The state teaching exams here in Spain are elaborated based on national laws which outline the process that all regions must follow. There are some variations in organisation and structure, but the basic outline for the traditional exams* is as follows:

The first exam consists of two parts – the practical and the topic.**

In Part A of the first exam, you must prove your level of English by completing a series of exercises which could include text analysis, general use of English, phonetics, translation, listening, writing, reading comprehension etc. Some regions also ask for a short teaching proposal, while others focus solely on an extended version of this activity. The length of this exam can vary but is often around three hours.

In Part B of the first exam, you must write an essay about a topic from the official topics list. There are 69 topics, of which four are drawn on the day (this used to be five, but the law has changed again), and you have to choose one to write about. Almost all regions allow two hours for this part, with one or two exceptions.

In some regions, you are asked to return on a different day to read the exam aloud in front of the tribunal. Once you’ve taken the first exam, you must pass to go onto the second round.

The second exam also consists of two parts, although both take place at the same time. This is what is known traditionally as the encerrona, but I prefer “teaching presentation”. You have to prepare a teaching syllabus based on requirements in the convocatoria (call), to submit when they ask you to (sometimes before the first exam, sometimes after), and a series of teaching units. On the day, you choose one of your units, from three, and have some time to revise the unit before presenting it to the tribunal. During the presentation, you’ll have to present your syllabus to the tribunal, immediately followed by the unit presentation. The time allowed for this depends on each region, and sometimes the members of the tribunal will ask you questions afterwards.

You must pass both these exams to progress to the final phase of the process, which is the baremo or concurso (competition phase). This is when you submit all of your qualifications, experience, certificates etc to gain merit points (calculated according to the convocatoria for your region), and then wait until they’re all counted to see if your average – along with the exam marks – is high enough to earn one of the coveted permanent teaching positions. Let’s hope so after all that!

*This information is based on traditional exams. Please see more information during the first weeks of the course about the estabilización access options for 2022-2024.

**In Catalonia the process has changed and they currently require the teaching presentation to take place before the written exams.