New GCSE Spanish - AQA - First exam 2026.

The new GCSE Spanish exam will be assessed for the first time in 2026, and it comes with a number of changes compared to the versions used between 2018 and 2025. In this post, we’ll summarise the key information for each part of the exam and highlight what’s new in the updated GCSE Spanish.

Imagen 1: Students taking an exam in a classroom.

For this entry, I’ve focused on the AQA (9-1) specification (8692). All examples, time references, marks and other details included here are taken directly from published documents by the official exam board.

1. Part 1 of the exam – Listening.

This part of the exam is now split into two parts:

• Section A: Traditional listening activities.

• Section B: A new dictation task.

  
  

Yes, dictation is one of the key additions to the updated listening exam. In this task, students will hear a recorded audio, with each sentence repeated three times. There will be pauses between repetitions to allow students time to write down the words being dictated. Here are a few examples of the kinds of sentences that might appear in this new part of the exam:

2. Part 2 of the exam – Speaking.

This part of the exam is divided into three sections: Role-Play, Reading Aloud Task, and Discussion of Photo card. The Reading Aloud task is a new feature compared to previous exams.

2.1. Role-Play.

Similar to the previous exam specification, students will take part in a short interaction, answering a series of questions in Spanish based on a given situation. The only new feature in this version of the exam is that the student’s preparation sheet is now in English.

Questions related to the Reading Aloud task for the Foundation Tier:

Excample of a Role-Play question for Foundation Tier.

2.2. Reading aloud task.

In this new task within the speaking exam, students will have to read a short piece of text aloud. After reading it, they’ll need to answer four questions asked by the examiner, which are in some way related to the text they’ve just read.

Here are some examples of texts and questions:

Example of "Reading aloud task" for Foundation Tier

Questions related to the Reading Aloud task for the Foundation Tier:

• Describe tu colegio. - (Describe your shool)

• ¿Cuál es tu asignatura favorita? - (What´s your favourite subject?)

• Háblame de tu uniforme. - (Tel me about your school uniform.)

• ¿Cuál es tu trabajo perfecto? - (What´s your favourite job?)

Example of "Reading aloud task" for Higher Tier

Questions related to the Reading Aloud task for the Higher Tier:

• Describe físicamente a tu persona famosa favorita. - (Describe your favourite celebrity physically.)

• ¿Cuáles son las ventajas de ser famoso? - (What are the advantages of being a celebrity?)

• Háblame de una película que te gusta. - (Tell me about a film you like.)

• ¿Cuál es tu opinión sobre los programas de telerrealidad? - (What´s your opinion on reality TV shows?)

2.3. Discussion of Photo card.

The photo task and the follow-up conversation also have a few small differences compared to previous exams. In this section, students will need to talk about both photos in the task. They must say at least one comment to describe each photo. Afterwards, they can focus in more detail on one of the photos. It's not necessary to comment equally on both. Only the accuracy of their description is assessed.

Students won’t know in advance which topics will come up in the conversation. Teachers are not allowed to reveal this information before the exam. The conversation subtopics can include any – or all – of the three subthemes that fall under the main theme specified on the student's exam paper. Below is an example showing the main GCSE Spanish (9–1) exam themes and their related subthemes, according to the specification specification GCSE Spanish (9-1) (8692).

The estimated time for the conversation is between 4 and 5 minutes for the Foundation Tier, and between 4.5 and 5.5 minutes for the Higher Tier.

3. Parts 3 and 4 of the exam – Reading and Writing.

There aren’t any major changes in these final two parts of the exam compared to the previous specification.

Best of luck with your exam preparation! At Spanish Exeter, we always recommend focused practice in reading and listening to Spanish in meaningful, real-life contexts.