What does 4 years of a language mean?

InfoQuestMom
Fri, 17 Oct 2014 19:51:07 +0000

My dd took six trimesters of Spanish in HS, which amount to three academic years, ending with AP Spanish Language, the highest level offered at her school. She is a heritage speaker, which I regard as different both from a native speaker and a non native speaker. She got a 5 in the AP exam and over 700 in the SAT with listening, her college requires still her to take a placement test to get out of the foreign language requirement although I believe she got some credit as a generic elective. She would have liked to start a new language but scheduling conflicts did not allow it.
If you were my daughter I would recommend continuing onto AP Spanish. You say it is a two year course, which means it won’t be as gruelling as a regular one year AP class and you will not be sitting for the exam at the end of the year. This way you still have the rigor that elite colleges seek but it will not be as taxing as your other AP classes. Plus, you never know how easy or hard you will find the next language! You might to work just as hard to get a grasp of a whole new one!