UNIVERSITY OF MALTA
THE MATRICULATION CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
SPANISH
MAY 2010
EXAMINERS’ REPORT
MATRICULATION AND SECONDARY EDUCATION CERTIFICATE
EXAMINATIONS BOARD
IM Examiners’ Report – May 2010
IM SPANISH
MAY 2010 SESSION
EXAMINERS’ REPORT
The following is a statistical table of the last six years for comparative purposes. It represents the number
of candidates, and the respective percentages, according to the grades obtained.
YEAR
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
No. and
A
0
0%
0
0%
0
0%
2
11%
3
34%
4
25%
% of candidates obtaining each grade
B
C
D
E
F
0
4
2
3
2
0%
31%
15%
23%
15%
0
5
2
4
2
0%
36%
14%
29%
14%
3
5
3
2
0
23%
39%
23%
15%
0%
5
4
5
1
1
28%
22%
28%
5.5%
5.5%
2
2
0
1
0
22%
22%
0%
11%
0%
2
5
1
3
1
13%
31%
6%
19%
6%
ABSENT
TOTAL
2
15%
1
7%
0
0%
0
0%
1
11%
0
0%
13
100%
14
100%
13
100%
18
100%
9
100%
16
100%
General Comments
The candidates applying for the examination has increased to an encouraging number of 16 this year. The
level of marks obtained was the highest as yet, with 69% obtaining a C grade or higher. All scripts were
seen by three markers and a marking scheme was used for all papers.
Focused remarks
Essay writing (Redacción)
This year’s introduction of more accessible and useful essay topics which were more related to the
candidates’ lives and experiences has given rise to a certain improvement in the quality of their writing,
which is also consistent with last year’s observations. The majority chose to write about an excursion or
travelling experience abroad, the second theme offered, whilst a few chose to formulate an e-mail
describing Malta and giving advice to his/her Spanish friend regarding his/her stay on the island, presented
as first choice. The last three topics proved to be the least popular: describing a dream, expressing
opinions about local environmental protection and presenting opinions about studying abroad, revealing
that candidates seem to be less at ease with argumentative essays. It was once again proven that
candidates prefer themes in which they can talk about their own personal experiences and in which they
can express their personal opinions about familiar situations. The majority displayed a good understanding
and handling of the theme chosen as well as good knowledge of the essay structure. As regards language
use, however, it has been noted that, in various occasions, candidates still lack a good grasp of
grammatical structures, verbal conjugation and usage, orthography and in more cases than was desirable,
a constant interference of other foreign languages, especially of Italian and in a lesser extent, of French.
Reading Comprehension (Comprensión)
The reading text presented to test the candidates’ comprehension skills was an adaptation of a recent
article from one of the most widely-known Spanish newspapers, ‘El País’, tackling a current, topical subject
in Spain and also of actual interest to several local students of Spanish. In general, the candidates showed
a good understanding of the text and tried to answer the series of following questions, of an open-ended
type, in their own words. Yet, in some cases, unfortunately, there were certain imprecise facts and errors
which could have been more due to a lack of concentration than to a lack of comprehension. This can be
evidenced, for example, in the sixth question, where some candidates forgot to answer parts of the
question or did not give a full answer as was asked of them in the heading.
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IM Examiners’ Report – May 2010
Literary texts and cultural themes (Textos literarios y temas culturales)
In this section the candidate must choose to attempt either the section dealing with Literature or the one
about Cultural topics. The preference of the vast majority was, once again, as in previous years, for
Literature and, again, the most popular studied literary text was the adaptation of El Quijote. One has to
investigate the reason for this text’s preference over El Lazarillo de Tormes and whether a better choice of
literary texts could be offered in prospective syllabi to augment a more desired, equal balance in the
candidates’ choice. The examiners on board unanimously agree that a substantial group of candidates
gave outstanding results as regards the depth of their analysis as well as the quality of their literary essay
both in content knowledge and in language use. In general, the candidates seem competent in the topic
chosen although there were still some particular cases where candidates tended to limit themselves to give
a description with some inclusion of superficial commentaries on the text, rather than the adequate literary
analysis expected of them in this exercise, and which could, in some instances, be interpreted as simple
memorization of extracts taken from previously prepared study material. Also, one candidate in particular
did not answer any of the questions in this exercise, which could have been due to either lack of attention,
bad time-management or simply lack of preparation from the candidate’s part.
Oral - Conversation (Conversación)
In this part of the examination, pronunciation, lexical and grammatical competence as well as fluency were
examined. The majority of the candidates presented a high level of competence in all the four skills
evaluated and it is highly satisfying to state that the lowest mark obtained in this exercise was 5/10. Six
themes were put forward for the candidate to choose from and to interact with the examiner-interviewer.
The most popular options chosen were once again themes that referred to personal and familiar situations
for the candidates: description of future plans and aspirations, narration of past anecdotes during infancy
and expression of personal opinions about Spanish language and culture. A minority chose to talk about
matters of opinion and argumentative themes. Overall, the candidates interacted well with the examiners
and showed good listening and comprehension skills. However, it is rather disappointing to point out that
there are still candidates who present themselves speaking in Italian instead of Spanish. The interference
between these two languages is evidently strong and persistent particularly in aspects of pronunciation and
vocabulary.
Conclusion
The results and observations drawn in this report are highly gratifying since a general improvement in the
knowledge of the language is noticeable in all sections of the exam paper, reflecting a higher standard of
preparation and study from the candidates’ part. We suggest, however, that more focus should be given to
the discursive competence especially when they are to present arguments, give opinions and evaluate
facts. The fact that the number of candidates sitting for the exam increased again this year is also positive
since it reflects an increase of interest in the subject.
Chairperson
Board of Examiners
May 2010
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