These are some quick, unedited comments on general problems with this exam and how to use your graded exam to prepare for the final.

Preguntas personales:

There were no generalized problems with #1 or #2. If you had problems with these, make sure you understand the markings and/or ask about it.

A typical answer for #3 was: "*Mis padres les gustan que yo estudio mucho." Can you find 3 puntos clave errors in that sentence? (Several people also had comprehension problems with this one; you wrote what you like / are bothered by regarding your parents, rather than vice-versa. In a gustar question, listen carefully for the "a personal" and the indirect object pronoun- in a question directed at you, it’s going to be either te, les, or le?to tell you who is being pleased, bothered, interested, etc.)

The most common problems with #4 (¿Cómo era diferente tu relaci—n con tus padres cuando estabas en la escuela primaria?) were either writing your answers in present tense ("I speak more with my parents when I am in elementary school--" not a very logical answer coming from a people your age!) or using the wrong past form. If you’re talking what your relationship used to be like during an unspecified time in the past, what form do you need?

There were no general problems with #5, but a few of you did miss the  clues to the meaning of the question. The question was, "¿Qué les recomiendas a los padres que quieren llevarse bien con sus hijos adultos?" All of the questions address the listener as tu. Some people answered, "Mis padres recomiendan..." or said something about "mis hermanos." The word recomiendas should have told you that you're the one making the recommendation, and "los" padres tells you that the question is about generic parents of some sort, not your own personal parents.  (If the question was about your parents, what would have to change?)

One note: The preguntas personales section on the final is very similar to this one, so if you lost a lot of points here, try very hard to figure out what the problem was and fix it soon. Keep in mind that each of these questions is aimed at making you demonstrate one or more of the puntos clave.

Descripciones:

Most people did fine on this section. One suggestion; many of wrote out translations of each of the possible responses. This is probably not necessary. It takes a lot of time that could be better spent reading directions and/or revising your preguntas personales.

Definiciones:

If you didn’t do well on this section, analyze the reason. Was it a problem with comprehension, or did you know what was being asked for and just didn’t remember the word?  There wasn't a lot of middle ground on this section; people tended to do either extremely well or quite badly.  If you didn't do well on this section because you just couldn't remember the words, be sure to work hard on this before the final.  If you haven't studied much, schedule specific time to catch up.  If you have studied but it just didn't seem to "stick," talk to classmates who do well on the vocabulary sections, and find out how they study.  Try to imitate success.

Rinc—n cultural:

For the most part, you either knew these or didn’t know them. If you didn’t, re-read all the rincones culturales before the final!

Subjuntivo con Conjunciones:

This ended up being another vocab exercise as much as anything.  Most of you had no problem recognizing when you needed subjunctive.  Of the people who did have difficulties on this section, most of you just didn't know the words for "so that," "as long as," etc.

By the way, a lot of you are really, really getting this concept.  Several people wrote "...cuando tu mamá te visite" in the compositions.  If you did that, give yourself several pats on the back.  Many of my Advanced Grammar students can't do that; it's really impressive to see it in the writing of third-semester students!

Comparaciones y gustos:

What you did especially well: I was especially impressed with the way most of you handled identifying the pictures as you wrote about them. You’ve never been explicitly taught how to say things like "the one from 1907," but almost all of you have figured it out on your own. Congratulations!

Where the problems were: This section and the next showed me that some of you don’t read the directions! A lot of you did not include the things you were directed to include.

Also, a fairly significant number of you are still having trouble with gustar.

A smaller number of you are still having troubles with comparisons, even fairly basic ones. Remember that there are two basic structures, one for "more xyz than others" and a different one for "the most xyz of the group." If you're using the word "todos," you're including the first term of the comparison within a group. If you use the word "otros," you're probably excluding or separating one from the others, and you'll need the "more than" pattern, not the "most of" pattern.  People who had trouble wih this section tended to be saying things like "The painting from 1900 is the most serious of the others," which really doesn't make sense-- it's a combination of the two types of comparison.
 
 

Consejos para Javier:

Again, this section proved the importance of reading the instructions. Some of you wrote about what you like, and/or told Javier what to do when he visits. Javier lives here! It’s his mom who’s visiting.

If you didn’t follow directions, you probably didn’t write in the past, which was one of the main puntos clave we were looking for. If you didn’t write in the past, you lost a significant number of points on the content score.

The most common error in this section was tú/Ud agreement problems, and the second most common was problems with verbs like "gustar," "interesar," etc.

Some of you will see the word "Horror" written on your paper.  That means that you committed an error from the "lista de horrores" on p. 69 of your grammar supplement.  You should study that page before the final; you are almost certain to have to say "...had a good time" and/or "X number of years ago" somewhere on the exam.

General comments:

If you have little G or R marks on your paper, you need to clarify what you’re doing wrong. If you’re still not using these verbs correctly, chances are you need extra help; studying by yourself hasn’t done the trick. Come to my office hours, go to the free  tutoring in FAC 28, hire a private tutor, etc. This course is deliberately set up so that it’s difficult to get a C or better if you haven’t mastered gustar verbs and recommendations/reactions. We don’t want you to go on to 312L without being able to do these two things, because they are the two things that most clearly demonstrate whether you have begun to think in Spanish instead of in English. If you haven't mastered them in the present tense, you're probably not going to be able to handle next semester's material, when you're going to have to learn to use past subjunctive, many more verbs like gustar, etc. We also try to make your life difficult if you haven’t mastered agreement.

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