Leaving Certificate Spanish Higher Level Review 2026 – Dr Eoin Barrett
The 2026 Leaving Certificate Spanish Higher Level paper should not have thrown up too many surprises for students, and was largely consistent with recent years in terms of the level of difficulty encountered, though as usual, the Listening Test was challenging, contained some tricky elements, and required some quite specific details in places for full marks.
In Section A, for Prescribed Literature Ana Alcolea’s El medallón perdido was examined for the first time. In the chosen passage, the protagonist, Benjamin, describes exploring his late father’s bedroom in the family’s house in Gabon and the memories and feelings it evokes.
This year’s ‘Journalistic Text’, entitled ‘Super Mario: El rey de los cruceros’, tells the story of Mario Salcedo, a Cuban-American who has spent more than 25 years living on cruise ships, and who describes himself as the happiest man in the world.
Question 1 (a-e) should have got most students off to a nice start, as the questions were clear, and key words in the questions provided guidance to candidates in terms of identifying the passages that contained the relevant answers, and there weren’t too many difficult terms to work out.
Question 2 should have been accessible for students who got plenty of practice with this type of question:
(a) da alegría a la gente (1) – hace a las personas felices
(b) alrededor de (4) – en torno a
(c) el personal (5) – la tripulación
In Question 3, as always, it was important that students provided the English equivalent to the phrases indicated by referring back to the article for context. The passages chosen were very reasonable, though the word ‘realeza’, meaning ‘royalty’ might have been tricky to work out:
(a) … en una empresa financiera situada en (para 2)
…in a finance/financial company located/situated in
(b) … mientras sigue con su trabajo y dirige su negocio… (para 3)
… while he continues/carries on with his work and manages/directs his business…
(c) …me tratan como a la realeza… (para 6)
… they treat me like royalty…
Question 4 offered two short options to paraphrase in Spanish:
‘conlleva beneficios’
trae/supone/implica/aporta/proporciona/tiene ventajas/aspectos positivos/
‘no puede caminar’
es incapaz de andar/ le es imposible andar/ no tiene la capacidad de andar
Both options were clear and easy to understand, but students may have had to pause to think of equivalent Spanish phrases that conveyed a similar meaning.
The Section A short comprehension questions were generally accessible. The first was based on a survey by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research, which found that 70% of Spanish people preferred their omelette with onion rather than without.
The second short comprehension focused on the launch of a new Barbie in honour of Isabel Allende, author of The House of the Spirits and the most widely read female author in the Spanish-speaking world.
The Section B long comprehension task featured an article on merits and the difficulties of learning a second language, in particular for native English speakers. It also highlighted the case of the former professional footballer Michael Robinson, who became a much-loved broadcaster and journalist in Spain, having only started learning Spanish at the age of thirty.
Questions 1 and 3 (synonyms), which require students to find words or phrases in the text equivalent to those provided in the question, were tricky in places. As always, students had to ensure that they only included the exact equivalent word or phrase to gain the marks.
1.
(a) cantidad – cifra (para 1)
(b) habilidad imprescindible – destreza necesaria (para 2)
(c) frecuentemente – a menudo (para 3)
(d) renunciar el objetivo – abandonar la ambición (para 4)
(e) fuera de lo común – poco convencional (para 5)
3.
(a) por otro lado – en cambio (para 1)
(b) ocasión – oportunidad (para 2)
(c) conseguir – lograr (para 4)
(d) errores – fallos (para 5)
(e) cariño – simpatía (para 6)
The phrases to be translated in Q.2 were manageable. They required some specific vocabulary, but these words should have been possible to work out from the context.
(a) Aunque yo trababa de evitarlo,…
Although/Even though I tried to avoid it
(b) …no le importaba quedar en ridículo.
…he didn’t mind looking/sounding ridiculous
(c) Luego, mediante su empleo de periodista,…
Later/After, through his job/work as a journalist…
Students should also have done well in Q. 4, provided they included as much detail as they recognised as being relevant to the question.
The Opinion Piece titles were as follows:
(a) Es importante aprender cosas nuevas.
It is important to learn new things.
(b) Hablar otro idioma es divertido.
Speaking another language is fun.
(c) Nunca es tarde para hacer algo diferente.
It’s never too late to do something different.
These titles were clear and easy to understand, and offered students plenty of choice and scope for expression. They were in line with titles examined over the past ten years or so, and students should definitely have been able to adapt material prepared for the Oral Exam, and to incorporate personal examples to illustrate their points.
These essay titles once again highlighted the benefit of students developing their writing skills so that they can brainstorm and develop arguments in exam conditions, rather than attempting to have a few essays memorised in the hope of fitting one of them to the title.
Section C
In Section C, the Dialogue Construction involved a scenario in which you are attending an interview with an NGO with a view to doing volunteer work in Argentina.
Most of the vocabulary required here should have been familiar to students from previous years’ exam tasks. Candidates needed to pay very careful attention to the various Indicative verb tenses required for full marks (Present, Preterite, Conditional and Future), as well as many of the grammar topics explored in Essential Spanish Grammar Vols I & II. Unusually, the Present Perfect tense was not required this year.
There was a Subjunctive required in the final turn:
“Say that you will ring your friend Pablo in Buenos Aires to tell him the good news when you return home” (“when” used with a future meaning)
Llamaré a mi amigo Pablo en Buenos Aires para contarle/decirle la buena noticia cuando vuelva a casa
The Letter/Email option related to an article in a Spanish newspaper on the health of young people. The prompts included the role of social media in promoting health, the importance of students making time for exercise, the influence of sports stars and the benefits of the Mediterranean diet.
The Diary Entry invited the candidate to imagine that they were in Ibiza with some classmates on a post-Leaving Cert holiday. As with previous years, this task was very open-ended in terms of what it asked you to express, and should not have posed difficulties for students who had plenty of practice with previous years’ tasks, and who had revised the sample answers provided. There was also ample scope to recycle material prepared for the Oral Exam.
The Note option asked students to imagine that they were staying with a Spanish friend Ana in Valencia, and planning to prepare a meal that evening. While this year’s note was reasonably accessible, I still feel that the Diary Entry provided students with more scope and freedom to adapt material prepared in advance.
The Listening test was typically varied in terms of the topics examined, and the vocabulary that it featured. It was on a par with previous years’ papers in terms of difficulty, but should still have been manageable for students who had a broad range of vocabulary, and who got plenty of practice with past and mock papers in the run-up to the exam.
The paper featured the announcement of a new school subject on dealing with emergencies, an interview with Argentinian dancer Marianela Nuñez, and an interview with Luis García, organizer of the Formula 1 Gran Prix in Madrid
The first descriptive passage marked the 25th anniversary of the newspaper and website ‘20 minutos’, while the second provided details of the mass cultural event celebrated simultaneously across all 15 of Spain’s UNESCO World Heritage cities every year.
While the vocabulary involved in the Weather question was not especially difficult, a number of students commented that the voice of the announcer was a bit muffled and hard to understand.
The final news passage concerned the practice of putting the clocks back in Spain in October, the effects that this can have on various groups of people, and the steps that can be taken to mitigate the effects of this change.
All in all, Yeats students should have been really pleased with the 2026 Spanish Higher Level exam, and should rest easy now and enjoy the summer. ¡Viva el verano!
