<p>My school doesn't have an AP Spanish class, but I still want to take the test before college to (hopefully) get out of some language requirements.</p>
<p>What level does the test match up to?</p>
<p>Also, what was your general experience with the test..easy,hard?</p>
<p>Here's the question:
Are you a native speaker and/or do you speak the language at home?
The AP Spanish Language test is supposed to be insanely hard for non-native speakers and I can attest to the fact that the subject is no joke (I'm taking it right now and am getting nothing out of the class).</p>
<p>The test is supposed to be the level of third-year college.</p>
<p>My class was somewhat work-heavy, but I got an A. I speak Spanish fluently (though not natively, by any means). I'm passionate about languages and tend to grasp them quickly (I used to speak Japanese okay, and bits of others). With that in mind, I got a 4. For contrast, I got a 750 on the Spanish SAT II.</p>
<p>The listening was beyond easy. The writing was easy, too, but that's always been my strong point. The reading was hard. But it was the speaking that brought my grade down. I can speak it without pausing or stumbling, as I live in a town where there are many immigrants who speak Spanish; consequently, I speak it quite a bit. The exam's structure has changed, though, mostly in the speaking -- in fact, it's been completely changed. It's supposed to mimic "real conversation," but it doesn't accomplish this in any way. For one part of speaking, you read one source (or two, can't remember), listen to something, then you have 2 minutes to prepare a presentation, and 2 minutes to record it. That part I did fine on. For the other part, you have 6 cues -- you listen to something, then you look on the paper that tells you how you need to respond (20 seconds); then you listen to the next part of the conversation, etc. It's pretty stupid. You can see this in the comparison of the average scores -- this year's (the year in which this change was effected) dropped a quarter of a point from last year's. That's rather significant.</p>
<p>My advice: practice the speaking section. Sure, you should practice speaking, but more so learn how the exam administers speaking. It doesn't matter how well you can speak Spanish -- it's how the exam structures it that matters, if you want to do well. (There were native speakers in my class who got As, were very smart--in AP classes, etc.--and got 4s.)</p>
<p>Wow kyle.. fluent and a 4? That really surprises me, I would say I have a weak/moderate grasp of the language and I got a 4. Maybe it was like 1 point from a 3. </p>
<p>The test is very difficult, though, so definitely practice a bunch. It got completely revamped and is a lot harder than it used to be. Kyle covered the speaking pretty well, one 2 minute straight, and another responding to cues of a crappy phone conversation (something about your friend inviting you to a shakira concert).</p>
<p>I thought the writing was tough, the subjects they give you are always very boring so it seems inevitable that you will bore them to death.</p>
<p>ooh wow. the test sounds ridiculously tough. i don't speak it fluently by any means, and I get OK grades but I'm not especially good, so I can't see any success for me with this test. </p>
<p>the thing is, I can opt out of spanish and take something more exciting next year (senior year), but I don't want that to look ugly for colleges + i wanted to take the AP test. opinions?</p>
<p>
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That really surprises me, I would say I have a weak/moderate grasp of the language and I got a 4. Maybe it was like 1 point from a 3.
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</p>
<p>My teacher and I broke down the statistics on our class that College Board sends to AP teachers, and we deduced I was very close to getting a 5. Oh well -- I still get the credit and I still have the skills. =)</p>
<p>tnb19: just practice. You'll do fine. My speaking skills increased quite a bit during AP Spanish. Yours can too, even without the class. Just listen to a lot of Spanish and speak it to yourself all day. Write Spanish every day (my teacher required us to keep a diario). And of course, read Spanish as much as you can. Those are the four modes of language, which the AP exam tests on. As long as you practice those (and in particular, how the speaking works on the exam), you should be fine.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, though, that the AP Spanish exam is tough for a reason -- they want to make it challenging even for native speakers. Last year, from the statistics I'd seen that my teacher received with the students' scores, 95,000 or so students took the AP Spanish language exam; 55,000 were native speakers.</p>
<p>I'm non-native, I took it and passed with a 5. Like kyledavid80, I consider myself fluent. I don't speak like a native, but I'm reasonably close. His advice is pretty sound. There's also a lot of advice in an old thread I posted in: </p>
<p>thanks elorax i didn't see the other thread before</p>
<p>Do any of you guys have the book
"Ap Spanish: Preparing for the Language Examination"
Where can I buy it for low price?</p>
<p>Google is everybody's friend. Amazon appears to have it, but it may be expensive. Sometimes you can find used books on Amazon at a low price, but occasionally the amount you would have to pay for shipping mitigates the savings. I recommend you do your own internet research though. The link below is a good place to start. </p>
<p>Oh, and I've used the book. I thought it was pretty good. The lists in the appendixes are especially useful.</p>
<p>I actually disagree with kyledavid80 about which parts are harder and which are easier.
Like I mentioned in the post they linked to, I thought last year's listening was pretty hard because it required you to work through some accents that were pretty hard to understand.</p>
<p>Also, to me the conversation part of the test is easier, since you have to come up with one sentence answers or so. The part where you have to read two pieces, then listen to another one and then talk about it was a lot harder since you really didn't have much time to come up with the stuff. I'm not good with making up things as I go, so maybe that's why it was harder for me. I ended up writing it all down before and then pretty much reading it out.
Spanish is my first language though, so it might be different for you if you're not.</p>
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I thought last year's listening was pretty hard because it required you to work through some accents that were pretty hard to understand.
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<p>I guess we just had different preparations. All the listening exercises and such that my teacher gave us were very difficult. Even the accents on the listening portion (like the radio sample) didn't seem to throw me off to much. I would consider listening to be my weakest area (though I wouldn't say "weak" on absolute terms, at the cost of appearing modest =p).</p>
<p>
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you have to come up with one sentence answers or so.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Actually, there isn't any one-sentence requirement or recommendation. The only guideline is to speak as much as you can in the 20 seconds.</p>
<p>I personally found the integrated skills speaking section to be the easier of the two, but to each his own. Either way, it's clear that the speaking section has been made substantially more difficult -- the other parts of the exam remained virtually unchanged (the changes that were made were minor and not enough to drastically change one's score), and so the change in the speaking resulted in a steep drop in the average score: from 3.38 to 3.12. The % people receiving a 1 doubled (from 8.9 to 17.8), the % receiving a 2 increased 2%, and the % receiving a 3 decreased by more than 8%. Overall, in 2006 only a quarter of the students who took the exam didn't pass; in 2007, 36% didn't. The % receiving 5s also went down a few.</p>
<p>haha well yeah, we didn't really prepare because I was in an AP spanish for spanish speakers class, so we practiced twice during the month before the exam, and the guy and his thick accent caught me by surprise.
You are too good though.. haha props to anyone who gets a 5 in this exam and is not a native born spanish speaker.</p>
<p>Wow! My AP experience seems to be pretty different than everyone here. </p>
<p>I don't think the test was as formidable as people are saying! I'm non-native, most definitely NOT fluent, and got a 5. I think I even slipped up a bit and started to reply to the conversation part in English... </p>
<p>I agree with Alejis though, the listening with heavy accents was definitely the hardest to understand.</p>
<p>Does anybody know any good websites to prep for the exam or have a book recommendation?</p>
<p>Yeah, i am a sophomore in high school and i skipped a level of spanish and i am now enrolled in spanish 4. My school wont allow me to take ap classes sophomore year. i am NOT a native speaker however i traveled to spain for two weeks this past summer and feel like i have a decent grasp of speaking and understanding the language. I continue studying spanish on my own and really have a passion for spanish. I feel that i write well (up to AP standards) however i dont know because im not enrolled in the ap class. Does anyone know how hard the ap exam is? whats the hardest part? does any one have any suggestions for me to know what my score would be on an ap spanish writing portion? Are there any other non native sopomores that took it? i appreciate any help. thx so much. </p>
<p>oh and one more thing. are the practice tests i take at home (from barrons and princetion review) harder or easier than the actual thing. and i looked online, but does anyone know where i can get free practice tests. THANKS SO MUCH!</p>