<p>D is not permitted to take AP Spanish next year, but she has done very well in her Spanish courses and is even considering a possible Spanish minor. I suggested maybe she could get one of her Spanish teachers (who seem to like her) to help her for part of the year so she could challenge the AP exam next spring. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it seems to be quite rare for any students from her hs to get 4 or 5 on the new exam, as few if any speak Spanish in the home (this is what one of the teachers told me a couple of years ago). H and I are not hispanic, and don’t speak more than a few phrases. </p>
<p>Not sure whether to continue encouraging the idea or not…</p>
<p>The AP Spanish exam is extremely demanding. It requires an extensive Spanish vocabulary and the ability to listen to, read, write, and speak Spanish for a prolonged period of time. Few students are accustomed to having to think and function in a foreign language for that long a period.</p>
<p>My daughter took 6 IB exams (she was a full IB diploma student) and 8 AP exams. She said that the AP Spanish exam was the most challenging – and draining – test she had ever taken. And this was after an excellent AP/IB level 5 Spanish course.</p>
<p>YMMV, but I wouldn’t recommend taking this test without thorough preparation.</p>
<p>Ok - another perspective. My S did not take six IB exams, he took a couple AP tests. He took four years of high school Spanish. Nothing before that, he is not from a Spanish speaking home, etc. I talked him into taking it - he was quite sure it would be a waste of time. He got a four. That put him into level four of college Spanish and when he got a passing credit in that class he received three more hours of credit for level three. Needless to say, he was glad he took it.</p>
<p>S skipped Spanish 1 and started Spanish 2 as a freshman after doing a little Spanish study during the summer before 9th grade. He does not come from a Spanish-speaking home, and in fact both of his parents studied French, not Spanish. He got a 5 on the AP Spanish language test. For that matter, he also got 5s on the French AP Lang and Lit exams, and consistently scored very well on the national French and Spanish exams. (1st or 2nd in the state several years.)</p>
<p>Okay, he apparently does have a gift for languages, but I don’t think it is THAT hard…maybe my perception is warped.</p>
<p>I don’t know what last year’s results showed, but in several prior years, about 11% of the “standard” AP Spanish Language test-takers earned a 5. (Standard = don’t hear the language spoken at home and haven’t lived in a country where that is the primary language.) Only about 50% of the “standard” AP Spanish Language test-takers earned a 3, 4, or 5 – which means that about half, and maybe as many of 65% the “standard” students who took the exam probably did not earn college credit even if they matriculated at a college that recognizes AP credit. </p>
<p>This is not to say that your daughter could not self-study, but very carefully studying all the materials at AP Central, buying up-to-date prep books, and doing a lot of reading and listening and speaking in Spanish is important – particularly listening to many different speakers, coming from many different Spanish-speaking areas.</p>
<p>May I suggest Concordia Language Villages this summer? They have terrific month long immersion camps for high school credit. Your D would be in better shape for the AP exam if she took advantage of CLV. My S14 will take the AP Spanish exam this year after 4 years of Spanish. He learned more at CLV the summer before he began 9th grade than he has in any school year.</p>
<p>My D13 took the AP Spanish exam in May 2011, a year after spending a year in South America as an exchange student. She had only ever taken one semester of Spanish classes. She scored a 5 and said the reading and grammar was easy. The only hard part was understanding the listening and doing the speaking in response to the prompt. I imagine if she found that part challenging, most other students probably found it very difficult. That’s the part that concerns me for S14 because he doesn’t get much practice listening and responding in the school language lab.</p>
<p>Has your daughter taken the Spanish with listening SAT II exam? If so, how well did she do on that? If she hasn’t done that, she can pick up official prep materials for the SAT II and the AP Spanish Language exams at the public library, and work through them at home to see if she is comfortable with the material. That will give her (and any potential tutors) a better sense of whether she should pursue the Spanish Language AP or not.</p>
<p>If her goal is college credit, she may want to consider the Spanish CLEP exam. It is about mid-way between the SAT II and AP exams in difficulty, costs about $100 total to take (one fee for the CollegeBoard/ETS, and another one for the individual testing center), and can be taken at any date (and time on that date) during the year that a local testing center has an available slot. Happykid took it on a Thursday afternoon last December. There is no speaking component. For details see [CLEP</a> - College Level Examination Program (CLEP) -Save Time. Save Money. Take CLEP | College Board CLEP Site](<a href=“http://clep.collegeboard.org/]CLEP”>http://clep.collegeboard.org/)</p>
<p>Why can’t she take AP Spanish? How about taking a Spanish class at a local college next year? Our school has a high percent of kids getting 4’s and 5’s on the AP Spanish test but mainly because they take AP Spanish as juniors and take a college level class as Seniors and take the AP test after that college class. But, the test doesn’t cost that much and she really isn’t out anything if she doesn’t get a 4 or 5 so why not try?</p>
<p>How exactly would she benefit from taking the AP? Most schools for foreign language credit have a proficiency placement exam, and scoring high on the spanish AP is extremely difficult, as College Board tries to make it hard for native speakers to get a 5. I would look into other places to keep learning the language, like community college. Why is she not allowed to take AP Spanish?</p>
<p>My D took the SAT II and got an 800; took the AP test and got a 5. No Spanish in the home, she just got A’s in class and as you know language study is cumulative. If you are learning it steadily for 5 years, you should be well prepared (assuming the teacher was any good and included sufficient listening/speaking practice as well as writing.)</p>
<p>She did say the listening/speaking part of the AP (or was it the SAT II? I forget how these things work) was very difficult.</p>
D went from a private middle school with 3 years of Latin (also did well) to a public hs. One of the Spanish teachers advised her to enroll in {his} Spanish 2 advanced, which she did, but someone discovered that she had not taken Spanish in MS, and she had to be moved to Spanish 2 regular (policy beats potential), which was not the track to AP Spanish. Her only option for senior year is Spanish 4A. Courses at colleges or other schools can’t be counted for credit at her high school.</p>
<p>It is certainly doable, just hard. Finding opportunities (a lot of them) that force her to listen and speak Spanish in many different situations and to read short stories, short novels, magazines and newspaper articles in Spanish will be important – the grammar is important (and after all that latin I’d guess she’ll be good at the grammar side) but kids seem to be thrown by the listening/speaking material way too often.</p>
<p>What I’m seeing in the responses is that it would be very difficult but maybe not impossible. The question now is what would she stand to gain by having a 4 or 5 on the AP exam? If she doesn’t opt for a Spanish minor in college, perhaps she would get enough language credit to get out of a semester? Or get placed higher so that she isn’t forced to start from square one at the college level?</p>
<p>As I said before, most colleges use their own placement exam to determine whether a student is proficient enough to get out of the language requirement, or to determine what level class they should be in. Taking the AP is not necessary to get out of language courses or to place higher.</p>
<p>While colleges often have placement tests for languages, in my experience they accept SAT II or AP scores for placement for students who have taken them. So although it is not necessary to have an SAT or AP score to get placement, it is also not necessary to take another test if you have a good score.</p>
<p>The nice thing with AP or SAT II - is that you may qualify for credit. My son placed higher and received three hours credit for a previous level - so six hours for three hours of class. Research the college your student may be attending to determine if that makes it worthwhile.</p>
<p>Does she have any idea where she wants to go to college yet? A few of the schools we have looked at do not allow credit from AP or dual credit classes to count for any major/minor credits. They only apply to the general ed credits. Other schools we have looked at give a lot of credit for a 4 or 5 on the Spanish AP–the last one we looked at gives 10 credits. Look on-line or have her call the schools to see what their exact policy is for AP credits and major/minor courses.</p>
<p>Another suggestion would be to meet with the guidance counselor and see if they can get her into AP Spanish. Maybe her teacher can give her a placement test or even just talk to the counselor. I’m a little surprised that they are so rigid in their course selection and have no opportunities for kids to move into the right levels.</p>