My school recently changed their AP policy, where before you we able to take French 1 and 2, skip 3, then take AP. That is what ive been planning to do, so now i’m a junior taking french 2. Upon hearing about this change i looked to see if my local community college is offering french 3 over the summer, but they arn’t.
Im planning to minor in French (hopefully at a UC) so im pretty bumbed about this. What can I do? Does anyone know about other online summer classes that offer french 3 and arnt like $500?
Im going to speak with my counselor sometime this week and see what she says, but I doubt there’s anything she can do. Perhaps I could take french 3 and AP at the same time? But then i’d have to skip physics, and UCs like chem, bio and physics…
If you took French 1&2 in high school, you’d take college French 2 (which in CA is considered equivalent to high school French 3/4) and you could try AP French but typically AP French is a level 5 class so it might be too difficult.
My high school doesn’t even offer french 4 or 5 so AP, even though its difficult, is the only option after 3. Ive already made up my mind to take it I just need help figuring out how to squeeze french 3 into the summer…
I’d be curious to see what their pass rate on the AP exam was with this strategy.
Foreign languages are sequential. You need the background to do well in AP French; taking French 3 concurrently won’t cut it. @MYOS1634 's suggestion is your best bet.
Talk to your guidance counselor and the French teacher to see exactly what you would have to take at a CC or elsewhere to be eligible to take AP French as a senior. Perhaps they will have some suggestions that will work within the framework of your HS program.
@skieurope Well AP french is for the super over achiever kids at my school so, the majority of kids barely pulled through with a 3 last year. Then again, the class was about 12 people all together and two of them are native french speakers. I live in CA and here its super rare for any school to offer a language before 9th grade, unlike on the east coast where they start in middle school.
Why not just take French 3? Colleges generally do have their own placement guidelines for those who have some knowledge of the language but no AP score.
For example, the French department at UCB suggests starting in second semester college French if you have three years of high school French. If you have an AP score of 3, their recommendation is to start in third semester college French. http://french.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/placement-guidelines/
