Some people take the DELE exam out of necessity: perhaps they want to obtain Spanish nationality, they’ve been asked to at work, or it’s a requirement for applying for a scholarship or becoming a civil servant.

But when I throw the question “¿por qué haces el DELE?” (“why are you taking the DELE?”) at my students, a large percentage of them reply: “para mejorar mi español” (“to improve my Spanish”).

And does preparing for the DELE help with that goal? In other words, if you prepare for this proficiency exam, will you end up feeling better about your Spanish?

Well, yes. It’s a fact.

The DELE exam works all the skills:
  • reading comprehension,
  • listening comprehension,
  • written expression and interaction
  • and oral expression and interaction.

You surely already know which of these “se te da mejor” and which “se te da peor” (“dar bien algo” or “dar mal algo” are used to talk about an ability and are equivalent to “poder hacer bien algo” and “poder hacer mal algo” — being able to do something well or badly — respectively).

Well then, practicing to earn the “apto” (pass) in the DELE forces you to practice all the skills equally and to keep working on the one you’re worst at until it’s on a par with the rest 📈.

On top of that, the DELE makes you study in a more consistent way.

Are you one of those students who needs a bit of pressure to sit down and study seriously?

Signing up for the DELE, having an exact date on which to show how much you’ve learned and improved, will make you study with more focus and more regularly, because when exam day comes, you’ll want to do your very best. You can’t let yourself down!

For all this and more, I challenge you to sign up for a DELE exam and to improve, once and for all, your Spanish!