8.1 Writing Tarea 1: Personal Data Form Completion & Questionnaires

8.1 Writing Tarea 1: Personal Data Form Completion & Questionnaires

Prueba 3 (Expresión e interacción escritas) of the DELE A1 examination evaluates your capacity to produce functional written Spanish in immediate, everyday contexts. The test lasts 25 minutes in total and consists of two distinct tasks. Tarea 1 is a guided administrative exercise designed to verify foundational graphic and lexical competence: you are required to fill out an authentic official or semi-official document by supplying accurate personal information in designated slots.

Completing a form might appear straightforward, but two raters score it holistically from 0 to 3, and small conventions matter. Successful candidates understand Spanish form conventions, avoid grammatical errors in gender and number, and format dates, addresses, and occupations according to established Hispanic standards.

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Structure & Real-World Contexts of Tarea 1

In Tarea 1, you are presented with a short situation explaining why you are filling out a form. The official specifications describe a form with short-answer fields asking for basic personal information or information about immediate needs, in the public domain, and an expected output of 15 to 25 words. In the Modelo 0 the form is a registration page on La web del español, a website for finding people to practise Spanish with: eight data fields (name, surnames, age, sex, email, address, landline and mobile) plus four short questions with word guides. The exam guide's samples use a hotel registration form. Other plausible contexts include:

• Hotel Registration Cards (Ficha de registro de hotel / Hoja de control de viajeros): Required upon checking into accommodation across Spain and Latin America.
• Language School Enrollment Forms (Formulario de matrícula / Solicitud de inscripción): Registering for Spanish courses, cultural excursions, or workshops.
• Sports Club & Gym Applications (Alta de socio en un club deportivo / gimnasio): Enrolling in fitness facilities, community pools, or athletic leagues.
• Public Library Membership (Solicitud de carné de biblioteca municipal): Applying for borrowing privileges and digital library services.
• Customer Satisfaction & Tourist Questionnaires (Cuestionario de satisfacción turística): Sharing basic impressions and personal details at an airport, museum, or tourist information kiosk.

Tarea 1 does not ask for a continuous paragraph, but it is not only single words either. Data fields take short entries, while question fields need short, complete sentences. The official band-3 descriptor rewards answers that are more elaborate than strictly necessary and add some details.

Question Fields with Word Guides (Modelo 0 Style)

Each answer respects its word guide, answers exactly what is asked, and uses A1 structures (ser + adjectives, present tense, a list joined with y).

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Standard Spanish Form Fields & Linguistic Conventions

To navigate Tarea 1 without hesitation, you must memorize the official Spanish nomenclature for standard personal data fields and their grammatical rules.

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Deep Dive: Core Grammatical & Orthographic Rules

1. The Bare Noun Rule for Professions

In English, we say "I am a student" or write "A teacher". In Spanish, professions are expressed without indefinite articles when stating status or completing forms. Writing un estudiante or una arquitecta in an administrative form is considered a stylistic and grammatical mistake. Write strictly: Estudiante, Arquitecta, Camarero, Médico, or Jubilado/a (retired).

2. Gender Agreement in Nationalities

If the candidate or fictional persona is female, the nationality adjective must take its feminine form:

• Male: italiano, francés, alemán, español, inglés, mexicano.
• Female: italiana, francesa, alemana, española, inglesa, mexicana.
• Invariable forms (same for masculine and feminine): estadounidense, canadiense, marroquí, costarricense.

3. Hispanic Address Formatting

Spanish addresses follow a highly structured hierarchical sequence:

1. Tipo de vía (Roadway type): Often abbreviated as C/ (Calle - street), Avda. (Avenida - avenue), Pº (Paseo - boulevard), or Pl. (Plaza - square).
2. Nombre de la vía (Street name): e.g., Mayor, Alcalá, San Jerónimo.
3. Número (Building number): Indicated by nº or simply the digit (e.g., 14).
4. Piso y puerta (Floor and apartment door): Expressed with ordinal numbers and superscript abbreviations: 1º (primero), 2º (segundo), 3º (tercero), followed by the letter of the door: 1º A, 4º D, or Bajo Izquierda (Bajo Izq.).
5. Complete model: C/ Mayor, 12, 3º Izq., 28013 Madrid.

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Form-Filling Best Practices & Pitfalls to Avoid

TAREA 1: CANDIDATE RULES
1. Write clearly; use capital letters if your handwriting is hard to read.
2. Fill every field: blanks pull the score toward band 1.
3. Data boxes: short entries. Question boxes: short sentences within the word guide.
4. Keep the DD/MM/AAAA date order.
5. Check gender agreement across nationality, marital status and job.

• No Blank Fields: The band-2 descriptor, which describes the A1 standard, still allows some fields left blank or misunderstood, but leaving most of them blank or misunderstood matches band 1. If a form asks for Teléfono and you do not want to give your real number, write a realistic invented one (e.g., 600 123 456).
• Keep Data Fields Short: In a data slot labelled Motivo del viaje, write Turismo or Aprender español. Do not write Yo viajo a España porque me gusta mucho la paella y el clima caliente. Long sentences in small data fields waste time and add risk; save full sentences for the question fields.
• Distinguish Birthplace from Current Residence: Candidates frequently confuse Lugar de nacimiento (where you were born) with Lugar de residencia or Domicilio habitual (where you currently live). Read the field header attentively.

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Full Annotated Model: Ficha de Registro de Hotel

Below is a model hotel registration card (Ficha de registro) of the kind used in the exam guide's samples, completed by a well-prepared candidate.

╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║               HOTEL PALACIO REAL — HOJA DE REGISTRO                    ║
╠════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ 1. Apellidos: MORRISON                                                 ║
║    [Analysis: Valid family name in block capitals; no given name mixup]║
║                                                                        ║
║ 2. Nombre: EMMA                                                        ║
║    [Analysis: Clean given name corresponding to female persona]        ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 3. Fecha de nacimiento: 23/09/1998                                     ║
║    [Analysis: Flawless DD/MM/AAAA format; 23 September 1998]           ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 4. Lugar de nacimiento: Toronto, Canadá                                ║
║    [Analysis: City and sovereign country accurately paired]            ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 5. Nacionalidad: Canadiense                                            ║
║    [Analysis: Invariable nationality adjective; matches female persona]║
║                                                                        ║
║ 6. Estado civil: Soltera                                               ║
║    [Analysis: Correct feminine agreement for unmarried status]        ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 7. Profesión: Diseñadora gráfica                                       ║
║    [Analysis: Bare noun; feminine form; no indefinite article]         ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 8. Domicilio habitual: C/ Serrano, 45, 2º A                            ║
║    [Analysis: Street type, street name, number, floor, and door]       ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 9. Código Postal y Ciudad: 28001 Madrid                                ║
║    [Analysis: Realistic 5-digit Spanish postal code and valid city]    ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 10. Correo electrónico: emma.morrison@webmail.ca                       ║
║     [Analysis: Syntactically valid email format]                       ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 11. Motivo de la estancia: Turismo y cultura                           ║
║     [Analysis: Concise noun phrase expressing purpose of stay]         ║
║                                                                        ║
║ 12. Idiomas que habla: Inglés, francés y español                       ║
║     [Analysis: Lowercase language list linked with connector 'y']      ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

This card meets the band-2 standard comfortably: every field is filled, gender agreement is correct and the entries are clear. Band 3 asks for more, namely answers more elaborate than strictly necessary with some added details, which is easiest to show in question fields such as those in the Modelo 0.

What the Official Samples Show

The exam guide includes two completed hotel forms. The band-1 form left out important items for a hotel registration (the passport number, the address and the number of guests), so it gave only some of the required information. The band-2 form completed the fields adequately despite small inaccuracies, such as Nacionalidad: de Estados Unidos instead of estadounidense. The lesson: completeness and relevance matter more than perfect accuracy, but agreement and form conventions make your answers clearer.