Galicia PAU Spanish Language and Literature II

Selectividad was the old name; the current Galician access and admission assessment (ABAU) is its successor. Whether you must sit Lengua Castellana y Literatura II depends on the degree you want and the admission weightings, so check the CIUG documentation and your target university's admission rules rather than assuming.

Expect a text-based block (comprehension, structure, text type, cohesion, grammar and lexis), literary questions on the programme from the Generation of '98 onward, and a short written production. The exact blocks, options and instructions are fixed annually by the official body, so read the current model and criteria on the Xunta/CIUG sites.

Duration, question numbers, choice between options and the mark allocation are set by the official regulations for each call. Do not rely on what older students tell you: download the current instructions and a recent official model from the Xunta de Galicia or CIUG website and practise to that format.

Retake and improvement rules are defined in the official access regulations and can change between calls. Consult the CIUG site for the current calendar and conditions. Practically, candidates who repeat usually gain most by fixing textual-commentary method and literary chronology rather than by reading more authors superficially.

The content is not exotic, but the format is demanding: you must read an unseen text quickly, answer precisely and write clean Spanish in limited time. Most lost marks come from vague commentary without quotations, misidentified text type, and grammar or spelling slips, not from obscure literary facts.

Start with the commentary method (thesis, structure, typology, cohesion, grammar) because it is the largest and most trainable block. Then build a chronological spine from the Generation of '98 to contemporary literature, attaching to each period two or three works, themes and stylistic traits. Finish with timed full papers.

Paraphrasing the text instead of analysing it, ignoring the exact wording of the question, failing to justify answers with textual evidence, confusing literary periods, and losing easy marks on accentuation, agreement and register. Handwriting and layout also matter: examiners must be able to follow your argument.

Do them under time pressure, then mark them against the official criteria, not against your feelings. Keep an error log: which question type costs you most, which grammar points recur, which authors you cannot summarise in five lines. Revisit the log weekly; that is more efficient than rereading notes passively.

You need enough textual grounding to illustrate style and theme, but the priority is accurate periodisation, clear identification of authors and works, and reasoned comment. Short, correctly attributed examples help; long memorised passages recited without analysis do not earn marks.

The Xunta de Galicia education pages and the CIUG (Comisión Interuniversitaria de Galicia) website publish the current examination structure, instructions, calendars and model papers. Always work from the documents for your own call, since details are updated each academic year.