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AP Spanish Language and Culture

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This article is about the Advanced Placement Spanish Language course and exam. For the literature course and exam, see AP Spanish Literature and Culture.

Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish Language and Culture (also known as AP Spanish Language, AP Spanish V, or AP Spanish) is a course and examination offered by the College Board in the United States education system as part of the Advanced Placement Program.[1]

The course

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This course is primarily a comprehensive review of all previous knowledge pertaining to the Spanish language. This class builds upon the skills developed within introductory and intermediate Spanish classes by applying each skill to a specific, contemporary context; common themes include health, education, careers, literature, history, family, relationships, and the environment. Students also strive to refine their skills in writing, reading, speaking, and understanding spoken Spanish. Students concentrate on developing proficiency in such skills, specifically in preparation for the AP Spanish Language examination. In addition, the course emphasizes mastery of linguistic competencies at a very high level of proficiency.

Despite the best attempts by the College Board, the AP Spanish Language curriculum is very fluid. Individual teachers can choose to present the material in a variety of ways. Because teachers inherently have different methods of pedagogy, issues arise that pertain to the necessity of a standardized Spanish curriculum for the exam. Since the Spanish language is so eclectic and can be tested in a plethora of manners, a more solidified curriculum covering specific vocabulary, verb forms and usages, expressions, and other facets of the language is hard to develop.

While some students may be concerned about their ability to demonstrate proficiency in an assessment that native speakers of Spanish also take, only the scores of students who study Spanish as a second language are factored in when creating the distribution curve of scores 1–5. Native speakers or heritage language speakers of Spanish are then compared to non-native distribution and assigned a score accordingly.[citation needed]

There are six AP themes in the course, and within each theme there are six contexts.[2]

Themes Contexts
Families and Communities Customs and Values, Education Communities, Family Structure, Global Citizenship, Human Geography, Social Networking
Personal and Public Identities Alienation and Assimilation, Heroes and Historical Figures, National and Ethnic Identities, Personal Beliefs, Personal Interests, Self-Image
Beauty and Aesthetics Architecture, Defining Beauty, Defining Creativity, Fashion and Design, Language and Literature, Visual and Performing Arts
Science and Technology Access to Technology, Effects of Technology on Self and Society, Health Care and Medicine, Innovations, Natural Phenomena, Science and Ethics
Contemporary Life Education and Careers, Entertainment, Travel and Leisure, Lifestyles, Relationships, Social Customs and Values
Global Challenges Economic Issues, Environmental Issues, Philosophical Thought and Religions, Population and Demographics, Social Welfare, Social Conscience

The exam

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As of May 2017, the exam, normally administered on a Tuesday morning in May, is divided into two sections with multiple parts each. Section One, Part A contains sections of reading comprehension, in which students read four different passages and then answer multiple-choice questions about them. This section is 40 minutes.

Section One, Part B contains readings with audio accompaniment and asks students multiple-choice questions to compare and contrast the two as well as synthesize each one individually. Section three contains audio presentations of approximately three minutes and has multiple-choice questions. The two sections combined are allotted 55 minutes.

In Section Two, Part A: Email Response, students respond to a formal e-mail with a short response and ask questions to the author. This section is 15 minutes.

In Section Two, Part A: Argumentative Essay, is a formal writing component takes the shape of a document-based question. Students must use two sources as well as listen to a recording to give a written answer to the question.

Section Two, Part B: Interpersonal Speaking, is an informal or formal speaking section, where students are expected to interact to a recorded dialogue, during which they have 20 seconds to answer each section.

Section Two, Part B: Presentational Speaking, asks students to give a formal oral presentation with a cultural comparison document and have four minutes to prepare and two minutes to record.

The test is approximately 3+1⁄2 hours in length.

Note: As of 2017, all audio responses must be digitally submitted online as a mp3 file. CD players are no longer accepted.[citation needed]

Section Item Type Number of Questions and % Weight of Final Score Time
Section I Multiple Choice 50% 95 minutes
Part A: Reading Section Print Texts 30 questions 25% 40 minutes
Part B: Reading and Listening Section Print and Audio Texts 35 questions 25% 55 minutes
Section II Free Response 50% 90 minutes
Part A: Writing Formal Writing: Email Response 1 prompt (12.5%)
15 minutes 		25% 70 minutes
Formal Writing: Argumentative Essay


1 prompt (12.5%)
55 minutes
Part B: Speaking Interpersonal Speaking
(Simulated Conversation) 		5-6 response prompts (12.5%)
20 seconds to respond to each 		25% 18 minutes
Presentational Speaking
(Cultural Comparison) 		1 prompt (12.5%)
4 minutes to prepare, 2 minutes to respond

[2]

Grade distribution

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Both tables range from 2014 and beyond since that is the last time the AP Spanish course and exam were changed.

The table below is the grade distribution combining both the native speakers and Standard Group:

Score 2014[3] 2015[4] 2016[5] 2017[6] 2018[7] 2019[8] 2020[9] 2021[10] 2022[11] 2023[12] 2024[13]
5 24.6% 27.4% 27.8% 19.5% 23.2% 24.9% 30.5% 17.3% 23.6% 24.3% 21%
4 34.9% 35.1% 34.7% 34.8% 35.0% 34.6% 36.4% 39.7% 28.5% 30.0% 31%
3 29.8% 27.5% 26.9% 34.2% 30.1% 29.5% 23.1% 33.0% 29.7% 29.6% 31%
2 9.2% 8.7% 9.2% 10.0% 10.4% 9.3% 8.8% 16.5% 15.0% 13.5% 14%
1 1.5% 1.2% 1.4% 1.5% 1.3% 1.7% 1.2% 3.5% 3.3% 2.7% 3%
% of Scores 3 or Higher 89.3% 90.1% 89.4% 88.5% 88.3% 89.0% 90.0% 80.0% 81.7% 83.8% 83%
Mean 3.72 3.79 3.78 3.61 3.68 3.72 3.86 3.41 3.54 3.60 3.53
Standard Deviation 0.98 0.98 1.00 0.96 0.98 0.99 0.99 1.06 1.10 1.08 1.06
Number of Students 135,341 144,561 155,258 168,307 159,351 187,133 168,998 148,486 155,931 164,434

The table below is the grade distribution from the Standard Group:

Score 2014[3] 2015[14] 2016[5] 2017[6] 2018[15] 2019[16] 2020[17] 2021[18] 2022[11] 2023[12]
5 18.5% 19.1% 19.4% 15.9% 16.5% 15.2% 17.0% 12.9% 15.5% 16.1%
4 33.2% 32.9% 32.2% 31.9% 31.8% 31.2% 37.1% 27.9% 27.5% 29.1%
3 32.9% 33.3% 32.4% 35.9% 34.6% 35.9% 30.1% 36.3% 35.4% 35.1%
2 12.6% 12.5% 13.7% 13.6% 14.6% 14.6% 13.6% 19% 18.1% 16.4%
1 2.8% 2.3% 2.2% 2.7% 2.5% 3.0% 2.2% 3.9% 3.5% 3.2%
% of Scores 3 or Higher 84.6% 85.2% 84.0% 83.7% 82.9% 82.4% 84.2% 77.1% 78.4% 80.4%
Mean 3.52 3.54 3.53 3.45 3.45 3.41 3.53 3.27 3.33 3.39
Standard Deviation 1.02 1.01 1.02 1.00 1.01 1.01 1.00 1.03 1.05 1.04
Number of Students 41,627 47,188 50,753 54,839 58,909 59,243 55,905 50,916 48,717 46,503

On the other hand, when considering only native speakers, they tend to perform outstandingly well on their own due to being already fluent in the language. For example, in 2020 (the year when overall scores peaked in recent times), the percentage of native speakers who earned each score is as follows: 5 - 37.2%, 4 - 36.0%, 3 - 19.6%, 2 - 6.4%, and 1 - 0.7%.[17] Based on these scores, 92.8% passed the exam, with nearly three quarters earning a 4 or 5, and the mean score for this demographic was 4.03.

References

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  1. ^ "AP Spanish Language and Culture Course". AP Central. College Board. Archived from the original on 5 July 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b "AP Spanish Language and Culture Course and Exam Description, Effective 2020" (PDF). College Board. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b "AP Spanish Distributions 2014" (PDF).
  4. ^ "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  7. ^ "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  8. ^ "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  9. ^ "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  10. ^ "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  11. ^ a b "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  12. ^ a b "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  13. ^ "2024 AP Score Distributions". Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  14. ^ Total Registration. "2015 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
  15. ^ "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  16. ^ "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  17. ^ a b "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  18. ^ "Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
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