POV. You just started preparing for your Spanish  exam for the Leaving Cert and your teacher says there is this task called “Prescribed Literature” 

You feel sick and anxious thinking of all these different things you need to study and you want to cry but, before you get the tissues ready, read this post.

What is this “Prescribed Literature” you are talking about?

 Now, as boring and compulsory as that sounds I promise you two things:

1. It is not that bad.
2. It can actually help you score major points on the exam.

“Prescribed Literature” is the formal way to call the pre-assigned book that is in the Syllabus for Spanish for Irish schools. (“Syllabus” by the way, is a lovely and fancy word for “all the stuff teachers are told by the government to cover in class”) It is a book, written in Spanish, it is the same for all students across Ireland and it changes every 5 years or so. This year it is “Relato de un náufrago” by Gabriel García Marquez.

What is the exam task?

On the exam, it can be found in Section A (Reading Comprehension) Task 1. a)

If done correctly you will get 50 glorious marks. Yes! It is worth the same marks as the Opinion Piece, you know, the one that makes you want to cry.

If you choose to attempt this task you get a 30 lines excerpt from the book and 5 questions regarding vocabulary, comprehension, and general book knowledge.

5 Reasons why you should read it.

1. This gives you time to prepare.

The texts for the Journalistic Text option of the exam are a surprise so you may find yourself with topics that you are ill-prepared for, making it a nasty surprise (and that’s when you haven’t completely skipped a topic, we’ve all been there) On the other hand, the text from the Prescribed Literature is always an excerpt from the book so, by working on this you would have had time to look for vocabulary, check the tenses and make sure you fully understand the expressions.

2. Think of the examiner.

Most people pick the other option so imagine the poor people correcting exam after exam full of the same exercise, there are not so many variables (Your Spanish may be enough to make for riveting conversation but, I assure you, it is rarely the case) so when they get the odd book exercise it feels like a blow of fresh air. Which is to say they might be happier to give you better marks if they can.

3. Reading makes things finally click.

Languages are a communication tool, no matter how many classroom-book exercises you go through, there is nothing like having to actually decipher the mess to understand it. Reading will tell your mind “That topic you saw in class, and all those horrible tenses, and, and, remember that lovely bit of dialogue that we never truly understood? That all makes sense now.”

4. It will help you prepare for the Reading section.

Reading the book will help you improve your…you guessed it: your reading. By getting used to Spanish put in action you will gain speed and comprehension and this will in turn help you in other tasks of the exam, most notably, the Reading Section. So when you are looking at the book in disgust think that it is helping you cover a huge part of the exam.

5. The questions are always the same:

1. Look for word replacements
2. Explain 3 phrases
3. Give 3-4 details, enumerations of nouns, adjectives, and such things.
4. Similar to the previous exercise but with verbs.
5. Discuss an aspect of the book (Now, this one is important, you must have read the book. Do not attempt to answer any of the questions if you haven’t because it will be apparent and you will not only make yourself look like a fool but you will lose precious time)

In conclusion: Read the Book, you will thank me later.

So there you have it! Read the book, not only you will most likely get better marks than by choosing the opposite but by studying the book you will improve the rest of the areas and, who knows, you might even enjoy it 😉