<p>So I'm taking the new AP French exam on Tuesday. I'm hoping to get a 4 or a 5. I was just wondering if anyone had any idea as to what the standards for a 4 or a 5 would be? I've been studying a lot the past month or so and I guess I'm feeling a bit nervous. I'm really aiming for a 4 or 5. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>its a new test this year, so no one knows … at all</p>
<p>I think the general criteria are posted on the collegeboard website. They are pretty much standard for the oral and written components of the test (usage of a variety of tenses, idiomatic expressions, clarity of expression, etc).</p>
<p>How much time do we have for the essay and presentational speaking? I’m getting conflicting times from my resources</p>
<p>40 minutes for the essay and 2 minutes for the presentation(with 4? minutes to prepare)</p>
<p>Okay, so THAT was ridiculously easy…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say ridiculously easy, but it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it’d be.</p>
<p>Yeah, it was, except I screwed up on the cultural comparison and ran out of time before I was able to talk about France…
I hope that doesn’t kill my 5.</p>
<p>Had to say I had a little trouble deciphering the audio source accompanying the essay (I hadn’t accounted for ever having to listen to those… types of sources). All in all, self-study got me fairly acquainted with whatever I read and I didn’t have so hard a time as I thought I would’ve on the Free Response.</p>
<p>^That source was of worse quality than Friday…</p>
<p>So, 5?</p>
<p>Lol</p>
<p>I hope. I’m not sure about how to calculate the composite score, but if what everyone has told me was true about filling your writing with complex phrases, conjunctions, clauses, etc. to offset flaws in grammar then I definitely passed at worst with a 4, since the MC also seemed straightforward.</p>
<p>Yeah, our teacher encouraged us to use “Fancy French” everywhere(essay, email, oral)</p>
<p>On the other hand, trying to remember “Fancy French” phrases probably made me forget a lot more grammatical aspects on my essay than I would’ve liked. </p>
<p>In regards to the oral speaking, I always started my response strong, then would end up stuttering in the end when I had nothing more to add before the tone. The same goes for the presentational speaking, although I was able to comfortably get in two points, although a bit unbalanced toward the francophone region.</p>
<p>I ran out of time on the cultural comparison too. "Maintenant, discutons Marine Le Pen et les probl</p>
<p>^Wait, where did you get that they’re weighted equally?</p>
<p>Edit: At least you got that far so they knew that you were GOING to talk about France. I got stopped on “Par contre…” when I was about to say "en France, il y a moins d’empahse sur la diversit</p>
<p>I talked about Le Pen too!</p>
<p>I had trouble thinking of a cultural example for the essay. Thank god the email’s is worth as much as they essay 
</p>
<p>I’m confident I got a 4 (keeping fingers crossed for a 5, though).</p>
<p>Wait, why would you need a cultural example for the essay?</p>
<p>And where are you guys getting that the essay is equal to the email?</p>
<p>In addition to the 3 sources, you have to include an example from French culture (movie, book, society, etc.) </p>
<p>The free response booklet said the email and essay are each worth 25% of your free response score. </p>
<p>Sent from my Inspire 4G using CC</p>
<p>Oh, I’m hoping it’s not too much of a deduction :P</p>
<p>MrLuggs, the instructions mentioned nothing of the sort…I’d STILL like to know where you’re getting your weighting information…is this what the College Board says? If so, could someone link me to it?</p>