Writing in GCSE Spanish can be challenging for many students, and there are some very common mistakes that appear again and again in exams. As teachers, helping students become aware of these issues early can make a huge difference to their confidence and final marks.
One of the biggest problems is mixing tenses incorrectly. Students are often asked to write in the present tense, but they suddenly include future ideas without controlling the grammar properly. Another common issue is not giving opinions in their answers, or even worse, giving opinions without explaining why. Simple phrases like “me gusta” are repeated too often without development, which limits the quality of the writing.
Students also tend to make mistakes with verb forms and frequently translate directly from English, creating unnatural or incorrect Spanish structures. In addition, many students fail to answer all the bullet points in the task or do not develop their ideas enough to access higher marks. And of course, there is the classic battle teachers know very well: students forgetting accents, even after constant reminders!
To help tackle these problems, there are several simple but effective classroom activities you can try.
One low-prep activity is a matching task for the 90-word writing question. Students are given a short model text and must match each section to the corresponding bullet point. This helps them understand structure, organisation, and how to fully answer the task. It is quick to prepare and can easily be adapted using AI tools or short teacher-created texts.
Another useful activity focuses on mistake correction. Give students a paragraph written in the wrong tense; for example, a past tense paragraph with present tense mistakes hidden inside, and ask them to identify and correct the errors. This is a fantastic way to reinforce present, past, and future tense recognition.
Finally, a very simple but highly effective idea is creating “forbidden words” activities. Ban overused vocabulary such as “bueno” or “me gusta” and challenge students to use more sophisticated alternatives like “fantástico”, “impresionante”, or “divertido”. This encourages richer vocabulary and more varied writing.