<p>I might take Spanish Lit next year, but I wanted to get to know how is the course work and rigor? I'm a native speaker, but it might still be hard. How is it? Thanks.</p>
<p>This question was asked a few weeks ago, but I feel the need to inform you, so here:
It very much depends on where you live and who your teacher is, more so than any AP class ever. If your teacher is not a native speaker, even if he/ she successfully grasps some of the poetry stuff, you will easily get by with anything. Also, most every teacher I have ever heard of just has you read the readings (which are difficult, but honestly there is help for the 35-40 of them they provide every year) and answer a few questions, then memorize some stuff. However, if you have a native speaker teacher, in some places a rarity and in some places not, possibly beware. Some of those will do what we do in English: over- analyze to the point where they are making stuff up. I have memorized every date about every person from every literary and artistic movement from the 1200s till the 1870s, which is where I am now. I can summarize 30 pieces of art and sketch the layout of most of those from memory; I know every type of literary device used in each and every movement and each of the assigned pieces. I know all of this, and I barely have an A; out of 19 native speakers, one has an A.
The AP exam: fairly simple. Some semi- difficult readings, no speaking portion, as opposed to the Spanish Language test, and some fairly difficult open- ended questions.
To recap: The teacher greatly affects the class. I have underrepresented above the difficulty of what my teacher does, not exaggerated. Native speakers fail out every year. Fortunately, from what I can see from online searchers, most of the teachers are not native speakers, or even if they are they require far less of their students.
One final thing: From your posts, I believe you are a senior now. If you are just now beginning to prepare for the AP exam, what to know: read the list of poems/ books they require. You can find this on college board. know the literary movements and approximate era of each piece you read. Know that some of the readings are not entirely Spanish, as in you will need a dictionary because that is really really old Spanish even if you think you know Spanish. Also, don’t be discouraged by my half rant. I think my school is the outlier in terms of difficulty.</p>