Should a "gringo" take AP Spanish Language?

Test Preparation AP World Languages
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<p>Even though my Spanish 3 teacher suggested I take AP Spanish next year, I am still a little hesitant since she has been known to push kids into AP just because she wants more students in her class. I love Spanish and I enjoy learning the language, but I'm not sure if I can handle AP. I'm good at writing and especially good at reading, but I am terrible at speaking and don't really have anyone to practice with. I am not worried about the actual class (from what I've heard from past years, its very bearable) but I am worried about taking the exam, especially the speaking part. If I dropped AP Spanish and took Spanish 4, I would only have 2 APs senior year; is that not rigorous enough? </p>

<p>Any advice or suggestions from alumni of the class? (preferably not native speakers)</p>

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<p>i took ap span lang this year and although i only got a 3 on the exam, my reading/writing skills improved greatly. my downfall was speaking though, similar to you. im an upper middle class white kid that lives in north east suburbs so its kinda hard to find people to practice speaking with due to lack of hispanic presence haha. i would definately do it if i were you if you’re interested in spanish lang/culture. i hope to study abroad in spain one semester in college and i think the class helped me a lot. oh i had 3 other ap’s besides spanish and some e.c.'s but it wasn’t too bad. go for it dude.</p>

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<p>Ohh, also, if anyone has any advice on what I can do over the summer to prepare, that would be helpful too :)</p>

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<p>I’m a non native speaker and I took AP spanish this year and got a five (as did a number of other people in my class) so it’s definitely possible :slight_smile: I wouldn’t say I’m particularly great at spanish either, especially when it comes to speaking- I always think I sound stupid so I end up messing up :stuck_out_tongue: Luckily the speaking part isn’t really a very highly weighted portion of the test- I am absolutely positive I bombed the second part (the section that is somewhat like a spoken essay) as I answered the wrong question, but still managed to do fine overall. I would say as long as you are good at reading you will be fine- that is definitely more important as the written essay and multiple choice have the most impact on your score. If you want to prepare over the summer, maybe try reading some of the works from this list:
[AP:</a> Spanish Literature](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>AP Spanish Literature and Culture Required Reading List – AP Students | College Board)
It is for AP Spanish Lit, but I read about half of them the term before I took AP spanish and would say it really helped as far as vocab. Some of them are pretty interesting too, and they don’t take too long to read (most of them are only 3 or 4 pages max). Oh, and as far as review books- not sure if you would be interested in using those anyways, but I would NOT recommend barrons, it was soo much harder than the test and everything we did in class, and it kind of made people feel like they were going to fail it. I would definitely say to take the AP if the speaking part is really the only thing holding you back, it’s not really that big of a deal. Good luck, I’m sure you’ll do fine!</p>

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<p>I’m a white guy and I got a 3 on the test. I’ll keep my response short.</p>

<p>We didn’t do much in my actual class because, to be honest, there’s not much you can learn. The reading comprehension and essay writing is basically just like the SAT in spanish, except for the DBQ which is pretty hard. Then you really need to practice speaking</p>

<p>I would seriously take Spanish 4. Don’t be a typical CC person and skip a year because you’re so smart, especially when you’re not a native speaker. You’ll learn new verb forms you probably didn’t know before.</p>

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<p>I’m a non-native speaker, and I took AP Spanish Lang after Spanish III. I got a 5 on the test.</p>

<p>If you’re a strong Spanish student, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The speaking part might make the AP a little difficult, but strong reading/writing skills are much more important, especially for the class.</p>

<p>As for whether or not 2 APs are enough for senior year - it all depends on what kind of schools you’re aiming for. If you’re aiming for top schools, it still depends, but generally that would not seem like enough.</p>

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<p>@CaliforniaDancer</p>

<p>I would say that you need to have good Speaking AND Listening skills to do well.</p>

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<p>I think if you enjoy Spanish and enjoy learning the language, you should go for it. It would be a valuable asset to you to become (or work towards becoming) fluent in another language. I was in the same position as you (though I was going to be the only Asian in an entirely Hispanic AP Spanish class), but I wasn’t able to take it because of schedule conflicts. You can always work on your speaking; it might not be perfect by the time of the AP test, but if you’ve worked hard enough, it should be enough to get you a good score.</p>

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<p>I’m a non-native speaker who got a 5 last year, and I sucked at speaking too. Really, I think I tried to master writing and reading well enough to overcome my shortcomings at speaking, and spent the year just getting my speaking to a mediocre level. But you do not need to a great speaker at all to get a 5.</p>

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<p>Good at writing and good at reading? You’ll get better at speaking if your teacher is any good at all. If you can form sentences, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to verbalize them. You just need to practice and get WAY familiar with the format of the test. </p>

<p>I got a 5 and I’m a “gringo”</p>

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<p>I’m white as hell, and I’m taking the IB and AP Spanish exams in 2 years. It’s surprisingly one of my best subjects. If you have sufficient knowledge of vocabulary and syntax, you have one more year to improve on the speaking parts, and should be ready to take the test.</p>

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<p>If you want to consider the exam’s breakdown, speaking is only 20% of the exam. Significant, but considering you could get 5’s on the vast majority of AP exams with around 75%, those odds present a good chance for your exact skills.</p>

<p>Consider it if you love or at least enjoy it; from my experience with language classes, that is probably one of the few ways to take the class and not gripe about it everyday lol.</p>

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<p>I’m a gringa (a chela more specifically) and I got a 5.</p>

<p>There are definitely opportunities to speak Spanish if you look for them. I live in a mostly white suburb too, but I will drive 20 minutes to this amazing Burrito place in Boston where I can order in Spanish. And the servers love it. They make fun of my accent, but in a loving way, if that makes sense, and they are usually flattered that someone is taking the initiative to try to speak to them in their native language. I also watch soccer exclusively on Univision, and I listened to only spanish music for the week coming up to the exam (start with juanes and work your way up to Wisin and Yandel).</p>

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<p>Will you be a junior or a senior next year? If you will be a junior and you’re already feeling uncomfortable about succeeding in the class/on the test, there is no problem with taking Spanish IV and then AP Spanish your senior year. However, if you’re going to be a senior, you should attempt to consult with other kids from your school that took AP Spanish in previous years, and make your decision from that. Honestly, the teacher makes the class. Starting from day 1, my teacher had us doing AP practice exams and AP practice multiple choice questions/prompts/listening exercises/speaking exercises, to the point that she could not have prepared us any more. Any AP world language test, at least for people who are not naturally gifted in languages, is difficult to even partially self-study, so it’s important that the teacher is very committed. There is no question that because of my teacher, as a non-native, I got a 5. Honestly, I did very little outside prep, so any preparation advice I could give would be to sure you have a very helpful teacher :)</p>

<p>As a general rule, especially if you’re going to be a senior, I would say sign up for the class and see what the class is like, both in terms of the class itself and in AP preparation. I’m assuming (at least that’s what it is at my school), it’s a lot easier to drop a class and go down a level than it is to drop a class and go up a level. Hope this helped somewhat :]</p>

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<p>I didn’t take AP Spanish- I took Pre-AP Spanish 4 that comes before- but I took the exam anyway because there was no chance I was going to suffer through taking that class (terrible teacher) and I got a 5 on it.</p>

<p>I really did not find it hard at all…Like honestly I’m not even sure I could tell you what you should study. But I knew grammar and how to use the subjunctive really well, so I guess that helped.</p>

<p>Oh wait I do have a tip- whatever you do, do not stop writing and speaking (if you have an extra like 5 minutes on the long writing part that’s fine, but don’t spend much time doing nothing.)</p>

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<p>I’m taking Spanish Lang next year too!!! as an Indian sophomore.</p>

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<p>I’m an Asian student that got a 5 this past year.</p>

<p>My teacher doesn’t allow English in the classroom; in fact, most of my point losses in his class were because I accidentally blurted out in the wrong language. If you don’t have that kind of pressure to practice speaking, you should emphasize on thinking in Spanish for at least an hour a day. Listen to Spanish podcasts, watch the news in that language, after you say something in English try it in Spanish, etc. While I had to turn it up like 6 notches during the last 3 months to make sure I was ok in speaking for the test, I think the constant immersion and thinking in Spanish before those 3 months made a difference as well.</p>

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<p>I’m a white female with no speakers in the family and I got a 4.</p>

<p>Here’s what my advice to you is: take the class because you love Spanish. That’s it. If you’re taking it for any other reason - AP Credit, GPA, “status” - it’s NOT worth it. I know those are benefits that draw you to it, but you need to be drawn intrinsically towards the class, too. You have to love the language, you have to adore the way it sounds, you need to get emotional every once in a while when a really good romantic Spanish song comes on ;)</p>

<p>Jokes aside, here’s an example. I took APSLANG my junior year. I kept a low-to-high B the entire year, and was positive I was going to fail the exam. I had friends who’re higher in class rank (the top 3 students in my class all failed the exam, I’m #21). I had friends who kept high A’s the entire year (my record was a 7% on a quiz! My grades weren’t perfect by any means). I thought, why would I possibly be better than them? Why would I, out of everyone, do well on the exam?</p>

<p>So the day I walked into the exam, I said to myself: I might not pass this exam. But I will never regret taking the class. </p>

<p>I loved it, and I still do. I’m in AP Spanish Literature right now, and I’m the ONLY student out of a class of roughly 450. That says something, yeah?</p>

<p>Just to add, last year, there were about 50 slang students. This year, there’s 8. What happened? … Word got out to the Spanish III class that slang was hard so everyone switched out of it. Don’t be that guy. </p>

<p>If you’re dissuaded from taking the class because you might not pass the exam or you may find it difficult, then it’s not for you. You have to take it regardless of the grade, regardless of whether you get credit or not, because you’re enamored with the LANGUAGE.</p>

<p>And ultimately, that’s what matters! That passion and enthusiasm is what will ultimately determine your exam score. So don’t give up because it might be too much work; give up if you’re not in love with Spanish itself. </p>

<p>If you’re reading this and you’re saying to yourself, “but I love Spanish!” then TAKE THE CLASS! :smiley: Good luck, I hope all goes well!</p>