<p>How did you prepare for it? I basically need it to test out of my language requirement at the university I'm attending. I need at least a 430 score (which, though it seems low, I've never taken a subject test before and from what I've researched, the curve on the Spanish SATii is a bit harsh due to so many native speakers taking it).
I've taken 5 years of Spanish in high school. I took a look at some of the practice questions and they weren't so bad, but I want to get a head start in the summer so that I can take this test and get it done with!
So, to get a 430, and with my 5 years of Spanish, what books should I look at? How long should I prepare for it?
Thanks for the help ahead of time!</p>
<p>Don’t worry man you will do way better than a 430. Within those 5 years of Spanish, I would assume that you learned the basic rules of grammar, which is one part of the test. The reading comprehension section didn’t really have any vocabulary that was extremely difficult to identify and the questions were mostly common sense if you understood what they asked. As for the completing the paragraph section, most of the time only one choice really even remotely fit into the sentence (assuming you can identify these common words) so you should be fine.</p>
<p>I am a native speaker who speaks the language atrociously and is a horrible test taker and definitely not as smart (or dedicated) as many of the people on this site. I did not do any studying (although I did have a full year of AP Spanish on my side) and yet I managed to score a 740, which is pretty low in comparison to a lot of the non-native speakers on this site that took the test. If you look at a couple of practice tests (maybe one a week), you should be familiar with the set up and should do fine on the exam. If you see that you are scoring low, you could increase the number of tests you take per week and really try to identify and understand what you struggle with in order to do better. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks ProPiper! I know Spanish relatively well…but didn’t feel total mastery of it despite having a 4.0 in all of my Spanish classes. Any book suggestions? For my APs I stuck by either 5 Steps or Barron’s, and Barron’s saved my butt on the ACT. Should I stick with what the CB puts out for subject tests, though?</p>
<p>Well again I really wouldn’t know which books are best since I really didn’t study for the exam but I guess the workbook my class used to prepare for the AP exam helped a lot. We used the Pearson Prentice Hall AP Spanish Preparing for the Language Examination (Third Edition) and it contained A LOT of reading comprehension passages… but I don’t know how much good the book with do you without an answer key. In all honesty you could probably get away with using any book that has practice tests (Barons, the Collegeboard book, etc,). However, remember that whatever CB puts out will be the closest thing you have to the actual exam. Good luck with this!</p>