I’m currently in 8th grade and must plan for the upcoming school year. I have a Spanish 1 credit and the high school offered a test for a Spanish 2 credit. I want to take French 1 next year but I don’t know if I need the second Spanish credit in order to graduate because many students who take French have both credits.
It’s highly unlikely that you will need both Spanish and French to graduate; as long as you get the required total years of a single foreign language for your school, I think you will be fine.
In terms of college admissions, be sure to fulfill the recommendations of your targeted universities; some of them may want level three or four of a foreign language, so if you want to be competitive at those schools, reach that level.
This is something the OP needs to check with the GC on. Public schools may allow mix and match of foreign languages but most private schools with which I am familiar require that that graduation requirement be fulfilled in the same foreign language.
Generally top colleges are looking for you to get to level 4 of a single language.
For HS, look in your student handbook or ask your guidance counselor about what are the requirements are for foreign language.
What I meant to say earlier to clarify, is that your school likely requires a certain amount of years of a single foreign language to graduate, meaning x years of Spanish or x years of French. I’m pretty sure no school allows for a blending of different foreign languages to satisfy graduation (as in, taking both Spanish 1 and French 1 doesn’t satisfy a graduation requirement that students have two years of foreign language).
If you are unsure if you will need the credit, you can take the placement test anyway. It is better to have the credit and not use it than not have the credit and discover later that it would be useful.
Take the test even if you plan to take french1.