<p>Has anyone taken the AP french exam? Whats the format like?</p>
<p>I will be taking it next year. My teacher told me its just a letter, an essay, a few listening questions, and a speaking part.</p>
<p>Yeah, I took it. First, there was a 40-minute, 30-MC-question section broken into chunks, where we had to read passages of various French news articles and books and then answer 6 or 7 questions. This was one of the easier sections for me, but there are many words in the passages that you won’t know, so you have to use context clues.</p>
<p>Then we had a section with reading passages and listening to audio clips on the same subject, and answering questions on each specifically and questions comparing them. Then there was a section with just audio clips, where we had to answer questions. The listening part was 35 MC questions and 55 minutes altogether. </p>
<p>The proctors gave us time to read the directions, time to read the questions, then played the passages, then gave us more time to answer the questions. Each passage was played twice, but after the final time they gave us to answer the questions, they moved on to the next section. It wasn’t <em>too</em> bad, but some of the people in the Listening Section clips spoke with Canadian or African accents, or spoke very fast, so they were harder to understand.</p>
<p>Then we had a 10-minute break. Then we had a Writing Section. The first part was an email, which you have 15 min to read and write a response to. This was super-easy, except for the fact that you have to be very fast to answer all parts of the question and ask a follow-up question. My proctors didn’t give us any time warnings, so a lot of people did not finish. I quickly scribbled down the final words of my sentence; hopefully, I won’t be penalized for that :o. Make sure you answer formally if the email is from a boss or professor, and informally if it’s from a friend.</p>
<p>Then there was a persuasive essay section (I hated it). We were given a topic (It will be something vague and kind of general like “Should people have to carry around ID cards?” or “Should cloning be allowed?”) and three sources. One was an article, one was a table/chart, one was an audio clip. We had fifteen minutes to read them/hear them and take notes. Then we had 40 minutes to write it. I stink at writing essays, so it was bad for me, but it’s usually pretty straightforward.</p>
<p>Finally, the speaking part. You get cool cassette recorders for this part, with a microphone you can speak into to record your voice. There is a Conversation Section where an audio clip is played and a person talks to you and asks you questions. On your test book, you can see what the person will be talking about and how you’re supposed to respond (Lisette: Greets you and asks you 1 question, Student: Greet and reply to question). Then there are pauses where you have 20 seconds to respond (<em>Use all 20 seconds!</em>). There are five of those. </p>
<p>Then there is the Presentation Section. You are given a topic and you have some time (I forget how much, usually 30 seconds to 1 minute) to plan what you are going to say. You have to speak about a cultural topic (example Holidays) in reference to your community/country and comparing it to the USA for 2 minutes. Usually, it’s hard because I run out of things to say, but on the test, I actually ran out of time!</p>
<p>So yeah… :P</p>
<p>EDIT: About the Conversational Speaking, five times you have to respond, not five conversations, thank goodness…</p>