Considering AP Spanish w/o prior Spanish classes

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm thinking about taking AP Spanish as a senior but I never took any Spanish classes at my HS and I already have 3yrs of French.. </p>

<p>My question is, how would it affect my college app?</p>

<p>Background: </p>

<p>I come from a Chinese family but since I was born and raised in Brazil, my first language is Portuguese.. then I got so interested in a lot of Spanish-based stuff when I was younger that now I can read and understand Spanish w/o many problems. :P</p>

<p>When I started HS, I was placed in ELD 3, but then I got out of it in the first two weeks. So I got to choose a foreign language to fill the space.. I chose French because I already took a year of it in 7th grade before I came to the U.S. and I thought it that if I took Spanish, it wouldn't be challenging at all and unfair!</p>

<p>Now I'm about to become a senior and I got this terrific idea to take AP Spanish so I can strengthen my Spanish skills. I already talked about it to the teacher and she recommended to audit both Native and AP classes so I can decide which one I feel the most comfortable with.</p>

<p>I would love to take AP French if my school had it.. sadly they don't and I don't want to waste what I already know about Spanish.. :(</p>

2

<p>Um unless you’re really good at grammar, I don’t recommend doing it. If you can do independent study and catch yourself up, it might be worth it. Other than that, I don’t see too many advantages in taking the class, other than learning another language.</p>

3

<p>Students starting in a language course higher than level 1 due to native or heritage ability in the language is not that unusual. That you are taking AP Spanish without any previous high school Spanish courses will likely cause an admissions person to believe that you have some previous knowledge of Spanish, which is not all that rare.</p>

<p>AP Spanish would count as a higher level of foreign language than the level 3 of French that you have. Have you compared your current Spanish ability to that of students who have completed the level just before AP Spanish?</p>

4

<p>Portuguese isn’t that similar…I’m a native Spanish speaker, and although I can read a lot of Portuguese, reading, speaking, and writing are very hard…I wouldn’t recommend taking the AP.</p>

5

<p>The teacher has given you good advice. Unless that teacher can give you a placement exam to evaluate your level of fluency, your best option is to check out both classes next fall.</p>