Question 4: Cultural Comparison
88 minutes
4
50% (12.5% per question)
The first part of the multiple-choice section contains sets of questions based on one or more print text sources.
The second part of the multiple-choice section contains sets of questions based on audio text sources, as well as a combination of audio and print text sources.
Read More: Review for the exam with our AP Psychology Crash Courses
AP scores are reported from 1 to 5. Colleges are generally looking for a 4 or 5 on the AP Spanish Language & Culture exam, but some may grant credit for a 3. Here’s how students scored on the May 2020 test:
|
|
|
5 | Extremely qualified | 30.5% |
4 | Well qualified | 36.4% |
3 | Qualified | 23.1% |
2 | Possibly qualified | 8.8% |
1 | No recommendation | 1.2% |
Source: College Board
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The AP Spanish courses are the most popular AP foreign language classes. In fact, they’re so popular that two sets of Spanish curricula exist: AP Spanish Language and Culture and AP Spanish Literature and Culture. This is the only AP foreign language that has more than one course offering. In 2019, over 185,000 students took the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam, making it by far the most popular foreign language exam taken.
The curriculum for the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam emphasizes communication by applying interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational skills in real-life situations. As you undertake the coursework or exam preparations, you will need to focus on understanding others and being understood by others. If you’re planning to take the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam, whether you have taken the class, are a native speaker, or have self-studied, read on for a breakdown of the test and CollegeVine’s advice for how to best prepare.
The College Board will administer the 2020 AP Spanish Language and Culture exam on Tuesday, May 12, at 8 am. For a complete list of all the AP exams, along with tips for success and information about how students score, check out our article 2020 AP Exam Schedule: Everything You Need to Know.
The AP Spanish Language and Culture course is taught almost exclusively in Spanish and includes instruction in vocabulary usage, language control, communication strategies, and cultural awareness.
Although there is some emphasis placed on correct grammar usage, the College Board specifically warns against overemphasizing grammatical accuracy at the expense of communication. Instead, more time will be spent on applying interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational communication skills in real-life situations, exploring the culture in both contemporary and historical contexts, and building an awareness and appreciation of cultural products, practices, and perspectives.
There are no explicit prerequisites for the AP Spanish Language and Culture course, but students who take it are typically in their fourth year of high school-level Spanish language study or have extensive practical experience communicating in both written and oral Spanish language.
There are four essential components to the framework of the AP Spanish Language and Culture course that clarify what you must know, be able to do, and understand to qualify for
college credit or placement. Those components are skills, themes, modes, and task models.
Skills: Skills are the abilities you’ll need to think and act like a Spanish speaker. The College Board breaks these skills into eight units; below is a list of those units along with the weight they are given on the multiple-choice section of the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam:
Comprehend Text | Comprehend written, audio, audiovisual, and visual text (text, pictures, and numbers). | 20%-30% |
Make Connections | Make interdisciplinary and cultural connections. | 30%-40% |
Interpret Text | Interpret the content of written or audio text (words). | 30%-40% |
Make Meanings | Make meanings from words and expressions. | 10%-15% |
Speak to Others | Communicate interpersonally by speaking with others. | Not directly assessed in the multiple-choice section. |
Write to Others | Communicate interpersonally by writing to others. | Not directly assessed in the multiple-choice section. |
Present Orally | Communicate through spoken presentations. | Not directly assessed in the multiple-choice section. |
Present in Writing | Communicate through written presentations. | Not directly assessed in the multiple-choice section. |
Themes: The AP Spanish Language and Culture course is divided into 6 themes in which there are 5-7 contexts covered. Below are the 6 themes along with their recommended contexts:
Families and Communities | |
Personal and Public Identities | |
Beauty and Aesthetics | |
Science and Technology | and Society |
Contemporary Life | |
Global Challenges |
Modes: To pass the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam, students need to demonstrate proficiency engaging in three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational. Students need to possess skills in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in the following areas:
Task Model: Finally, you will work with various task models to demonstrate linguistic skills and cultural understanding. The task model types are:
Promotional material | Interpretive—print source |
Literary text | Interpretive—print source |
Article and chart | Interpretive—print source |
Letter | Interpretive—print source |
Audio report and article | Interpretive—audio and print sources |
Conversation and chart | Interpretive—audio and print sources |
Interview | Interpretive—audio source |
Instructions | Interpretive—audio source |
Presentation | Interpretive—audio source |
Email reply | Interpersonal—written |
Argumentative essay | Interpersonal—written |
Conversation | Interpersonal—spoken |
Cultural comparison | Interpersonal—spoken |
At 3 hours and 3 minutes long, the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam is one of the longer-lasting AP exams. It consists of two primary sections—the first section featuring multiple-choice questions, and the second made up of free response questions.
The multiple-choice questions are further broken down into two parts—one part based on text as a stimulus, the other part uses audio as a stimulus.
Section 1(a): Multiple-Choice Text
40 minutes | 30 questions | 23% of score
The first part of the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam uses a variety of printed materials—journalistic and literary texts, announcements, advertisements, letters, charts, maps, and tables—as a stimulus. You’re asked to identify ideas and details, define words in context, identify an author’s point of view or target audience, and demonstrate knowledge of cultural or interdisciplinary information contained in the text.
Example of a text-based multiple-choice question:
Answers to multiple-choice questions above:
Section 1(b): Multiple-Choice Audio
55 minutes | 35 questions | 27% of score
The second part of the multiple-choice section uses audio material—interviews, podcasts, PSAs, conversations, and brief presentations—as a stimulus. In this part of the exam, students will encounter two subsections of questions.
Example of a question you’ll encounter in the audio-based multiple-choice section, click on the question for audio:
Answers to the multiple choice questions above:
The free-response section of the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam is also broken down into two parts—one part focusing on writing, and the other on speaking.
Section 2 (a): Free Response Written
1 hour 10 minutes | 2 questions | 25% of score
The first free response section features two questions—one on interpersonal writing and the other on presentational writing. The first of the two questions require you to read and respond to an email. You have 15 minutes to complete this section, and it’s worth 12.5% of your exam score. The second of these questions provides three sources—including an article, a table, graph, chart, or infographic, and a related audio source offering different viewpoints on a topic—that you will use to construct an argumentative essay. This question is allotted 55 minutes (15 minutes to review materials and 40 minutes to write) and is also worth 12.5% of your exam score.
Example of an email free-response question:
Section 2: Free Response Spoken
18 minutes | 2 questions | 25% of score
The spoken part of the free response section tests your interpersonal and presentational speaking ability. For interpersonal speaking, you will participate in five exchanges in a simulated conversation with 20 seconds for each response. For the second part, you’re tasked with delivering a two-minute presentation requiring you to compare a cultural feature of a Spanish-speaking community to another community you are familiar with.
When delivering oral responses, you will be digitally recorded and your proctor will submit your recordings with the rest of your test materials. Learn more about submitting audio on the College Board’s webpage of the same name, Submitting Audio .
Example of a spoken, presentational, free-response question:
AP Spanish Language and Culture | 25.2% | 34.2% | 29.4% | 9.5% | 1.8% |
In 2019, students generally did quite well on the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam. More than half of all students received a score of 4 or 5, and nearly 90% of test-takers received a passing score (3 or higher). Though students who regularly spoke or heard Spanish outside of school did perform slightly better overall than the standard group of foreign language students, the standard group still passed the exam at a rate of nearly 85% and only 3% received the lowest score of a 1.
To guide your studying, read the full AP Spanish course description . For a comprehensive listing of the score distribution on all of the AP exams, check out our post Easiest and Hardest AP Exams .
Step 1: start by assessing your skills.
It’s important to start your studying off with a good understanding of your existing knowledge. Although the College Board does not provide a complete practice test, you can find sample questions with scoring explanations included in the course description . Additionally, you can find a free AP Spanish Language and Culture diagnostic test from Varsity Tutors. You may also find practice or diagnostic exams in many of the commercially printed study guides.
In the case of the AP Spanish Language and Culture course, the theory you’ll need to know falls into six themes (Beauty and Aesthetics, Contemporary Life, Families and Communities, Global Challenges, Personal and Public Identities, Science and Technology). Many textbooks will be divided into units based on these themes. Even if they are not, you should find threads of them throughout your studies.
Of course, the best way to study a foreign language is to truly immerse yourself in it. Although your course will be taught primarily in Spanish, this will account for only a tiny percentage of your day. You should find other ways to further your exposure to the Spanish language, and given the prevalence of Spanish in our own contemporary culture, this should not be difficult. You can easily find engaging young adult books written in Spanish, interesting Youtube videos or TV shows in Spanish, or even Spanish podcasts. Check out comic books, news, or websites in Spanish. Make sure you are speaking, listening to, and reading Spanish as much as possible, even outside of your regular study or class hours.
The College Board also provides some valuable study tools for your use. Reviewing the AP Spanish Language and Culture Course and Exam Description can help you to more deeply understand the course content and format. You should also review the exam audio files and the official Exam Practice Tips to help guide your studying.
In addition, you should take advantage of the many commercial study guides available for your use. One of the top-rated AP Spanish Language and Culture study guides is the Princeton Review’s Cracking the AP Spanish Language & Culture Exam with Audio CD, 2020 Edition . This compilation of content reviews and strategies also contains two full-length practice tests with complete answer explanations and access to the Princeton Review’s AP Connect portal online. Another great option is Barron’s AP Spanish Language and Culture with MP3 CD, 8th Edition , which again contains two full-length practice exams with audio sections for both practice exams.
There are also vast amounts of study materials available online. Taking one of the more popular AP exams means that many students have been in your shoes, and often they or their teachers have posted past materials to supplement their studying. You can find a huge database of resources including sound files, Spanish reading sites, and grammar sites— this site is a good place to get started.
Finally, apps are a relatively new and fun way to squeeze in a little more studying. The Fluent U app is a great option for AP foreign languages. The basic version is free, but watch out for in-app purchases. The premium versions can set you back between $30 and $240 dollars.
Once you’ve got a good handle on the major course content and theory, you can begin putting it to use. Start by practicing multiple-choice questions. You will be able to find plenty of these available online (for example, study.com has a free 50-question online practice test ) for the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam, or you can try the practice ones provided in commercial study guides.
The College Board course description also contains a number of multiple-choice questions with answers and explanations. As you are reviewing these, keep track of which broad content areas are coming easily to you and which still require more effort. Think about what each question is really asking you to do, and keep a list of vocabulary, grammar, and content areas that still seem unfamiliar. These will be points for more review before you move on.
Even if you’ve studied for the free response section of other APs in the past, your studies for the free response section of the foreign language AP exams will be quite different. In addition to practicing your written responses, you’ll also need to fine-tune your listening skills and oral responses.
Begin your preparations by brushing up on your vocabulary and grammar. Make sure you have a handle on a broad variety of verbs and how to conjugate each. Also, reaffirm that your knowledge of vocabulary will allow you to express yourself as fluently as possible. A great tool for this is a supplementary set of Barron’s AP Spanish Flash Cards . These cards emphasize word usage within the context of sentences and review parts of speech, noun genders, verb forms and tenses, and correct sentence structure.
Beyond vocabulary and grammar, your studies should also include practicing written and oral responses. The best way to specifically prepare for both the written and spoken portions of your free response questions is to practice repeated similar prompts. There is a huge resource of past free response questions available on College Board’s website dating back to 1999, with accompanying scoring explanations and examples of authentic student responses.
To make the most of these example free response questions, review the Chief Reader Report on Student Responses wherein the Chief Reader of the AP Exam compiles feedback to describe how students performed on the prompts, summarizes typical student errors, and addresses specific concepts and content with which students have struggled the most.
It can be especially difficult to prepare for the oral portion of your free response section since it’s difficult to identify your own spoken errors. Try recording your responses and comparing them to the authentic student responses available above. Alternatively, collaborate with a classmate to record and trade responses, offering one another constructive criticism framed by the scoring examples available above.
Just as you took a practice test at the beginning of your preparations to gauge your readiness for the exam, do so again after a thorough review of the course content and each exam portion. Identify the areas in which you’ve improved the most, and areas still in need of improvement. If time allows, repeat the steps above to incrementally increase your score with each pass.
If you’re taking the AP course associated with this exam, your teacher will walk you through how to register. If you’re self-studying, check out our blog post How to Self-Register for AP Exams .
For information about what to bring to the exam, see our post What Should I Bring to My AP Exam (And What Should I Definitely Leave at Home)?
Want access to expert college guidance — for free? When you create your free CollegeVine account, you will find out your real admissions chances, build a best-fit school list, learn how to improve your profile, and get your questions answered by experts and peers—all for free. Sign up for your CollegeVine account today to get a boost on your college journey.
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How to approach ap® spanish language free-response questions.
The AP® Spanish Language Course targets interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication through writing, reading, speaking, and understanding. Strategies that emphasize vocabulary, language structure, communication, and culture in both contemporary and historical contexts are taught almost exclusively in Spanish. Instruction is often interactive, using Spanish books, music, and patterns of social interactions within a culture to familiarize students with the language.
This AP® Spanish study guide will briefly outline the format of the AP® Spanish Language Exam, putting particular emphasis on the AP® Spanish Language Free-Response section. It will provide insights into why the free-response section is important to the overall test results, mention content covered in the free-response section, and discuss how to prepare for AP® Spanish Language Free-Response section. Finally, this guide will provide you with AP® Spanish Language Exam tips to help you answer the free-response questions on the day of the test, and provide AP® Spanish Language practice questions.
The AP® Spanish Language Exam is approximately three hours long and consists of two sections divided into several components.
The first section asks test takers to complete a number of listening and reading comprehension questions. Here students are asked to listen to prerecorded interviews, radio programs, podcasts, or to read articles from newspapers, web pages, special reports, or literature, and answer multiple choice questions about each of them.
The second section, also referred to as the “AP® Spanish Free-Response” section, lasts about one hour and 30 minutes. It deals with writing and speaking both informal and formal Spanish. The Interpersonal Writing component, for example, asks that students look over a document – an email, perhaps – and respond with a written answer. The Presentational Writing component asks students to draw together an argument from a number of sources like articles, tables, graphs, or an audio artifact to express their views on a particular topic.
Students also interact with documents in the informal and formal speaking component as well. In the Interpersonal Speaking component, test takers are given five listening passages meant to provoke conversation. Students then respond to the clip for about 20 seconds per question. The Presentational Speaking component asks that test takers speak for a bit longer – for two minutes, to be exact. Here they are given a prompt on a cultural topic, where they are asked to compare how such an issue may be similar or different in their own community and that of a Spanish-speaking country.
The AP® Spanish Language Exam is scored by a team of college faculty and seasoned AP® teachers trained in fair-mindedness and uniformity. This Free-Response section, like the multiple choice section, is 50% of your final exam grade – so it’s pretty important. The weighted scores from the Free-Response section are combined with those from a machine-graded multiple choice. These are summed and given an AP® composite score of a 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 (5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest).
The exam tests the social, cultural, academic, and workplace skills you have been developing throughout your AP® Spanish course. In particular, test-takers are presented with questions on global challenges, science & technology, contemporary life, personal and public identities, families and communities, and beauty and aesthetics. Within these themes, students are asked to interact with an assortment of media, voice their opinions, and make connections and comparisons between English and Spanish speaking communities.
In this section, you’ll find a few suggestions on how you can conduct your own AP® Spanish review during your free time. The CollegeBoard also offers some additional insights to get test-takers ready for test day. You can find out more by clicking here .
One way to prepare for the writing section of the exam is to look through various review books — in addition to your textbook, AP® Spanish: Preparing for the Language and Culture Examination by José M. Díaz, Prentice Hall’s Una Vez Más (Once More), or Triángulo (Triangle) by Barbara Gatski all come highly recommended. When looking through these books, check out a few practice questions that are modeled after writing prompts from the test. Doing a few practice drills will better acquaint you with the sorts of essay questions asked on the test. If your AP® Spanish teacher has the time, ask them to go over any mistakes you may have made while working out your answers.
You’ll improve your Spanish skills by speaking the language on a daily basis. As mentioned, the exam asks you to discuss various topics in Spanish, for times ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes. Practicing this skill will be invaluable. Without limiting yourself, speak in simple, frank sentences that use vocabulary and grammar you are most conversant in. Investing in a digital recorder so that you can practice speaking into it is one way to improve your oral communication skills while developing muscle memory for particular tough-to-pronounce Spanish sounds.
Albert offers test takers some useful tips to prepare them for the writing section of the AP® Spanish Language exam (see Albert’s The Ultimate List of AP® Spanish Language Tips for further details). Here are a few more insights regarding how you may want to tackle answering these during the exam.
Below you’ll find some examples of real Free-Response Questions from the CollegeBoard’s AP® Central (you can check out specific details and more sample questions here ). Try a few of these questions in the months before the test to ensure you are getting your fill of AP® Spanish practice!
Example 1 : You will write a reply to an e-mail message. You have 15 minutes to read the message and write your reply. Your reply should include a greeting and a closing and should respond to all the questions and requests in the message. In your reply, you should also ask for more details about something mentioned in the message. Also, you should use a formal method of address.
Example 2 : You will write a persuasive essay to submit to a Spanish writing contest. The essay topic is based on three accompanying sources, which present different viewpoints on the topic and include both print and audio material. First, you will have 6 minutes to read the essay topic and the printed material. Afterward, you will hear the audio material twice; you should take notes while you listen. Then, you will have 40 minutes to prepare and write your essay. In your persuasive essay, you should present the sources’ different viewpoints on the topic and also clearly indicate your own viewpoint and defend it thoroughly. Use information from all of the sources to support your essay. As you refer to the sources, identify them appropriately. Also, organize your essay into clear paragraphs.
Example 1 : You will participate in a conversation. First, you will have one minute to read a preview of the conversation, including an outline of each turn in the conversation. Afterward, the conversation will begin, following the outline. Each time it is your turn to speak, you will have 20 seconds to record your response. You should participate in the conversation as fully and appropriately as possible.
Example 2 : You will make an oral presentation on a specific topic to your class. You will have four minutes to read the presentation topic and prepare your presentation. Then you will have two minutes to record your presentation. In your presentation, compare your own community to an area of the Spanish-speaking world with which you are familiar. You should demonstrate your understanding of cultural features of the Spanish-speaking world. You should also organize your presentation clearly.
In summary, there are a lot of resources that test takers can draw from to help them with the AP® Spanish Language Free-Response section. Wrap your mind around as many interviews, radio programs, podcasts, newspapers, web pages, special reports, or literature in Spanish as you can handle. Meet with your fellow students or Spanish speakers in your community to attend Spanish cultural events and films, Discuss current global events; the latest tech gadgets; or your love, family, or work life. In other words, if you engage with the language on a daily basis, you’ll not only be developing skills that will help you practice for the test, but you’ll be opening yourself up to unique social worlds in new and dynamic ways.
Kickstart your AP® Spanish Language prep with Albert. Start your AP® exam prep today .
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Ready or not here we go. Our students will be taking the fu ll AP Language and Culture Exam next month. We only have a few weeks left, but these weeks are very important. We need to be intentional so our students have the best possible chance. How? In these two-part blog posts, we will share with you our 5 top strategies to tackle the free-response questions when time is running out even if you’re behind the screen.
The challenges of this year are real and big, but we still have a few weeks before our students sit in front of a full AP exam. During this time, we would like to focus on the free-response questions. We feel our students can show their proficiency much better in this second part of the exam.
In this Part I , we will share with you our first two strategies . In Part II , we will share our last three strategies.
In addition to these strategies, I use these scaffolds to support my students in the four, free response questions of the AP Exam. If you want this in your inbox, click HERE .
Now, let’s start with our strategies.
One of the most common questions our students ask us when they have to write the formal email, or the essay, and even the cultural comparison or the simulated conversion is “ How do I start? ” We may think our students already know how to write a formal response or a thesis, or how to elaborate or to compare, but the reality is that a lot of them don’t even know how to do it in their first language.
We surely can explain in detail to them how to complete all these tasks, but at the end is so much more efficient and effective to show them. You will get these “ AHA ” expressions from them more often when you show them how a great formal response or thesis looks like. Providing model texts to your students will not only give them the vision of what elements they need to include in all these tasks but also make the tasks doable and accessible.
What is a model text? It’s a text that exhibits all the elements of successful writing or speaking in a given context. Where can you find them? Our #1 place to find these model texts is on the AP Exam College Board site. Every year the College Board puts together samples of the different responses by score. Those samples are gold, and you can use them with your classes at any time. Click here to find the samples for the AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam.
Can you prepare your own model texts or use samples from your students? Of course you can. Using samples from your students is also very powerful to create connections with them. Using their work as part of your curriculum is a great practice.
Once you have identified your model text, have your students identify the important elements and desirable language of that specific text. Those elements and language are the ones you’re looking for in an exemplary text.
For example, in the argumentative essay, ask your students to identify the thesis, supportive arguments, use of the different sources and language that make that text successful. We also like to ask students to identify impressive language features.
Behind the screen, we would like to use a tool that allows the entire class to see students’ dissection. Tools like Nearpod, PearDeck, GoFormative, or Jamboard are great.
When your students dissect the model text, there will be tons of great features and elements you may want to highlight and go deeper. However, we only have a few weeks before the exam. You know your students best. You know where they are and what they need. Focus on features that will create the biggest impact on their performance.
This year we have a lot of students who are only in the intermediate low level. Should we focus on advanced structures? No really. We want to focus on simple structures. Structures that they’ve already acquired. We can show them how they can use those simple structures and simple language to complete the tasks. Making these tasks accessible and doable to them is huge at this point. Asking to identify features in the model text will help them visualize what they need to do.
The four response tasks of the AP exam require students to complete several steps. They need to read, understand, identify, analyze, and then complete the task itself. Chunking those steps will help them complete the tasks easier and will keep the level of engagement high and level of frustration lower.
These are different ideas on how to do that with each task:
This was a lot but hopefully, you either validated the strategies you’re already using in class or you added even more tools to use in your class during these last weeks.
Don’t forget, I use these scaffolds to support my students in the free response questions of the AP Exam. If you want this in your inbox, click HERE .
In the second part of this series , we’ll share with you our last three strategies to help your students have their best chance at their AP Language & Culture Exam.
Would you like to learn more about strategies for advanced courses? Make sure to check out the course that Bertha Delgadillo and I created. Find out more HERE .
Hi! Do you have the Jamboard templates for AP that are in these screenshots? I’d love to purchase them!
Hi Teresa, Bertha doesn’t have specific templates for AP but you can check her TPT store. She has tons of templates there. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Profesora-Delgadillo Have a great day. Claudia
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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the ultimate guide to the ap spanish literature exam.
Advanced Placement (AP)
The AP Spanish Literature and Culture exam is an excellent opportunity to show off your critical reading, writing, and analytical skills in another language while earning college credit in the process.
But conquering the course material is only the beginning. You need to learn everything there is to know about the exam to boost your chances of earning a passing score (and college credit) to boot!
In this guide, we’ll go over everything you need to know to start prepping for the AP Spanish Literature and Culture exam , including:
There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!
The AP Spanish Literature and Culture exam tests your understanding of Spanish language skills and literature written in Spanish , including short stories, novels, essays, plays, and poetry.
Like most AP exams, the test lasts for a total of three hours . You’ll have to answer 65 multiple choice questions and four free-response questions to complete the test.
The AP Spanish Lit exam is divided into two sections. Section I of the exam consists of 65 multiple-choice questions and lasts for one hour and 20 minutes (80 minutes total). The multiple-choice section is further divided into two parts: Part 1A, and Part 1B. Both Part A and Part B of Section I are totally multiple choice, but they test you on different skills. As a whole, Section I counts for 50% of your total exam score .
Section II of the exam tests your critical reading and analytical writing skills through four free response questions . Section II lasts for 1 hour and 40 minutes (100 minutes) and counts for 50% of your total exam score . Each free response question asks you to write either a short answer or longer essay in response to a specific text or set of texts (called “stimulus” on the exam).
To help you visualize the breakdown, here’s the AP Spanish Lit exam structure in table format:
Source: The College Board
But is AP Spanish Literature hard? If you want to get an idea of how difficult the exam is and learn how to get a 5 on AP Spanish Literature, keep reading: we’ll break down the course content, skills, and themes (temas de AP Spanish Literature) that you need to understand for the AP Spanish Lit exam next!
AP Spanish Lit is focused around six core themes , or temas de AP Spanish Literature. These course themes are designed to help you develop the skills you need to fully understand Spanish literature and culture…and ace the AP Spanish Lit exam!
Exploring these themes and applying them to the texts on the AP Spanish Literature reading list will equip you with the critical thinking and analytical skills you need to succeed on the AP Spanish Literature exam. The six themes and skills that you’ll master during the course are:
The AP Spanish Lit themes and skills are typically taught through eight units of study . Understanding these units of study will help you get a big picture view of what the course covers, and how different course topics are connected. Content from each course unit will appear on the exam, so it’s important to familiarize yourself with them as early as you can!
The eight units of study in AP Spanish Literature are :
Now that you have a good sense of what’s on the AP Spanish Literature exam, let’s take a closer look at each section of the exam and the types of questions that appear in each one.
The first section of the exam tests you in two main areas: your interpretive listening skills, and your reading analysis skills .
To test you on these skills, Section I is broken down into two parts: Part A and Part B. Part A will test your interpretive listening skills, and Part B will test your reading analysis skills. Both parts of Section I use authentic Spanish language texts presented in different formats to assess your skills.
While Parts A and B of Section I test you using texts in different formats (audio vs. print/written), both parts include question types that assess you on these three skills:
Since Part A and Part B are a bit different (though both are multiple-choice!), let’s break them down a bit further next.
Part A of Section I asks you to demonstrate your ability to accurately interpret a variety of Spanish language audio texts . This part of Section I consists of 15 total questions that are presented in sets of either four or seven multiple-choice questions. Each set of questions comes with an audio text in either the format of an interview, a poem, and a discussion or lecture on literary topics.
Here’s a clearer breakdown of the structure of Part A of Section I:
Since Part A is a bit of an outlier when it comes to the testing format, it’s important to understand how this part of the exam will be administered ahead of time. Let’s look at a real interpretive listening question to get a better sense of how this part of the exam works next.
To help you get a better sense of what Section I Part A will be like, let’s take a look at a real interpretive listening question from the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam .
In the picture below, you’ll see a set of written directions (which appear in Spanish on the real exam!), a written transcript of a poem entitled “La guitarra,” and one multiple choice question. However, on the real exam, you’ll only get to listen to the text provided –you won’t be given a printed copy of it!
When this portion of the exam begins, you’ll listen to the provided text once, then have one minute to take notes and view the exam questions for this portion of the test. After that, you’ll listen to the provided text a second time, then have one minute to answer the provided set of questions (ranging from four to seven questions in total). You’ll be able to use the notes you took for reference as you answer the questions!
You can read the directions, Spanish language poem, and set of four questions for our example interpretive listening task here:
And here's the question set:
The four questions in the set above ask about the events that occur in the poem, as well as the poem’s imagery, tone, and writing style . We’ll break down the correct answers for each question here:
To ace interpretive listening questions like these, you’ll need to listen closely, jot down notes about important words, themes, or ideas, and use context clues to accurately analyze the texts that you’re given.
Next, let’s look at the second part of Section I of the exam: Part B, multiple-choice reading analysis.
Section I Part B asks you to demonstrate your skills of reading analysis by engaging with print or written texts. On this part of Section I, you’ll be given 60 minutes to complete 50 multiple-choice questions. Part B accounts for 40% of your exam score .
The questions on Part B are divided into four sets. Each set applies to a specific text or set of texts. To give you a clearer picture of how Part B is structured, we’ll break it down further below:
To help you get a better sense of what Section I Part B will be like, let’s take a look at a real set of reading analysis questions from the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam .
In the picture below, you’ll see a set of written directions (Spanish-only provided on the real exam!), a written passage, and a set of five multiple-choice questions :
Each of the questions above asks you to analyze the provided text and select the answer choice that best characterizes your understanding of the text’s meaning . Now, let’s look at the correct answers for each question and the skills you’ll need to successfully choose them:
To succeed on reading analysis questions like the ones above, you’ll need to have a solid grasp of Spanish language conventions, strong analytical skills, and the ability to interpret ideas in different contexts.
Next, let’s look more closely at Section II of the AP Spanish Lit exam: the free-response section.
Or more accurately, escribe algo.
Section II of the AP Spanish Lit exam lasts for one hour and 40 minutes, includes four free-response questions, and counts for 50% of your exam score.
There are two distinct types of questions on the AP Spanish Lit free-response section : short answer questions, and essay questions. Both types of free-response questions test your ability to clearly and thoughtfully explain the events of a text, analyze texts, and compare and contrast multiple texts that share common themes. You’ll demonstrate these skills by writing short and longer free-responses on the exam!
To help you understand what free-response questions will be like on the exam, we’ll walk you through a real exam question, scoring rubric, and student response for both short-answer and essay questions below.
On the AP Spanish Lit exam, you’ll respond to two short-answer questions . The sample question below is an example of a short answer free-response question from the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam. This short-answer question asks students to provide a Spanish-language explanation of the provided text, which comes from Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s poem “ Hombres necios que acusáis ,” written in 1689:
The free-response short answer question above asks students to read the provided text, identify the author and period of the text, and explain the development of a given theme in the text.
We’ll provide a sample student response to this question in just a minute, but first, let’s see how you could earn full credit for this question. Take a look at the official scoring rubric used to evaluate this question on the 2021 Spanish AP Lit exam to see how your response will be scored:
The example student response below comes straight from the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam. The student is responding to the short-answer question we’ve included above.
This short-answer response received a 3 for Content and a 3 for Language based on the criteria in the scoring rubric above. That means that this student response received six out of six possible points for this free-response question!
There are two free-response essay questions on the AP Spanish Lit exam . To help you get an idea of what these questions are like, let’s go over a sample essay question, scoring rubric, and student response from the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam.
The free-response essay question below asks students to analyze how a single text represents both the specified period, movement, literary genre, and technique and the given cultural context. The selected text in the question below comes from Gabriel García Márquez’s short story, “ La siesta del martes” :
Before we look at a real student’s response to this essay question, let’s look at the scoring rubric used to evaluate responses to this essay question . The rubric below was used to score this type of essay question on the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam:
Now that you know how this type of essay question is scored, let’s look at a real student’s response to this essay question. This student’s response comes straight from the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam and scored a 5/5 for Content and a 5/5 for Language, which means this response received full points !
Understanding how your AP Spanish Lit exam will be scored can help you feel more prepared for the exam. Here, we’ll overview how each section of the AP Spanish lit exam is scored, scaled, and combined to produce your final score on the AP 1-5 scale .
As a refresher, here’s how the score percentages break down on the AP Spanish Literature exam:
On the multiple choice section, you earn one raw point for every question you answer correctly. This means that the maximum raw score you can earn on the multiple choice section is 65 points. No points are deducted for wrong answers .
The free-response section is a bit different. The two short answer free-response questions are each worth six raw points, and the two essay free-response questions are worth 10 points each. This means that there are a total of 32 possible points in the free-response section.
Keep in mind that you’ll lose points on free-response questions only for major errors , like failing to analyze or compare the provided texts, for instance. You aren’t going to lose points for a stray comma splice here and there as long as grammatical errors don’t interfere with the AP grader’s ability to understand your response.
You can earn 97 raw points on the AP Spanish Lit exam. Here’s how those are divided by section:
From there, your raw scores will be converted into a scaled score of 1-5 by the College Board. That’s the score you’ll see when you receive your official score report! Unfortunately, the 5 rate for the AP Spanish Literature exam is pretty low compared to other AP exams . You can see what percentage of test takers earned each possible score on the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam below:
You know what’s on the exam and how it’s scored. Now you’re ready to get down to business! If you’re wondering how to study for AP Spanish Literature, keep reading–we’ll give you four top tips for kickstarting your Spanish AP Literature prep below!
The best way to assess your preparedness for the AP Spanish Lit exam is to test your skills out on a practice exam. Taking a practice exam will help you identify skills and texts that you struggle with. From there, you can design a study plan that targets your weaker areas to improve your chances of earning a passing score !
You can find a full set of official multiple-choice practice questions here , and the College Board provides a large repository of past free-response exam questions on their website . Be sure to use official practice questions like the ones linked here as much as possible. Using official practice materials ensures you’re getting quality practice that’s very similar to the real exam!
The AP Spanish Literature course includes a total of 38 required texts –and you’ll be expected to read and know all of them for the exam. That’s a lot of texts to master, especially if Spanish isn’t your first language!
Your AP teacher will dedicate lots of class time to teaching you the texts on the AP Spanish Literature reading list, but if you want to really learn them, you’ll need to spend time studying them outside of class too. Remember: all of the required course readings will be unabridged, full-text, and in Spanish. The more effort you dedicate to studying the texts on the AP Spanish Literature reading list on your own time, the more successful you’re likely to be on the AP exam.
The College Board provides an official AP Spanish Literature reading list on their website . You can use this list to start working through the course readings and searching for supplemental study materials for individual texts online.
Understanding the six core themes of the AP Spanish Lit course (temas de AP Spanish Literature) is crucial to success on the AP exam. These course themes are designed to promote critical thinking about the course readings and encourage making connections and comparisons between different texts and cultures.
As you take the AP Spanish Literature course, you’ll notice that the course themes are paired with various learning goals. Pay close attention when these themes pop up in course materials and consider what you should be learning from them! Doing this will help you develop the skills you need to interpret, analyze, and compare texts on the exam .
As you progress through the AP Spanish Lit course, you’ll begin to notice question types that seem to trip you up. As you get graded quizzes and tests back during class, keep running notes about the questions you miss. Jot down what type of question it was (multiple choice or free response), the skills it assessed, and where you lost points or went wrong.
From there, you can find and work with practice questions (like the ones linked earlier!) that are the same type as the ones you’ve struggled with. The more you practice with questions that trip you up, the more likely you’ll be to get them right on the real exam!
Need a little help with your Spanish vocabulary? This list of how to talk about body parts in Spanish can give you a fun way to brush up!
Thinking about taking another foreign language in high school? This guide will help you pick the best languages for you.
While the SAT Spanish subject test is no longer offered, you can use the free study materials to help you practice your reading and comprehension skills. We’ve compiled a list of resources that you can use as extra prep.
Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.
Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!
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Review the free-response questions from the 2024 ap exam., exam overview.
Exam questions assess the course concepts and skills outlined in the course framework. For more information, download the AP Spanish Literature and Culture Course and Exam Description (CED) and the CED’s companion audio files .
Encourage your students to visit the AP Spanish Literature and Culture student page for exam information.
We’ve updated the AP Spanish Literature and Culture scoring guidelines for the 2023-24 school year.
This change only affects the free-response question scoring, with no change to the course or the exam: the exam format, course framework, and skills assessed on the exam all remain unchanged.
The course and exam description (CED) has been updated with the revised scoring guidelines.
Fri, May 10, 2024
12 PM Local
Exam format.
The AP Spanish Literature and Culture Exam has consistent question types, weighting, and scoring guidelines, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day.
Section IA: Multiple Choice 15 Questions | 20 Minutes | 10% of Exam Score
Section IB: Multiple Choice 50 Questions | 1 Hour | 40% of Exam Score
Section II: Free Response 4 Questions | 1 Hour, 40 Minutes | 50% of Exam Score
Ap spanish literature and culture exam questions and scoring information.
View free-response questions and scoring information from this year's exam and past exams.
Ap score reports for educators.
Access your score reports.
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Download free-response questions from this year's exam and past exams along with scoring guidelines, sample responses from exam takers, and scoring distributions. AP Exams are regularly updated to align with best practices in college-level learning. Not all free-response questions on this page reflect the current exam, but the question types ...
Learn these 52 persuasive AP Spanish essay phrases to help improve your writing for the exam. With phrases to agree and disagree, present an opinion, support this opinion and bring an essay to a conclusion, this guide can give your vocabulary a boost. ... Do practice exams and read sample essays. The College Board has posted the full AP exams ...
• Organized essay; some effective use of transitional elements or cohesive devices • Fully understandable, with some errors that do not impede comprehensibility ... AP Spanish Language and Culture Sample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary from the 2018 Exam Administration: Task 2 - Persuasive Essay Keywords:
Teachers: Explore timing and format for the AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam. Review sample questions, scoring guidelines, and sample student responses. ... Write an argumentative essay based on 3 sources, including an article, a table, graph, chart, or infographic, and a related audio source (played twice), that present different ...
Task 2: Persuasive Essay. Note: Student samples are quoted verbatim and may contain some grammatical errors. Overview. This task assessed writing in the presentational communicative mode by having students write a persuasive essay on a given topic while referencing three sources of information about the topic.
The student produces an essay written in paragraph-length discourse with examples of complex sentences : lines 20-22 " Esto confirma que los estudiantes … con sus amigos. " Sample: 2B . Score: 3 . This is an example of an essay that demonstrates a fair performance in Presentational Writing . The student
AP. Spanish Language and Culture 2021 Scoring Commentary. Question 2 (continued) • The response presents and defends the student's own position on the topic with a high degree of clarity; develops an argument with coherence and detail. For example, ".
Exploring a Persuasive Essay Example for AP Spanish. Take a moment to explore an engaging persuasive essay example for AP Spanish and see how the author effectively uses rhetorical strategies to convince the reader. In this essay, the author discusses the importance of cultural diversity and language proficiency.
Get exam information and free-response questions with sample answers you can use to practice for the AP Spanish Language ... This is the regularly scheduled date for the AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam. Details Add to Calendar. Exam Components. ... Write an argumentative essay based on 3 sources, including an article, a ...
The Argumentative Essay on the AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam is "arguably" one of the most difficult tasks. It is the open-ended section that takes the most time. It really challenges students to demonstrate excellent reading and listening comprehension skills. Their vocabulary and grammar skills are also put to the test.
The first time my students will write an argumentative essay for a grade, I try to dial down the stress and anxiety. I don't feel that they need a real AP Test-taking scenario on the first try. So, I usually present the sources on "Day one". They have time to read the 2 print sources and listen to the audio source.
In this section, you'll write a brief reply to an example email. Don't forget to include a greeting, closing, answers to its questions and follow-up questions of your own. ... Learn these 52 persuasive AP Spanish essay phrases to help improve your writing for the exam. With phrases to agree and disagree, present an opinion, support this ...
Sections & Question Types. The AP Spanish Language & Culture Exam is just over 3 hours long to complete and is comprised of two sections: a multiple-choice section and a free-response section. There are two parts to the multiple-choice section, and four questions in the free-response section. Section. Timing. Number of Questions. % of Exam Score.
Integrates content from all three sources in support of an argument. Presents and defends the student's own position on the topic with a high degree of clarity; develops an argument with coherence and detail. Organized essay; effective use of transitional elements or cohesive devices. Fully understandable, with ease and clarity of expression ...
AP Spanish Argumentative Essay Tip #3. Design teacher-friendly ways for students to practice. Let's face it. Students need lots of practice and lots of feedback to get good at this essay. But essays are very time consuming to write and very time consuming to grade. The strategy I use with my students is to break the essay into parts and allow ...
AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam Content. At 3 hours and 3 minutes long, the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam is one of the longer-lasting AP exams. It consists of two primary sections—the first section featuring multiple-choice questions, and the second made up of free response questions.
AP® Spanish Language Essay Tips & Advice. Image Source: Flickr. Example 1: You will write a reply to an e-mail message. You have 15 minutes to read the message and write your reply. Your reply should include a greeting and a closing and should respond to all the questions and requests in the message.
For example, in the argumentative essay, ask your students to identify the thesis, supportive arguments, use of the different sources and language that make that text successful. ... Pingback: 3 Strategies to Successfully Tackle the Multiple-Choice Section of the AP® Spanish Language and Culture Exam - Growing with Proficiency. Leave a Reply ...
To help you get an idea of what these questions are like, let's go over a sample essay question, scoring rubric, and student response from the 2021 AP Spanish Lit exam. The free-response essay question below asks students to analyze how a single text represents both the specified period, movement, literary genre, and technique and the given ...
AP Spanish Language and Culture Sample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary from the 2018 Exam Administration: Task 1 - Email Conversation Keywords teacher resources; exam resources; exam information; scoring information; score rationale; AP Spanish Language and Culture Sample Student Responses and Scoring Commentary from the 2018 Exam ...
Here are some sample student responses to the questions in the speaking section of the 2019 AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam. Please see the text following the files for more information about using these audio files. Commentary that goes along with these audio files can be found in PDF format on the Spanish Language Exam page.
In the reply, the student was asked to include a greeting and a closing, respond to two questions that were addressed in the e-mail, and ask for more details and information about the topic in the original message. The student was also asked to use a formal form of address in their response. Sample: 1A.
The AP Spanish Literature and Culture Exam has consistent question types, weighting, and scoring guidelines, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day. Students will have time to skim the questions for each set before listening to the audio. The interview and presentation will be played once; the recited poem will be played twice.