How to succeed in your studies in Spain?

We suggest that you start by testing your Spanish level.

The test we propose you to take has not been created by FEEDUC. It is the test offered online by Instituto Cervantes. Instituto Cervantes is the Spanish public body in charge of teaching and certifying Spanish throughout the world.

It is a reliable reference, the one you need in terms of evaluating your Spanish level.

On the other hand, the level that you are told in your final year of high school in relation to the marks you obtained in your Bac is, in fact, almost never verified when you are submitted to official admission tests.

The result of this Instituto Cervantes online test is not the one that will be taken into account for your admissions to universities in Spain.

However, it has the advantage of allowing you to know exactly what your level of Spanish is and this is the^first element to know since it is, among other things and mainly, in relation to his level of Spanish that a student will be able to determine which universities are accessible to him and, if they are not yet accessible, which universities will be accessible to him after the necessary efforts to progress in the Spanish language.

In Spanish, there are different levels according to the European framework of languages: Levels A1-A2 (the lowest), levels B1-B2 (intermediate), and levels C1-C2 (the highest and bilingual).

When you take the Instituto Cervantes online test, you should be aware that the result displayed at the end of the test is not your actual level, but the level of the Spanish course you should enroll in if you decide to study Spanish at the Instituto Cervantes.

To be clear: if you see on the last screen at the end of the test, for example, a B1 indication, it does not mean that you have the B1 level, it means that you have the lower level, i.e. the A2 level, but that if you were to take courses at the Instituto Cervantes, you would enroll in B1 level courses. At the end of these B1 courses, if you have assimilated everything, you will be able to obtain the official certification of level B1.

To be even clearer, it's like when you buy a Spanish book or method, you buy the method for the level you want to achieve (e.g. B2) which means that you actually have the lower level (B1).

To be eligible for most universities, whether public or private, you will need to have a B1 or B2 level of Spanish.

You may find that, at the moment, you have a B1 level in progress (like most high school students studying Spanish in France) or worse, an A2 level in progress, so you need to improve your Spanish.

In order to optimize the success of your studies in Spain, and especially during the^first semester, it is better that you have reached the B2 level before starting your courses. At the B1 level you have the basis to understand and express yourself, but when you study in Spain, you have to understand the courses, you have to interact with a teacher...

The B1 level is often a bit too low to pass exams, understand the subtleties of a multiple choice test, or give a presentation in Spanish.

If you're having trouble imagining what it might actually be like, try to imagine that you're in a math, SVT, econ, or HGGSP class all in Spanish...it's not the Spanish for learning Spanish class you have in high school anymore, is it?

Below B1 level, you take a real risk of failing in your studies because you will have to do a lot of personal work outside of class, you will have difficulty interacting with your teachers, asking them for explanations when you don't understand, integrating with Spanish students...

Failure is what sometimes happens just because a student doesn't speak Spanish well enough. On our website you'll find testimonials that some students who have benefited FEEDUC's support for their studies in Spain, have taken the time to tell us about the impact their level of Spanish has had on their studies and their success.

We leave it to you to read those students who congratulate themselves on the results they have achieved in their studies thanks to the level of Spanish they had attained before starting their studies in Spain. However, we would like to draw your attention to Marie's testimony.

Marie tells us: "Hello, I arrived in Valencia, and the studies do not suit me, I would like to be able to withdraw from the university. The level is much too high for my level of Spanish and I don't feel comfortable. Marie unfortunately illustrates perfectly the fact that Spanish, which is the factor of success of your studies in Spain is also, for those who arrive with an insufficient level, a factor of failure of their studies in Spain.

Marie, after a failed PACES has :

• Left his family,
• Left his country,
• Took an apartment,
• Paid university fees, etc...

And, becauseshe did not arrive in Spain with a sufficient level of Spanish, she gave up after a few months (on a new failure) her dream of becoming a physiotherapist.

Don't be like Marie: work hard on your Spanish before you start studying in Spain.

Present an official certification is not always a requirement for application. However, universities will always want to know your level of Spanish before they admit you.

In addition, passing and obtaining a certification will be rewarding for the student who has made the effort to take Spanish classes. It will also reassure them of their ability to interact in the language in everyday life, in class and, for students in the health care field, with their future Spanish patients during mandatory internships.

The evaluation of the Spanish level of a future student in Spain can be done:

• The university will evaluate the students by giving them a written test and sometimes an oral interview. This is the case for most private universities. The result of the test will determine the student's eligibility to attend the testing university. Spanish tests at universities can be taken in person or by distance learning.
• Sometimes, private universities will either evaluate the candidates themselves or take into account an official certification. There are 2 of these: the DELE and the SIELE. Both of these official certifications are issued by the Instituto Cervantes (which we mentioned earlier in this blog post).
  • The DELE is the certification that has always existed. It is valid for life, so if you have a sufficient level of the DELE, you can use it, even if you got it a year, two years or more ago... for any university that takes it into account to evaluate its candidates. If you don't have the DELE, this solution can be complicated to be in time to provide it for the admissions process since it is a certification for which there are: very few test centers, very few test sessions (on some levels you only have 2 or 3 sessions per year), and most importantly it takes three months to receive the result. If you take the exam after October, it will be very difficult to get the certification in time to apply for admission to Spain in September of the following year.
• The other official certification is called the SIELE. It is only valid for 5 years but has several advantages: There are more exam dates, results are communicated within about 3 weeks and there are more exam centers than for the DELE. The SIELE test centers each offer their own session dates. If there is no exam session offered in the center you are interested in, do not hesitate to contact the exam center by phone or email because sometimes they do not open a session until they have at least four or five interested candidates. Contact the test centers you are interested in directly to let them know that you are interested in taking the SIELE certification at their center. They will be able to take your contact information and once they have a large enough number of candidates, they will be able to open an exam session and notify you so that you can register for it.

These DELE or SIELE certifications are, for example, the ones that will be valid for admissions to public universities in Spain.

To summarize the information on the evaluation of the level of Spanish for higher education in Spain:

• In most private universities, the results of the university tests are taken into account.
• In some private universities, the results of university tests or an official DELE or SIELE certification are taken into account.
• In public universities the DELE or SIELE are the recommended official certifications and public universities do not organize entrance tests in Spanish themselves.

1. Spanish courses or gap year?

For students who do not speak Spanish or whose level of Spanish is lower than that required by the university they wish to attend, or who speak Spanish well but want to feel more comfortable about living and studying in Spain, there are two ways to work on your Spanish.

First modality: Take Spanish classes

• The first and most effective option is the face-to-face Spanish courses courses in Spain. Indeed, if you have the availability to go to Spain, this is the fastest way to progress since you combine intensive courses, immersion in the country and you will even have the possibility to decide to live with a host family during your stay to progress even more and even faster.

Some schools also offer science vocabulary courses for students who wish to enter health-related studies.

• Second option, if you don't have the possibility to go to Spain, you can take a Spanish course in France. There are very good schools in Toulouse, Paris, Bordeaux, Rennes, Lyon, etc...
• The third option, and here the Covid epidemic has helped a lot in the development of these offers and their quality, are the distance learning Spanish courses. You don't have to be in the same city as the school and you don't necessarily have to have a fixed availability. This option is often much more flexible than face-to-face options.

We always advise you to contact several language schools to evaluate their proposals and to compare them in terms of budgets, modalities, availability to find the one that will best suit your expectations.

To ensure that you make real progress in Spanish, pay attention to the content of the proposals.

A tip to help you choose? If you feel that your contact is in a hurry to get you to sign a contract (exceptional promotion, temporary not to be missed because the price is canon!) be careful... it could be that the school puts more resources into its commercial services than into its teaching services, which will certainly not help you make significant and real progress in your level of Spanish.

Second modality: Gap Year = Year of preparation 

For students:

• Who do not speak Spanish or
• Who have a low level of Spanish or
• Who want to give themselves time or
• Who need preparation to acquire specific vocabulary in Spanish or also
• Who want to prepare for tests to be admitted to a specific university course or to a specific university, public for example...

It is possible to do a semester, or even better, a gap year in Spain, or even better, a year of preparation in Spain or sometimes just a summer internship.

Here are some options that FEEDUC has identified in Spain to prepare you to study there or to give you time to decide or refine your higher education project:

• Take intensive Spanish courses, in immersion with the possibility of sports activities, volunteer work in associations (charitable, environmental protection) and the possibility of participating in cultural activities, trips, specific course modules. It is often possible to choose to stay with a host family in order to progress even more quickly and it is even possible that the host family is a Spanish teacher, making it even more effective.
• Sometimes you can join a semester program, more often a yearly program, in a university that will then accept you in the^first year of the corresponding program with a certain number of validated subjects. Be careful, this will often be under the condition that you validate all your subjects during this pre-university year.
• Integrate a particular program to increase your chances of getting into a specific program. This is the case, for example, for veterinary studies in Spain.
• Integrate a curriculum to know which branch of certain studies are the ones that will appeal to you the most. This exists for example at the IED and will allow you to know which field of design (spaces, objects, fashion, photography, etc...) is the one that attracts you or the one that corresponds best to you.
• Prepare for the PCE exams that will increase your chances of getting into a public university in Spain while working or after having worked on your Spanish.
• Do a summer internship at U-tad to confirm that you like digital animation or at ESADE to get your^first foot in the door of one of the best business schools in the world.