I. Preguntas personales
There were very few general problems on these.
If you didn't do well on this section, analyze whether the problem was
with your listening comprehension, or with grammar in the answer.
Also, keep in mind that preguntas personales sections are about
listening comprehension and grammatical correctness, not about creativity.
Don't write a lot of extra information; answer the question and make sure
you meet the minimum word requirement, but save the really involved explanations
for your essay sections.
II. Comprensión
Most people did well on this section.
The main problems were with where Sara is from ("Nací en un pueblo
pequeño cerca de Portugal, pero mi familia se mudó a Salamanca
cuando yo era pequeña." I accepted either "un pueblo cerca
de Portugal" or "Salamanca," but not "Portugal.") and with some of the
details in the summary. Problems in the summary usually stemmed from not
recognizing the past tense when you heard it. A lot of you said Sara lives
with her sister in Salamanca, but in fact she said she lived there
"antes de venir a los Estados Unidos." A few of you also got very
inventive and talked about her aunt or her mom, who weren't mentioned in
the passage.
III. Hacer preguntas
Again, most of you did just fine on this
section. A few people didn't read the directions, but when that happened
it was fairly obvious, and I took off 2 pts. for that rather than marking
each answer wrong.
IV. El Futuro
This was extremely straight-forward; either
you knew the forms or you didn't. The impressive part was that most
people knew ALL of these; only a handful of people missed the two irregulars.
For a few of you who wondered, I did accept three different answers for
#5. The best answer is "tendré," because "levantar" refers
to the physical act of lifting, so when it's reflect it means to lift oneself/rise/get
up. However, since your textbooks translate it as "get up," it was
very logical for students at your level to think "you won't have
to get me up." For that reason, I accepted "tendrás"
and "tendrán." Be aware, though, that the word "levantar"
wouldn't be used that way, unless you were talking about a baby who has
to be lifted out of bed. If you're talking about "getting someone
up" meaning to wake them, you'd use the word "despertar."
V. Presente perfecto
The three most common problems on this section
were:
1) Failing to read the instructions and using
verb forms other than present perfect (always, always make sure you understand
the directions!)
2) Not knowing the irregular past participles
3) Having trouble finding the subject of
each verb. Even in fill-in-the-blank exercises, we test your reading
comprehension a little.
One special note: I expected the first two blanks here to be extremely easy because they're identical to the first two on p. 38 of the Grammar Supplement, which I had specifically mentioned as ideal practice for this section. I didnt realize until after the test that the answers to this one aren't in the back. For that reason, I gave one point back to anyone who wrote "he escrito" for #1. That's the reason for the "+1" that's written at the top of the page on many of your papers.
However, it's still a fair question, "do-able"
according to the rules you know. Can you explain to yourself why
the right verb is "haya escrito"?
VI. Composición
You did much better on this section than
students in past semesters have done, even though in the past I gave them
a much more detailed preparation sheet. I was very impressed with
the quality of the compositions!
There were two common problems in this section. Both of them really have to do with thinking about your reader as you write and making it as easy as possible for them to understand. Part of this is keeping in mind what this person knows and doesn't know.
First, and almost universal, was verb agreement and consistency when addressing Sra. Carrillo. It was up to you whether you would call her Ud or tú (although Ud would be the most appropriate if you hadn't met), but you needed to pick one and stick to it. If you switch verb forms midway through, your reader/listener will either find it impossible to figure out who you're talking about, or they'll think you're offended and angry at them.
Second, a small number of you didn't take into account cultural specifics. Some of you threw in the letters GPA with no explanation. Only someone who know English pretty well would be able to guess what those letters stand for, and then only if they know quite a bit about US school systems. Similarly, the numbers 3.98 don't mean anything to someone who doesn'tknow the US grading scale (remember that most places in the world grade on a 10-pt scale, or simply on a basis of Approved, disapproved, approved with distinction). Some of you compounded this with grammatical problems in statements like, "Tiene un 3.98 GPA." That doesn't show any relationship between the number and the abbreviation. (If you're one of the culprits, think about what you have to change/add to make that sentence make sense.)
Another problem, though only for a fw people, was multiple mistakes in comparisons. That basically tells me you didn't study enough; comparisons are a formula, and you just have to practice until you remember the three different formulas for "A is more/less whatever than B," "A is as whatever as B," and "A is the most/least whatever of the group."
E. Reacciones/Recomendaciones
There were no specific problems that I can
put a finger on in this section, but some of you just seemed to have forgotten
what punto clave R is all about.
There were also a whole lot of verb agreement problems in this section.
Again, you could call Moonbeam either tú or Ud., but you had to
be consistent.
(Tú would probably be the best choice here, even if you hadn't met her, because she is presumably not much older than you, and you're either her peer or somewhat her superior in professional terms. Students call each other tú pretty much everywhere [except for a few countries/regions that have the form "vos," which is even more informal than "tú"], and most teachers/professors under the age of about 50 address their students as tú, so you would probably call Moonbeam tú for one of those two reasons.)