<p>If you get a 5 on the AP Spanish test is there any benefit to taking the online spanish placement test at Alabama? I was told you might be able to start at a higher level course in Spanish if you take the online placement test. </p>
<p>Also, can you use the better score for placement? Will you lose your AP credit if you take the placement test? </p>
<p>Just to clarify for other readers, if you just want to maximise the credit hours for Spanish, taking the CLEP test (and getting the right score on it) will give you up to 14 credit hours, as opposed to a 5 on the AP, which gives you max 10 credit hours.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you would want to take the placement test. The way I understand the placement tests is that these are used primarily for those students who DON’T have incoming/transfer language credits, but they can receive retro- credit by successfully passing the higher-level course that they do qualify for by taking the test. The AP or CLEP credit by nature places you in the next highest class. <a href=“http://testing.ua.edu/fl_assess.html”>http://testing.ua.edu/fl_assess.html</a> . Answering your questions completely would require us to know what your/student’s major field of study is and how far you want to plow down the Spanish path and for what purpose. Good luck!</p>
<p>Two of our younger students took the CLEP for Spanish last year as a HS junior and senior. Both earned the maximum of 14 credits. They both reported that it was fairly simple and inexpensive way to pick up additional credits. I believe it took around 90 minutes and the score report was immediate. Both plan on adding a minor or double major in Spanish and realize that this will require completion of more of the higher level classes to do. Taking the placement test will have no impact on CLEP or AP credits earned. The student has the discretion of applying or forfeiting any of the credit earned. Our D contacted someone within the department and after conversing in Spanish, our D was advised that she should do well, but she decided to take the exam anyway to assure herself that she is doing the right thing by applying the credits she earned and starting in 300 level Spanish.</p>
<p>I would encourage your student to consider taking the CLEP and the placement test and then both parents and student can use these as tools in making the placement decision. We also considered the strength of our school’s academic programs and our student’s confidence level. Our students attend a top 100 HS with stellar opportunities for earning college credits. Each will enter with 60+ credits with AP, CLEP, and UAEC. The younger one will continue in HS Spanish taking AP this year even though she won’t need to take the AP exam. That should help keep her Spanish fresh.</p>
<p>He is considering adding a minor or major in Spanish. He has 12 years of Spanish and is fluent. His teachers only spoke in Spanish in class since he was in 7th grade. We were trying to figure out what is the highest level class is he can be placed in. Right now with an AP score of 5 I think it is a 300 level class. Is that correct? Do kids ever start out at a higher level than that? It looks like the highest placement you can get from the Spanish placement test is a 300 level class too. (The same as an AP score of 5). Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>You might run out of classes if he is placed too high?! ;)</p>
<p>Never thought of that. I think I will have him contact the Spanish department and let them figure out together what he wants to do. Thanks!</p>
<p>I dont think a student can be placed higher than 3XX unless he comes in with DE upper division courses. </p>
<p>At the time, we didnt know about CLEP and my younger son’s HS didnt offer AP Spanish, so he just took the placement test and started with Conversational Spanish…then when that was completed, he was awarded credits for 103, 201 and 202 as well as the credits for Conversational Spanish. </p>
<p>He didnt complete a minor in Spanish, but he did end up with a good number of credits because of Conversational Spanish, Medical Spanish, Business Spanish, as well as those add’l awarded credits. </p>
<p>For fun, he also took a couple of Italian classes which were super easy because of his fluency in Spanish. The Italian profs at Bama are wonderful. both of my kids loved their Spanish profs as well. </p>