<p>Let's get rolling. Any advice from people who have taken the exam is more than appreciated.</p>
<p>Havent taken it yet in the same boat as u</p>
<p>Took it in 2013. Nail the grammar/writing, don’t be afraid to drop some seriously white Spanish during the speaking portion, and you’ll be fine. (For non-natives, I mean). For natives, just focus on reading and writing because you’ll nail the speaking.</p>
<p>@techlover10 I am not 100% certain on this, but I’m pretty sure the exam changed this past year so the format is now different than when you took it. I doubt the test changed significantly, but I don’t know what it was like before.</p>
<p>I took the test this past year (2014) and just got my scores today. I actually felt pretty confident on the test and thought I could get a 5, but I got a 4. Anyway, this is the one test (and all language tests) where you really CANNOT cram in the last few weeks. It’s important that you immerse yourself in Spanish throughout the year. I’m hoping you guys are taking it in school because that will make it much easier if you have people around you that you can speak Spanish with. I’m sure your teachers will probably tell you anyway, but I really encourage you to speak Spanish 100% of the time in class. Keep practicing! </p>
<p>On the test itself, I found the speaking parts to be the most difficult. There are two speaking portions at the end of the test. The conversation and the cultural comparison. In the conversation, you will be having a “conversation” with a pre-recorded message. You’ll receive an outline that will generally explain your situation (your friend Raul wants to talk to you about an upcoming project in class, etc.) and what you are expected to say when it is your turn. Typically, the person you are speaking to (make sure you identify tu vs. usted) will greet you. Your outline will have you greet you back, maybe ask a question, etc. From then on, keep listening to the audio (it’s important not to miss what they say so you have enough context of how to reply) and reply appropriately. Your outline is pretty vague, but it will tell you things like “response negatively” as in (No, lo siento. No lo puedo… etc) and to ask a question or describe something specific in detail. The important part of this conversation is to KEEP TALKING even if you have nothing to say. Make it up. You are expected to make things up. But also try to use your upper level Spanish (as in all other sections) like the imperfect subjunctive. They love that.</p>
<p>The other part is the cultural comparison. You pretty much have 2 minutes to compare your own culture with a Hispanic culture. The prompt can vary, but you’re going to want to talk the entire 2 minutes. Try to be specific about both cultures. Hopefully your teacher will incorporate a lot of cultural things throughout the year that you can draw from!</p>
<p>Anyway, what I said might be confusing since you guys haven’t even started yet. Make sure you guys know exactly how the test format is like at least a month before the test. Or even a few weeks before. It will help with test day jitters. But good luck! :)</p>
<p>Let me know if you guys have any questions. </p>
<p>@student197 Just to clarify, I am aware that the structure has changed since I took the exam. The individual parts have not changed too much, but I think the weighting is more even among the parts. Based on what I know about it, I think my advice still stands though - I know that a lot of non-natives do poorly because they are too intimidated by the speaking portion, and the best way around this is to just go straight in and speak as much as possible. And at the end of the day, my understanding is that the graders are still listening for “fluency” in the speaking - the ability to naturally flow in Spanish. So being able to buy time with extra phrases, and things like “Si, pero…Pienso que eso es…algo…” just for thinking time can help (I did this a lot). Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Hey everyone! So, I just took this test a few months ago, and today when I checked the AP scores I found out I got a 5!! I honestly did not expect this as I am a non-native speaker, so this was seriously incredible! As for tips, I think student197’s advice pretty much said it all. When I was taking this class, I tried watching some cartoons in Spanish and the week before I completely changed everything to Spanish (TV, phone, laptop). I went in for extra credit and had my teacher grade my essays. By the way, write as many essays as possible throughout the year! Also, I took the official practice test and I practiced the conversation part as much as possible because there are only so many prompts and even though they are all slightly different, you can still memorize some key phrases and some excuses or ideas (like “sorry I can’t go because we are celebrating my dads birthday”) or something like that. The triangulo textbook helps A LOT. And start practicing early. Start watching Spanish TV now, and maybe try and read a few books and use wordreference.com to look up unknown words!! Best of luck to all of you!!</p>
<p>Non-native speaker here. The new AP Spanish exam is honestly a joke. Instead of 5 options for each multiple choice questions, there’s only 4. You don’t even have to understand what you read to find the correct answer because usually it’s that obvious. The reading doesn’t require much analysis, you essentially just have to pick up the main idea. As for the listening section, that’s even a bigger joke! You get two (2) times to listen to each prompt. The questions are so basic that you should be able to answer all the questions the first time around, and take a breather for a few minutes. The FRQs are also very basic; the prompts tend to be very general, so you can almost have a scripted essay inside your head and do well. With the new AP Spanish curriculum, nothing random is going to show up on the FRQs; there’s a list of themes like global struggles, beauty/health, technology, etc. As for the speaking, keep your wits about you. There’s samples on the College Board website that got 5’s on speaking even after doing pretty badly. Honestly, you don’t even need AP Spanish for this test. If you have at least three years under your belt, this test will be cake. Study a few weeks before by reviewing the themes that will show up on the test, but that’s it. I do think they have to make it harder to get a top score because almost everyone gets a 5 now, it doesn’t show achievement in Spanish. </p>
<p>@shutterstock There’s always been only 4 choices for languages…</p>
<p>@shutterstock Only 24.1% got 5 and 35.1% got 4. Not “almost everyone gets a 5”. Even though there are around 2/3 students are sort of native speakers taking the test.
<a href=“2014 AP Exam Score Distributions”>2014 AP Exam Score Distributions;
<p>Taking this course next year, upcoming Junior. So excited about this and my mom is excited as well since she is fully Honduran. I can’t wait to increase my fluency, (for those wondering, I am 100% Hispanic, but I wasn’t innate of Spanish, I learned through class since 7th grade). </p>
<p>@student197 Hi, at the cultural comparison, what if you are Hispanic. How would you compare yourself to the culture you have? Or is it by each is it by each country? (Example, compare the US to Mexico). Don’t quite get it.</p>
<p>I got a two on the AP Spanish and Language test (2014). Then again, I took 8 AP tests not too long ago so I was pretty dead by the time Spanish came rolling on. Sadly, it was the only test that I didn’t passed on.</p>
<p>I studied all year and I still didn’t pass. Just know that you have to really, really immerse yourself in the language. Especially to seniors who have many things going on such as standardized tests, college applications, scholarships, etc.</p>
<p>@elefish92 I don’t think there is an exact requirement for which culture you identify yourself with. But generally we used our neighborhood, city, state, country (location) as the culture we identified with and then a Spanish-speaking country. I don’t think there would be much of a comparison if your two cultures were the same, so I would think you would for sure use your location! </p>
<p>Non-native speaker, took it in 2014, also got a 5. Like shuttershock, I found the exam to be a joke. I can impart any advice on certain sections if anyone needs help, or how to study.</p>
<p>Also for the cultural comparison speech, you have so many minutes (I think it was 4?) to “plan your thoughts”, I basically wrote out most of my speech. It’s less about how much Spanish you know, and more about how to game the system and pick up as many points as you can and fool the graders into thinking you’re very proficient at Spanish.</p>
<p>
I took the exam this past May. The cultural comparison asks you to make a comparison (in this case the importance of learning other languages) using an area where you have lived vs. a Spanish-speaking region with which you are familiar. So being Hispanic doesn’t really come into play.</p>
<p>@student197 @skieurope OK, thanks! :)</p>
<p>@student197 How fluent was the listening part? I have been taking Spanish for 3 years now (going on my fourth year) and all the teachers I’ve had always used really bad listening audios. For example the speaker would have an Argentinian accent or a Spain accent which are completely different from the original Mexican accent, making it harder for us to understand what they’re saying. Also thank you for the great insight! And to others taking the test soon I am preparing the test with The Princeton Review AP Spanish and Culture book. It’s a little cheaper than the Barrons (I was on a tight Budget). But it’s really good. </p>
<p>Oh also is the ap spanish language test any different from ap spanish language and culture? What would be significant differences and if I am not learning ‘that’ much culture in my class should I take the test? Would it be difficult for me?</p>
<p>Bump…
Actually so scared for this exam. This is my fourth year of Spanish, but my teacher just doesn’t teach us things…</p>
<p>^^I understand completely. I’m on my fourth year as well and my teacher last year barely taught us grammar, and I’ve heard worse about my teacher this year. </p>
<p>
The exam is AP Spanish Language and Culture. There is no AP Spanish language exam without culture.</p>