AP Spanish Stress Thread

<p>Since Chem had one, I thought Spanish should too.</p>

<p>God, this test is going to kill me! I'm not too shabby in Spanish, but our teacher is incompetence personified. Today, right at the end of the period, she told us to remember how to conjugate in the conditional tense with the imperfect subjunctive complimenting it. 99.99% of the class asked her what the conditional tense was right when the bell rang.</p>

<p>Luckily, I've done quite a bit of prep, but the oral portion and the dialogues are going to hurt me. My only problem with the latter is that even though I understand what is being said, I have trouble keeping the facts straight in my head. Also, my teacher is from Central America, and speakers from Spain confuse me :(</p>

<p>Any other AP Spanish horror stories?</p>

<p>"Any other AP Spanish horror stories?"</p>

<p>I'm sure I'll have one tomorrow.</p>

<p>Yo tambien. </p>

<p>sl8r000, what do you think you'll get tomorrow? I'm hoping for 4+;</p>

<p>yea i'm freaking out...i just did a practice speaking and it's so scary. for the first part they give you 20 seconds to say goodbye!! and don't even get me started on the 2 minute oral presentation. but hopefully it won't be as bad as it seems =)</p>

<p>Wait, what oral presentation? Is that the picture sequence? My teacher told us that that wouldn't be on the test! I hate her.</p>

<p>no it's not the pictures. don't worry. you have to read a passage and then listen to one and speak for 2 minutes answering a question. unless i'm misunderstanding the barrons.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, the questions about hobbies and such. I don't know why, but I was never really worried about those. Ignorance is bliss:)</p>

<p>What I'm really, really nervous about is the simulated conversation. 20 seconds is NOT enough time to think of a decent answer in English, translate it into Spanish, and push it out through your lips while still rolling the r's. Que ridiculo!</p>

<p>Si quisiera obtener una marca buena, deberia pensar y hablar en espanol, no pensar en ingles y traducir lo que piensa. </p>

<p>(Y mire - yo use el condicional despues del subjuntive imperfecto)
(Lo siento por no tener accentos)</p>

<p>Si pudiera parar pensando en ingles, lo haria, pero es mas facil hablar que hacer lo que querra.</p>

<p>Lo siento que mi maestra no me mostro como debo usar la condicional! </p>

<p>Gracias por la ayuda. </p>

<p>Sacaste un cinco?</p>

<p>haha, i'm only posting because i'm considering taking AP spanish senior year (i'm a sophomore).
i've been getting A's and A+'s in spanish since i've been taking it in 4th grade, but i cannot pronounce correctly.
i know how everything is supposed to sound but my teacher laughs at me and calls me a "gringo" when i present orals in class. yet they're really well done and the grammar is all right so i'll get 100's.</p>

<p>anyway, i'm curious, how important is pronunciation for this AP spanish exam? am i going to fail for that reason alone?</p>

<p>^^^ Si, creo que sea [es?] mejor hacerlo como dices, aunque cometo errores cuando lo intento. </p>

<p>Que piensas es mas importante? Hablar con (tal vez) mas fluez con algunos errores, or hablar sin errores, pero mas lento?</p>

<p>ajkcorner1, solo espero que el proctor no me mate por mi espanol terrible.</p>

<p>Si, alguien aqui ya lo ha tomado? Se que es diferente este ano, pero aun quiero oir lo que piensa del examen. Algunos pensamientos sobre el ensayo?</p>

<p>Cuantos anos de espanol han tomado ustedes?</p>

<p>
[quote]
no it's not the pictures. don't worry. you have to read a passage and then listen to one and speak for 2 minutes answering a question. unless i'm misunderstanding the barrons.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>There is a second part to the oral, the "simulated conversation." You get a prompt, for example, "You see a friend in the hallway at school" and then they begin. They begin the conversation, and then you have to respond for 20 seconds. Then they say something else, you have to respond for 20 seconds, and it goes on like this until you've spoken about 5 or 6 times. </p>

<p>It's brutal-- you have no idea what they're going to say until they say it, and because everything is prerecorded it can be really confusing when the answer they give has nothing to do with what you just said. </p>

<p>Por ejemplo:</p>

<p>Them: I heard that there was a car accident yesterday!
You: Yeah, I was in the passenger seat. I broke my leg.
Them: That's good to hear. How is Maria?</p>

<p>sl8r000, pienso que te hagas mas beneficio a hablar mas rapido con algunos errores en lugar de hablar tan lento porque si eligieras (el imperfecto subjuntivo de eligir) la opiciona segunda, no tendrias bastante tiempo!</p>

<p>He tomado cuatro anos de espanol... es evidente segun mis respuestas, no?
(No la conteste!)</p>

<p>ChickenSoup --- I know! Once in a simulated conversation, I told one of the automatons that her hair would look better shorter, and she said, "Thanks for your condolences. I'll really miss my aunt" or some other rubbish. I was mortified!</p>

<p>OK, can anyone break the test down into sections?</p>

<p>-Will there be a section where you have to complete a paragraph w/o root words?</p>

<p>-Will there be a picture sequence?</p>

<p>-What constitutes the oral section?</p>

<p>Also, I've been using the Barron's books, and I have honestly been failing the free response sections. Please tell me Barron's is harder than the actual test!</p>

<p>Se que hay un seccion en que se necesita llenar blancos con palabras con los palabras de raiz dado y otra seccion en que no tendras las palabras.</p>

<p>According to my review book (which is written partly by one of the AP writers, I believe): </p>

<p>Listening: Short dialogues, long dialogues, short narratives, long narratives. How many of each varies from year to year. </p>

<p>Reading: A number of selections (again, the number varies) with about 6 to 8 MC questions following each one.</p>

<p>Writing: Paragraph completion with root words, paragraph completion without root words, informal writing (~60 words, example: Imagina que tuviste una cita en la cual no te divertiste mucho), essay (read two sources, listen to one, write).</p>

<p>Speaking: Simulated conversation (as described above), formal oral presentation (listen to a source, read a source, speak for two minutes about a topic).</p>

<p>Edit: I heard from the AP French kids that their test was 4 hours long. :(</p>

<p>blancos == gringo speak! son espacios, mi amigo(a)!</p>

<p>Gracias por la informacion. Ustedes me han ayudado mas que mi maestra!</p>

<p>how did your class not know what the conditional tense was? it blows my mind that there are ap teachers that are that inadequate!</p>