<p>She can look at the subject tests in the blue book where they collect real samples and see how difficult they look. I thought the German one looks quite easy. Generally speaking over 600 will be considered a very good score on a language SAT. For years Harvard used to give a year’s credit for a 650, though I think they have now upped that requirement. What may happen (it happens with Math 2), that rather than curving the test, you just get weird percentiles. You can see that here: <a href=“Redirect Notice”>Redirect Notice; bvm=bv.61965928,d.dmQ Look how many taking Korean get 800s! The number is not nearly so big for Spanish.</p>
<p>Wow, interesting chart @mathmom! Had never seen it before. @Bartleby007, she is only in Latin 1 this year. Do you think two years of Latin would be enough for an SAT2? She finds it easy right now but I’m not sure if that’s because of the teacher (who is great) or the pace. A lot of kids in our district do seem to do better in Latin than in other languages and I always wondered if it was because it was easier to learn…</p>
<p>I think there can be a difference in doing really well in the class and actually being able to converse with native speakers. A couple years ago DS was in his 4th year of Spanish when we went on a mission trip to Honduras. While he had always gotten good grades in Spanish it was quite hard for him to understand everything the people were saying. He could get the basic idea of what they were saying and talk to them. However when more than one person was talking at the same time he couldn’t keep up.::-? If she’s not going to actually use Spanish then I’d say it’s enough . However if she wants to use it then I’d stick with it. </p>
<p>My understanding is that adcoms prefer to see the student continue with the same language rather than switching languages. I would focus on following Spanish through to AP than starting a 3rd new foreign language. Depending on which college your D attends, if she does well on the AP exam she could satisfy her language requirement or receive advanced placement (AP!).</p>
<p>Latin is different from the other languages because nearly all the emphasis tends to be on translating from Latin instead of into Lain, and there is no time spent on speaking it much less worry about accents. In NY at least, they also spend some time on myths and history because some questions on them appear on the state Regents tests. Both my kids took Latin, but neither took the SAT. My older one took the AP and did very well and got out of his college’s language requirement. My youngest is in a major (International Relations) that requires fluency in a modern language. He’s taken Arabic every semester of college - kind of funny as he’s the less good linguist of the two kids.</p>
<p>I would think it better, if a student likes languages, to go further in Spanish and become more proficient than to start another language. Maybe if they wanted to Add the language as an elective, that would be good.</p>
<p>To the OP, I think it is “get through level 3”…</p>
<p>It sounds to me as if she should continue in Spanish simply for the sake of achieving fluency. Since she enjoys languages and is likely to want to study more of them, satisfying the college’s distribution requirement will be of no concern to her, but a good AP score would help with that also.</p>
<p>I think it would be great if she could continue in Spanish and start Chinese. The familiarity gained in two years of HS Chinese would probably be advantageous if she wishes to continue in college, where they move a LOT faster.</p>
<p>And no, you didn’t sound like you were bragging. 
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@ReadyToRoll: Two years of Latin might be enough for your daughter to acquire the knowledge to perform well on the Subject test (700+). It depends on the quality of the teaching, coverage of the curriculum, and her knack for picking up languages. I highly recommend that she pick up a copy of Wheelock’s Latin. The book does an exceptional job of teaching the rules of Latin grammar.</p>
<p>When I was in high school, I helped cheerleaders and other members of my sports teams do their Spanish homework during long bus rides to “away” games. I found it very easy to map my knowledge of Latin onto the Romance languages, which evolved from Latin. I’m sure that your daughter sees a great deal of overlap between Spanish and Latin. That could certainly accelerate her learning in the new language.</p>
<p>FYI, my learning path probably wasn’t typical for a high school student studying Latin. When I was in 5th grade, my mom asked me to look in on an elderly neighbor on a weekly basis. The woman turned out to be a retired high school Latin teacher who had won a bunch of awards during her career. She insisted that if I was going to visit her…that I should learn something. We worked through Wheelock’s Latin together on a casual basis with no homework over the course of two years. I tested out of the first two years of Latin once I began high school. To be honest, I had a better grasp of Latin than the currently installed teacher there.</p>
<p>When it comes to selecting her foreign language classes, I don’t think your daughter should give too much weight to “what college admissions officers might think.” She should take what she wants to take. If she’s enthralled with Latin, she should pursue that. I’ve known too many kids who were unhappy because they were forced into taking AP Spanish and graduated high school with far-from-fluent Spanish skills.</p>
<p>Students shouldn’t feel “trapped” by a foreign language requirement. Studying foreign language is too much fun! I didn’t have to take any foreign language in college, but I chose to study Mandarin Chinese anyway. The class was a significant time commitment, though. I attended a one-hour class 5 days a week. To stay on top of the material, I had to spend one hour in the language lab and one hour completing the homework…everyday.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the terrific input!</p>
<p>I did not read the entire thread (sorry!) but I will tell you I had this same question last spring. I called the admissions departments at all the schools my D was interested in and asked. Frustratingly, their responses contradicted each other. Some said that Spanish Level 3 was counted as “three years of Spanish” and some said they wanted to see 3 or 4 actual years in high school. So: call the schools your kid’s interested in and ask.</p>
<p>And recognize that you may not be able to believe the school’s web site :-(</p>
<p>One of the schools that my D applied to “required” 3 years of a foreign language (according to their web site.) My D had only taken 2 years while in high school. She was accepted. </p>
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<p>What was the highest level she took?</p>