I received a text message on my mobile phone from the Instituto Cervantes reminding me that I have my Spanish citizenship exam next week, in Alicante. The Prueba CCSE is the citizenship test, with questions about the constitution, social life, geography and culture of Spain*. There is also a language exam which I shall sit in the autumn.
The Instituto Cervantes also sent a link to their new mobile phone app which has practice tests for the CCSE exam, so I have been doing two or three every day. They are supposed to take 45 minutes but I have been doing them in about ten minutes, getting results in the 80% – 100% range. So that’s OK because the pass mark is 60%.
But all this did make me wonder about something topical. Since so much of this citizenship exam depends on knowledge of how the Spanish political system works, I wondered how they test citizenship applications in the UK. Do they set questions about how the political system doesn’t work?
No – don’t worry – I am not going there! Not mentioning the situation at all. But things are moving, don’t worry. The sabotage is continuing and resistance is stronger than ever. In the background things are happening that you never hear about in the official news. More big demonstrations are planned and I’ll give details when the time is right.
Back to the donkeys…
Morris and Rubí catching up with the gossip while Matilde looks on. All were groomed yesterday and as you can see, Rubí is looking overweight again. I still don’t know what to do about that, but the vet will be here next month, so I’ll ask again. Meanwhile, Rubí has taken to wearing Matilde’s tail on her head, which is a bit weird but so far doesn’t appear to be causing trouble.
Due to the weather, the winter coats are coming off very slowly this year. After grooming yesterday Matilde’s dapples are showing through again nicely. I was comparing a photo of her from March 2011 earlier, and I’d almost forgotten that she originally had the classic donkey cross on her shoulders. You can still make it out, though it is less well-defined now and merges into the dapples.
I was intending to post pictures for comparison but WordPress has now introduced a new «BLOCK EDITOR» which is infuriating and will not accept the photos. It took me an hour to write this post instead of the 30 minutes I had set aside, as all the photos need to be reloaded several times! Why do they always keep changing the stuff? It worked perfectly well before.
*If you are interested in the content of the CCSE exam, you can see the handbook online: https://examenes.cervantes.es/sites/default/files/ccse_manual_2019.pdf
Equus Asinus 
Someone at work had to take the UK citizenship exam. She brought questions into work. People born here got them wrong.
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Hi Sheel, I am not surprised. At the bar in the village some of the locals were having a go at answering the multiple choice slections and frequently got them wrong. There are some pretty slippery questions in the constitution section, but also in the culture section they bowl some googlies. E.g. Who is the annual Goya Prize awarded to: A) Painter B) Film director or C) Dramatist ? B is correct, but the understandable and logical mistake – if you know Goya is a Spanish painter – is A. Nine days to go and I’m aiming as high as I can: 100% if I can do it. So it’s just the fine tuning now on practice exams.
When you say «someone at work», are you still full-time?
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Still full-time, but in an easier setting – a special needs Post 16 unit in a secondary school.
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