Madrid PAU Technical Drawing II

It is a written, open-response paper: you solve drawing problems on paper with instruments, producing constructions, projections or standardised views. There is no multiple-choice section. The official body publishes the current number of options and compulsory items each year, so confirm the exact structure on its site before your sitting.

The geometry itself is largely standard; difficulty comes from precision under time pressure and from combining topics. Candidates who lose marks usually do so through inaccurate instrument work, missing construction lines or unfinished auxiliary steps rather than through not knowing the method. Steady timed practice on full constructions closes most of that gap.

Retake rules, the number of sittings per year and how marks are combined with your school grade are set by the regional authority and change over time. Check the official Madrid university access site for the current policy. Plan a retake as a full re-preparation, not a quick revision, because the paper rewards fluency.

The official body publishes the current duration. In practice, divide the time by the number of exercises and keep a reserve for checking. Start with the construction you can execute most reliably, sketch auxiliary work lightly, and only then draw final lines. Leaving a construction half-finished usually scores worse than a complete, simpler solution.

Start with fundamental constructions, proportionality and scales, since everything else depends on them. Then polygons and tangency, followed by conics and transformations. Dihedral projection needs the most sustained practice, so begin it early and keep returning to it; add axonometric and conical perspective and normalisation later, as they build on the same spatial reasoning.

Weak construction lines, imprecise compass work, unlabelled points, and answers that skip the reasoning steps. In dihedral problems, confusing the projection of a point with its true position is frequent. In tangency, missing the correct number of solutions. In perspective, mixing scales. Train yourself to leave visible, light construction geometry and to name every point you use.

Bring a sharp pencil or technical pen, a compass with a fine lead, set squares, a ruler, a scale ruler and an eraser. A clean eraser and spare leads matter more than expensive tools. Practise with the exact instruments you will take, so your line weights, radii and construction habits are already tuned to that equipment on exam day.

Work against the clock on complete constructions, then compare your result with the geometric definition rather than with a memorised picture. Redo any construction you cannot complete in the target time. Keep a log of errors by topic, because repeated mistakes cluster around a few specific steps that are quick to fix once identified.

No. This is an independent study resource written for candidates searching this exam; it is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any official examining body. For definitive details on dates, structure, scoring and regulations, consult the official Madrid university access authority's website.