Should my 9th grader take the AP language test for a foreign language (heritage language) that she already speaks?
At her school, there are no classes offered in this language and she currently has no interest in taking college-level courses nearby in this language. She did attend a school in this language (geared towards native speakers) on Saturdays for many years so she reads and writes at (almost) a native level. With preparation, I think she’d do well on the AP exam.
Side note - she has started taking a different foreign language in high school which she plans to continue for 4 years.
Any advice on whether this would help strengthen her college application would be greatly appreciated. My motivation for having her take the AP exam would be to show that she is fluent in a particular language but I don’t think that getting a 5 would necessarily indicate native fluency. TIA.
I don’t think it does anything for you. There’s a spot on the Common App to identify other languages that you are fluent in. It’s great that she challenging herself by taking another language.
AP 5 in heritage language (in addition to 4th+ year of another language in school) won’t hurt and may help, but probably only minimally at most, for college admission. It may be helpful in college for credit, subject credit (including college foreign language graduation requirements), or advanced placement into higher level language courses in that language, although colleges often have their own placement procedures in addition to AP scores for that.
AP 5 may be achievable after 4th or 5th year in high school or semester in college starting as a beginner, which is not native fluency and literacy. How close to or how far from native fluency or literacy depends on the language, since the same amount of study in a language that is easier for English users will get closer than that amount of study in a language that is more difficult for English users.
Which means it won’t show up in her transcript, and won’t factor into GPA.
At best, a 4 or 5 might help her AFTER she is admitted to college, if they let her apply it as credit towards electives.
If she intends to study the language in college, she might be able to start in higher-level classes, but for a native speaker I wonder if there are other ways to document proficiency.
We were in the same situation with D22. Her high school was very unhelpful and the AP would not have been on the transcript. She chose not to take the AP exam
What she did instead, was take the national exam in the language. I don’t know if this is offered for your language, in ours it was through the language teachers association. D22 received the gold medal in the highest category as well as the seal of biliteracy for the four years of HS language classes in a different language. Since the languages dove tailed with some of her other ECs, I think it helped in college applications.