Job application

As part of your National 5 Spanish course, you will be assessed on your writing. As with the other three skills (Reading, Listening and Talking), Writing accounts for 25% of your overall mark.

As course work, you will be asked to submit a Writing Assignment (worth 12.5% of your total mark) and sit a Job Application Writing as part of your Reading exam paper (the job application is also worth 12.5%, of course!).

Candidates produce one written text of 120–150 words in Spanish in response to a job advert stimulus supported by six bullet points which the candidate must address. Four of the bullet points are common and are predictable but there are two additional bullet points that are linked to the specific context. Candidates may use a bilingual dictionary.

The additional bullet points test whether you can think on your feet and manipulate the language to your advantage.

Don't try to make up sentences from English into Spanish word for word - you will write rubbish and fail! Think, "What do I know in Spanish that I can use here?" and use that.

Try to get your genders and adjective endings right! If you can't remember the gender of a word, check it in the dictionary.

If you want to score 12 or more you must use more complex language. Good linking phrases between sentences and complex sentences with subordinate clauses and the "verb - comma - verb" pattern are needed here. If you want 20, you need to show flair and originality. You will therefore need to know some idiomatic expressions and display complete control of verb tenses.

Give yourself a couple of minutes at the end to check you've covered all the bullet points and that your verbs are correct. If you have missed out a bullet point, just slot it in at the end - it will still be counted! You can put an asterisk (*) to show where the bullet point should have gone.

SQA Job Application Marking Instructions