<p>I'm going to be a sophomore taking AP World and AP Spanish Lang. and I want to know what to expect from the class, how hard the AP tests are for these 2 classes and what review books I should get?</p>
<p>Are you a nonnative speaker of spanish or one who learned it for 3 years or less? Honestly, it will be a really tough class and exam. The thing with AP spanish, unlike every other AP save languages, is that it’s less a test of concepts and memorization than immersion. I highly recommend starting this summer and drilling with your grammar, instead utilizing the school year to broaden your vocabulary, perfect your speaking, and practice without any technical delays. Start watching telenovelas or spanish films with the subtitles on, try getting a Spanish penpal or keeping a dairy with your thoughts in spanish, and do practice your speaking occasionally. Another thing I recommend is reading short stories: our teacher assigned us El Diente Roto and it was on the AP[surprised us all]!!! Of course, if you’re a native, you won’t really have to worry about all that[but don’t underestimate the test, you still need to get your grammar incredibly polished]. You can’t rely on a review book to get you a good grade for AP Spanish, both the class and the exam, but if you want an idea of what the tests are like, I recommend Barron’s (though its harder than the real thing). </p>
<p>The AP test can be brutal. It encompasses everything: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Reading can be a mixed bag, some questions are easy while others are really tricky. Listening works the same way as reading, and sometimes the speakers speak so fast/badly that it’s hard even for native speakers to catch what’s going on[all under the ploy of scaling the curve]. The writing is fairly easy, it’s similar to an AP lang synthesis essay where you use documents to support your theme, and speaking works the same way except the time limit is very annoying and one of the elements for speaking is holding a informal conversation. Honestly if you prepare incrementally rather than drastically it really won’t be too bad.</p>
<p>AP World as a class honestly depends on your teacher. We had two teachers- one who forced outlines but had easy tests, and one who didn’t but had crazy insane tests. World in general, unlike the other history courses, is predominately about seeing common trends in history, thus it tends to be more logic than memorization based. The hardest part of World is that you will drastically change themes and locations and it will be hard keeping on track. The good thing though is the AP test is really really easy: get a Princeton Review for it. The test has multiple choice and 3 essays(which you will get considerable practice throughout the year). The multiple choice is really straightforward save a few rotten apples and it’s the essays that tend to be the hardest portion of the test. The essays can test anything, at anytime, anywhere, but they do offer some choice as to what you want to talk about. The DBQ, the document based question, is the EASIEST portion of the test and basically some freebie points as you need no historical knowledge for it, rather some good skills of implementing documents and proving a point. But the test is changing(I’m not sure when) so I’m not sure if these things hold true any longer.</p>
<p>Thanks and I am a native speaker</p>
<p>I would like opinions of at least 2 more people</p>
<p>AP WH: Barrons. You can self study and get a 5, provided your teacher teaches you a DBQ, with that book. I did.</p>