DELE after GCSE or A level Spanish

No official body equates GCSE or A level Spanish with a DELE level. The DELE is built on the six levels of the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The Department for Education’s subject content and Ofqual’s rules for GCSE and A level Spanish do not refer to the CEFR, and neither do the AQA and Pearson Edexcel GCSE specifications or the AQA A level specification. The facts below are for the GCSE and A level taken in England, where Ofqual regulates qualifications.

Ofqual’s 2019 study

In November 2019 Ofqual published a research study that compared the June 2018 papers of three GCSEs, Pearson’s GCSE Spanish among them, with the CEFR. Its authors describe the study as exploratory and its results as indicative, and they say that an official linking would need, among other things, the Department for Education and the exam boards to take part. For Spanish, the study put grade 4 around high A1, grade 7 around mid A2 and grade 9 around low B1.

The study also warned that the papers gave little evidence of some skills, interaction in particular, so these levels may overstate what students at each grade can do, above all at B1. It covered the GCSE first examined in 2018. GCSE Spanish now follows subject content first taught in September 2024 and first examined in summer 2026. The study did not look at A level.

What GCSE Spanish assesses

• There are two tiers: foundation, graded 1 to 5, and higher, graded 4 to 9. Students sit every paper at the same tier.
• At AQA and Pearson, listening, speaking, reading and writing count 25 percent each.
• The vocabulary is a fixed list of 1,200 words at foundation tier and 1,700 at higher tier, at least 85 percent of them among the 2,000 most frequent words in Spanish. Up to 2 percent of the words in a reading text can be cognates from outside the list, and a higher-tier text can gloss up to 2 percent more.
• Reading and listening questions are in English.
• On a higher-tier reading paper the texts add up to 850 to 900 words, and no text is longer than 160 words. The listening extracts add up to 700 to 850 words, spoken no faster than a moderate pace with each word clearly distinguishable.
• The higher-tier speaking test lasts 10 to 12 minutes, after 15 minutes of preparation at AQA and Pearson. It has a role play, a text read aloud with a short conversation, and a discussion of photos or pictures.
• AQA’s higher-tier writing paper asks for texts of about 90 and 150 words and a translation into Spanish of at least 50 words.
• No dictionary is allowed in any paper.

What A level Spanish assesses

A level Spanish builds on GCSE. Students study themes on the society and culture of Spanish-speaking countries, two works (a book and a film, or two books) and an individual research project. Grades run from A* to E. At AQA the papers are:

• Paper 1, listening, reading and writing (2 hours 30 minutes, 50 percent): questions in Spanish, a recording each student controls, and translations of at least 100 words into English and into Spanish.
• Paper 2, writing (2 hours, 20 percent): an essay of about 300 words on each of the two works.
• Paper 3, speaking (21 to 23 minutes including 5 minutes of preparation, 30 percent): a discussion from a stimulus card, then a 2-minute presentation of the research project and a discussion of it.

Ofqual allows at most 10 percent of the marks for answers in English, translation into English included, and no dictionary.

How the DELE differs

• Each general DELE exam is for one level, and the result is Apto or No apto. There are no grades, and a fail gives no diploma at the level below.
• From A1 to C1 you need 30 of 50 points in each of two groups of tests, so a strong paper in one group cannot make up for a weak one in the other.
• Instructions, questions and recordings are all in Spanish, and each recording plays twice.
• The language the DELE can test is set out in the Plan Curricular del Instituto Cervantes, the Instituto’s description of Spanish at each CEFR level.
• From B1, the reading and listening tests include the main varieties of Spanish. Writing and speaking accept any variety at every level.
• A higher-tier GCSE reading text has at most 160 words. DELE A2 reading task 4 is a single text of 375 to 425 words, and DELE B1 reading task 2 one of 400 to 450 words.
• DELE B1 speaking lasts 15 minutes, and its 15 minutes of preparation cover only the first two of its four tasks.
• There is no translation and there are no set works. At C1 and C2 some tasks ask for mediation: summarising and assessing a lecture or text and passing on what it says.

Choosing a level after GCSE or A level

Register for the level you can pass now. You can sit any level without first passing a lower one, but a fail gives you no diploma, and a retake means paying again and sitting every test. Ofqual’s figures for GCSE are a starting point at most, since the study warns that they may overstate the level. Check yourself against the DELE:

1. Read what each level certifies and rate yourself on the Council of Europe’s self-assessment grid, Table 2 of the CEFR.
2. Take the level test, which estimates a level from grammar, vocabulary and reading questions.
3. Sit the reading and listening tests of an official model exam under their time limits, mark them with the key and enter your points in the score calculator. Each level’s model exam page also links official speaking samples rated at band 1 (No apto) and band 2 (Apto).

If you are 11 to 17, or 18 on the exam date, you can sit a DELE for schools. The A2/B1 school exam awards A2 or B1 depending on your results, and the B2/C1 exam awards B2 or C1, so one exam covers two levels. School diplomas have the same validity as general ones. The school exams run in May and November, and you register through an exam centre that offers them. DELE for schools gives their format and the points each level needs, and the school exam dates list the coming sittings. The general exams are designed for candidates aged 16 and over.

In the United Kingdom you register with an exam centre. DELE fees by country gives the United Kingdom prices, and How to register for the DELE covers registration dates, changes and refunds.