Superprof tutor in your area. There's no guarantee of a Superprof in your immediate vicinity if you live in a remote area, though. If that's your situation, the Superprof search tool will show you results for Spanish teachers who give lessons online.

As long as you're considering Spanish lessons online, why not take lessons with someone in Spain? It's amazing how interconnected we are, thanks to this marvellous internet technology. You can find a Superprof tutor anywhere in the world, for any subject you've a mind to learn more about. And that includes GCSE French!

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Jon

As an Englishman in Paris, I enjoy growing my knowledge of other languages and cultures. I'm interested in History, Economics, and Sociology and believe in the importance of continuous learning.