Ab Initio Spanish AB a killer ?

[ferbie1]

Hey guys, i'm in one of those unfortunate situations; i first started this course with the idea that it would be very easy and I wouldn't have to spend much time on it, because to me it wasn't that important. I thought that I could instead spend my time putting more effort in to other parts of my timetable. To my surprise i got put in a ab initio class that does more work than the highers (I think the teacher has problems - i'll leave it there). Long story short, I'm putting a lot of effort in to this class and my grades aren't improving. One of the reasons why this class makes my skin chill is because the way we are graded in class is so random.

Sometimes we are told we have a test, other times we just have the random in class quiz which really is a test - normally this is the way we get graded here (this always pissed me off because you can't really study for it). Other than that our teacher spends hours going through vocab etc.

The question is, I want to improve but don't know where to start. Any suggestions? (don't say online courses or tutors - already doing that )

[carpediem]

I'm doing Spanish too (although not ab initio), and the only thing my teachers have told me to do out of school is to read, read, read. That way, you slowly build up vocabulary and you slowly understand and get used to the language.

Here are some links I use:

• http://www.elpais.com/global/ (general newspaper)
  
• http://www.elmundo.es/ (another general newspaper)
  
• http://conjuguemos.com/ (practising tenses and irregular verbs)
  
• http://www.rtve.es/ (Spanish newspaper, TV, radio and music)
  

And here are some easier sites that my school recommends:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/news/2006.shtml (an interactive way of learning Spanish - also indicates level of Spanish, in relation to the British system/GCSE and A-Levels)
  
• http://www.los40.com/ (a Spanish website about music)
  
• http://lomastv.com/ ("Spanish Immersion TV" - not something to read, but it allows you to get used to the speed of fluent speakers and you can revise vocab. Requires you to pay a subscription, so I suggest you give this to your school so you have a school account and students can you use it - that's what my school does.)
  
• http://www.cje.org/C18/Inicio/default.aspx?lang=es-ES (about Spanish youth)
  
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/ (a harder BBC website - basically BBC translated)
  
• http://www.hola.com/ (a Spanish magazine - easier than El País y El Mundo, and is more about pop culture than news)
  

¡Buena suerte, and don't give up!

Hope I helped

[khalid]

Another omani .. dont try and stress yourself with the teacher expectations. At the end , he wont mark your exam. But you still have to work hard in the subject.