Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

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Aprender
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Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Aprender » Thu Aug 18, 2016 2:20 pm

The B1 DELE exam dates are very late November, 14 weeks away. I started to learn Spanish a month ago, I've invested 20 hours+ so far I haven't really kept track. Learning Spanish is a fun project! I've completed quite a few Assimil lessons and I'm almost on CD number 6 of the Foundation Course of Michel Thomas and I will complete the advanced course as well. Without going in to detail, in order to fulfil a language requirement for university I would like to attend, I have to pass the B1 exam, quite urgently. November would be the latest test date I could book in order to fulfil the requirement before the deadline. I initially thought I would have a longer period of time and thought I'd be able to spend time in Spain but that is no longer the case. I have lots of free time each day available to learn Spanish and the cost of the resources are not too much of an issue, provided they are not astronomically expensive. My question is. Is it feasible for a first time foreign language learner? I have the time available and I'm fortunate enough to have the funds but don't know where to start. I'm incredibly motivated because I have a lot at stake. I'm sorry if this is in the wrong subsection!
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Cavesa » Thu Aug 18, 2016 3:37 pm

WOW! You trully are hard on yourself but I think you can do it, if you trully invest several hours per day into this project. You'll need good quality resources, enough but not too many. And don't waste time on unhelpful things (apps that are more toys than learning tools are the most common example, I'd say).

My active skills are somewhere around B1 now, my passive ones are high (somewhere in the C levels). So, I am sharing my tips based on this and other langauges, but I totally recommend reading posts and logs by successful learners like Stelle or Iguanamnon(but not for too long, you need to study :-D ).

What I could think of:

1.solid pronunciation. You can learn it well on your own, with good resources and lots of practice and repeating after audio, which I suppose is something you had already been doing. Assimil is good for that. Or the introductory units in the FSI tend to be the best for this, from my experience. Time spent on these drills is a really good investition. Careful about Michel Thomas. From all I have heard/read about it or directly from it, it is good for many things but not necessarily for the pronunciation. Avoid learning pronunciation from Duolingo courses and other computerized voices. Use forvo.com to check words you are unsure about, as you don't have time to naturaly and gradually learn from native input and such stuff.

2.A serious, no nonsense course. Assimil is awesome but you might like to supplement it with something more classical. For example Gramatica de uso del espanol is an awesome series. Lots of contents, it takes time to get through (but it is possible to progress fast), but we really learn a lot from it. To cover some gaps, I recommend Viva el Vocabulario A1-B1, for the everyday vocab you might need in the exam.

3.As you don't have that much time, I totally recommend using an SRS (digital flahscards, like Anki or Memrise) and cram, cram, cram vocabulary. Don't wait for repetitions for long, simply keep reviewing. You can learn impressive amounts of vocabulary in a short time and, contrary to popular belief, you won't forget it unless you stop practicing afterwards. Should your chosen SRS be Memrise, don't try the courses made by the Memrise stuff, you need to learn much more than to parrot a phrasebook. There are other good courses, or it is usually the best to make one's own(even though it can be time consuming, which is a problem in your situation)

4.Get the preparatory books. One or two (preferably two) for the B1 level, perhaps borrow the lower level ones in a library for at least a rush through the listening exercises, so that the "shock" from now to B1 isn't so big. Do all the exercises, notice recurring themes, get prepared for the format. There are several publishers but I think Instituto Cervantes cooperates with all of them and all should be up to the task. But one may not give you enough exercise, I totally recommend choosing two, especially should their formats differ. It happens that one book is better for one skill and another for a different one. I wish I could tell you my personal experience with the individual DELE preparation series, but I'm only in the vague planning phase of Spanish exam planning :-D

5.Practice writing and speaking. On your own, it is very valuable and convenient, especially if you make it a habit to read your stuff after a day or two (you'll see many mistakes clearly). Recording yourself speaking is great too. If you want to get a tutor, get one, there is usually not so much problem finding someone at this level (it is later on), but work hard on your own, don't let them slow you down, make them an asset, use them for speaking and for writing corrections, not for stuff you can do on your own. I am totally convinced a tutor is not normally necessary at B1 but you are a first time learner, which might be different. Just remember not to quit your other methods just because they don't know them/recommend them, don't believe things like "You cannot do it". Most tutors are totally not used to intensively hardworking students.

6.There are good exercises online, like here http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/actividades_ave/aveteca.htm have a look and use what you like. Supplement your learning as needed, but don't let all the online stuff get you off the track. There is so much good stuff online (and oceans of mediocre or bad stuff) for Spanish learners you couldn't try it all even in two lifetimes, don't fall into the trap! Don't spread yourself too thin, don't let the easy fun stuff take away your time and attention from more difficult tasks. Don't follow suspicious advice like "use this app to get the basics and than just speak speak speak". Not even the best apps and websites are better for serious learning than good old book+CD courses, even though some are awesome supplements.

7.Similarily to the point 6. : avoid resources not leading much towards your goal, don't waste time. Don't start Duolingo now, don't try all those beginner youtube courses (not even the Language Transfer, despite all the qualities), don't follow courses of uncertain level, the cefr labels are a better lead than "intermediate" "advanced" "complete" "fluent" (despite some shortcomings and the fact many publishers overestimate the efficiency of their courses). Those terms, like "intermediate", can serve people in various situations. But you should go for things with B1 label on the cover now.

I am curious about your experience and I wish you good luck and lots of energy. I hope my two cents helped and I'm sure other's will add much more
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby emk » Thu Aug 18, 2016 3:44 pm

Aprender wrote:The B1 DELE exam dates are very late November, 14 weeks away. I started to learn Spanish a month ago, I've invested 20 hours+ so far I haven't really kept track.

A few years ago, I spent three months of very intensive full-time study going from a wobbly A2 in French to a solid B2. It's possible to make big leaps quickly, but you have to put in a ton of work.

To give you a rough idea, Cambridge English suggests that it takes 350–400 "guided learning hours" to reach B1. Other sources suggest about them same. An experienced or unusually gifted language learner might do it in less, and we've seen that happen here on the forum. But it's best to be cautious. So plan on doing at least 30 hours of serious studying per week. You're trying to stuff at least four years of US high school Spanish into 14 weeks, so expect to work hard.

Furthermore, I'd strongly recommended talking to an experienced DELE tutor who knows the exam well and who can help guide your preparation. I did this for the DELF B2 for French, and it helped me focus on the necessary skills to pass the exam. You can definitely pick up half a CEFR level if you come properly prepared for the specific exam you're going to take, and if you've practiced all the kinds of tasks you'll be asked to do.

Are you willing to work this hard? Can you afford at least half a dozen sessions with a tutor who specialized in DELE exam prep? (They're going to be more expensive than regular conversational tutors.) If so, then here's one possible way to tackle the problem:

  1. Plan on banishing English from your life for the next 14 weeks to the greatest extent possible. Get some cardboard boxes and literally put away your English-language distractions if you need to. If you watch TV or play a video game between now and then, it had better be in Spanish. :-)
  2. Budget your daily study time into three chunks: High quality time, low quality time, and "snippets" of time while doing other stuff.
  3. High quality time. This is when you're fresh and you can think clearly. Use this time for working through one or two high-quality courses. Good choices are anything on the "Frequently Recommended Courses" list or Destinos. If you can spend two or three hours per day really concentrating on this stuff, you're doing great.
  4. Low quality time. At some point, your brain will be fried. At this point, you still want to remain in touch with Spanish somehow. You could listen to Spanish music while reading along with the lyrics, you could try to watch easy Spanish TV (either Destinos or via the magic of subs2srs-style Anki cards), or you could do anything else that results in exposing your eyes and ears to kinda-sorta comprehensible Spanish. You could even get comic books and look up random panels in the dictionary.
  5. Snippets of time. Throughout the day, most people have little snippets of "wasted" time: standing in lines, riding in cars, walking, etc. A very efficient way to make use of this time is to learn 20–40 new Anki cards per day, which will eventually mean reviewing at least 200 old cards per day as well. If you're a tech geek, probably the best way to use Anki is to spend a weekend beating subs2srs into submission and making a thousand-odd audio cards from a TV show, because it gets you audio practice for free and it cuts down on data entry time dramatically. Check the wiki for specific Spanish subs2srs recommendations and a zip-file of pre-aligned subtitles. If you can't get sub2srs to work (which will be the case for most non-geeks), your second best choice for Anki in my opinion is some mix of sentence and MCD cards made by copying-and-pasting from native sources. (Don't waste time typing in sentence cards.) If you don't know what this means, then your third best choice is a pre-made Spanish vocabulary deck downloaded from the Anki site. Remember the first rule of Anki happiness: If a card makes you groan every time you see it, just delete it, and move on.
  6. Writing and speaking. You'll need output practice once you get nearer to B1, and you'll need somebody to correct your mistakes. Try lang-8 or iTalki for writing corrections, and see my old post on lang-8. I'd recommend writing 50 words per day.
  7. Final exam prep with a tutor. Have a tutor do sample oral exams with you, and correct sample exam papers.
  8. Keep a log here on the forum, and post whenever you're struggling or feeling hopeless. Everybody loves fast-paced study logs, and we'll be happy to help you through the hard bits.

Aprender wrote:Is it feasible for a first time foreign language learner? I have the time available and I'm fortunate enough to have the funds but don't know where to start. I'm incredibly motivated because I have a lot at stake. I'm sorry if this is in the wrong subsection!

Going from nothing to B1 in 14 weeks is absolutely possible. But you will need to work very hard and not give up. We can even give you advice on how to stay disciplined, but ultimately your success depends on you.
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby James29 » Thu Aug 18, 2016 4:14 pm

The bad news is that it is going to be tough to advance that far in such a short time. The good news is that it is definitely possible.

The only way it will really be possible is if you spend several hours a day going through FSI basic.

Spend the entire time doing FSI. I recommend going through lessons 3-15 several times each and then review them one time each. Then go through lessons 16-30 several times each and then review them one time each. Then do lessons 31-45 several times each and review them one time each. Mastering lessons 3-45 is the most important thing you can do. If you have enough time to go through lessons 46-55 that would be helpful. You might burn out. If you find yourself burning out try to fight it and just go back and review some easier lessons.
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby blaurebell » Thu Aug 18, 2016 5:02 pm

A few years ago I had 3 months to reach A2 in Italian with a uni exam at the end. I spent hours and hours each day going through grammar and memorising vocabulary, verb tables and so on. I pretty much memorised the whole text book in that time with a flashcard program and grew to really hate it. I passed the exam and in the end could read fairly comfortably despite never having formally studied the literary verb tense, but I ruined the language for myself with all the flashcard and grammar torture. Nowadays I would go about it fairly differently, namely with a combination of Assimil, FSI, intensive reading, watching series, Duolingo and italki lessons. Also, have you heard of the Add1Challenge? I have never done one myself, but will join one later this year. Look it up, I think it might help and one seems to be starting in a few days. My advice would be not to spend to much time on flashcards. Although effective they can really burn you out and drain all your energies for the more important stuff. Vocabulary isn't everything and you can pick up tons of vocab just by reading. Focus on grammar and read read read! Whenever you feel drained, watch something fun in the language
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Xenops » Thu Aug 18, 2016 9:06 pm

Maybe I'm just a skeptic, but considering this is his/her second language, the current study time is just 20 hours, and not having a huge motive (because studying in Spain is cool?), I don't see this person succeeding this massive task.

But I would love to be proven wrong. ;)
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby smallwhite » Fri Aug 19, 2016 12:49 am

If you have the time, then grammar, vocabulary and output are no problem at all; they are very similar to English. But myself, I find Spanish listening extremely difficult and I don't think I could pass B1 listening in 14 weeks while learning everything else. I suggest you keep one set of B1 past or mock listening exam's recording aside, never look at its transcript or its answers, and just use it as a gauge every now and then, to see whether you're on track or whether there're specific areas you need to work on.

Web CEF > Showcase

^ In the "Showcase" section of this website, you can find videos of people taking their oral exams as well as their score sheet, so you can get an idea of what B1 oral would be like and what examiners expect. My impression is that you're not expected to be fluent, eloquent or even accurate.
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Cavesa » Fri Aug 19, 2016 8:47 am

Xenops wrote: and not having a huge motive (because studying in Spain is cool?),

OP wrote
I have the time available and I'm fortunate enough to have the funds but don't know where to start. I'm incredibly motivated because I have a lot at stake.


The fact he or she doesn't tell us the motives doesn't mean there are none, I trully believe the reason is very important, people do not usually go and think "hey, today I could sign up for an expensive exam instead of buying my regular coffee".

I think the chance is definitely solid, under the condition of constant efforts and time during those three months or so. That and some luck, as this learner needs to avoid illness, family trouble, and other such stuff.

Aprender: Please, let us know should you need further advice or encouragement on the path. Study hard and you'll rock!
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Cainntear » Fri Aug 19, 2016 2:02 pm

It can be done. Hard work, but it can be done. I wouldn't worry about pronunciation quite as much as some of the other posters say, because (to put it bluntly) most B1 language students have terrible pronunciation, and your immediate goal is to be as good as the average person who passes the B1.

Now if you were learning a language for the language's sake, I normally advise a fair amount of focus on pronunciation at the early stages, but in this case you have other priorities. I will say, though, that good pronunciation makes learning easier (and understanding audio), so I'm not advocating paying no attention.

As others have said, get the exam prep books. A heck of a lot of a language exam is about knowing the techniques to answer the different question types, and there's certain phrases that come up again and again. Finding those phrases early and memorising them will be beneficial, but the actual question answering technique is perhaps more of a focus for the month directly preceding the exam.
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Re: Need to go from A0-->B1 Spanish in a few weeks

Postby Stefan » Fri Aug 19, 2016 5:48 pm

It's definitely possible and just a few days ago I stumbled upon a project where a girl tried to go from zero to passing the German B1 exam in 14 days (8 hours scheduled first day). Unfortunately she fell ill and only got about 10 days of studying. Still, she got a decent result but failed writing/grammar. There's a playlist with videos of her but don't bother watching since it's unrelated and not worth your time.

My point is that passing an exam isn't about speaking a language fluently or having perfect pronunciation.

The most important thing is probably to get a tutor who knows what you need to know and do exam preparation. I recall learning sentences such as "upper right-hand corner" for my CAE test (B2-C2) in upper secondary school. Using slow-moving, generic beginner courses such as Pimsleur, Michel Thomas or Duolingo would probably slow you down. Focus on serious graded courses and don't waste your time watching a ton of movies because there are no movies in the exam. I'm not saying that movies are pointless, I'm just saying that it might not be time-efficient in your case. If you want recreation outside of your language studying, then go ahead.

With all this said, it comes down to discipline. A good tutor is not only a teacher but also someone with deadlines. Connor Grooms decided to learn Spanish in 30 days and then have a conversation with a native speaker. He was really excited in the beginning and even had a tutor but still managed to procrastinate. Life will intervene and even though you can conquer the world today, it will be difficult to keep it up for 14 weeks.
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