Reading
Reading passages range from a two-line sign or advertisement to a letter, a news item, or a literary excerpt. Items ask for the main idea, a stated detail, a supported inference, the meaning of a word in context, the author's purpose, or the tone. Passages and questions are both in Spanish, so vocabulary work happens at two levels: the text and the stem.
Let the genre tell you where to look
- Signs and ads: imperatives, abbreviations, prices - «Se prohíbe», «Rebajas», «Solo hoy». The answer is usually a paraphrase of the sign's purpose.
- Letters and emails: read greeting and closing first. «Estimado señor» with «Atentamente» marks a formal letter; «Hola, ¿qué tal?» with «Un abrazo» marks a friend. The closing often carries the request («Espero tu respuesta»).
- News items: the lead sentence answers who, what, when, where; later paragraphs add reaction and background. Main-idea items usually paraphrase the lead.
- Literary excerpts: ask who narrates and in what tense. Description in the imperfect sets mood; a preterite verb turns the plot.
Handle vocabulary in context
Do not translate the word in isolation - read the clause around it. «La planta del edificio» is a floor, not a plant; «el banco» is a bench in a park and a bank in a finance text; «el taller» is a workshop. Idioms are frequent: «echar de menos» (to miss), «dar con» (to find), «ponerse de acuerdo» (to agree), «hacer caso» (to pay attention), «a lo mejor» (maybe).
Watch for false friends
A short list covers most exam traps: actual (current), realizar (to carry out), largo (long), éxito (success), asistir (to attend), discutir (to argue), sensible (sensitive), eventual (possible), embarazada (pregnant), fábrica (factory), pariente (relative).
Worked example
«El ayuntamiento decidió ampliar la planta del edificio municipal para instalar nuevas oficinas.» Question: ¿Qué significa «planta» en este contexto? Options: (A) un vegetal (B) un piso (C) una fábrica. Reasoning: «ampliar» and «edificio municipal» place us in architecture, and «instalar nuevas oficinas» requires floor space, so (B). (A) is the dictionary's first meaning but clashes with «edificio»; (C) confuses a building with a manufacturing site.
Traps
- Options that recycle a word from the passage but attach it to the wrong person or time.
- Answering from general knowledge instead of the text.
- Confusing «según el autor» (the writer's claim) with «según el narrador» (a character's voice).
- Choosing an inference that is plausible but unsupported.
- Ignoring «NO» or «EXCEPTO» in the stem.