My first language is Chinese and I’ve been in America for about one year. I just finished my first year at high school so I probably still have three years before all the application things. I kind of want to learn Spanish and take AP test if it is possible. Besides, our school does not offer ESL students another second language class so that I have to self study it if I do so. Is there any possibility for doing this? Any resources that I can use for self studying(including all the basis and the AP contents)?
Well, first of all, are you going to take normal classes in your second year of high school? If not, then i don’t recommend you to take Spanish at all, because your should, I mean you have to improve your English skills.
Also, your time is really limited because you need to take your state’s standardized test in your second year of high school and SAT/ACT in your third year. Those are going to be very hard for you as an ESL student and it is REALLY not realistic for you to learn Spanish if you are still take ESL classes in your second year of high school
If you are going to take regular classes(like taking all classes with most people that English as their primary language) you still have ok amount of chances to take other AP classes(like AP math, AP science, AP history and/or AP English if you can work hard enough, it is honestly not very hard)in your third or fourth year of high school. However, I still DON’T recommend you to take AP Spanish if you never take a Spanish class before. If you really like Spanish, you can take normal Spanish class for 3 year, colleges will consider it as your third language if you have been taking Spanish classes for 2 or 3 years.
I hope you can take my advice as a consideration! By the way, your situation is similar to what I had when I was in high school, and almost the same age(I guess 14) to come to US. My first language is Chinese also and I took ELL classes in my first year, but I started taking normal classes in my second year and then 7(yes, I did!) AP classes in my third and fourth year. Currently in a good college! I hope you can made it into a good college!