Sharon in SC Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 We have NO experience with AP exams. (Dd is in the 9th grade). As I look ahead, I wonder - when would you recommend we plan for her to take the AP exam? She will be taking Spanish III next year (10th grade). Should she plan to take the test at the end of that course? Should we plan for her to take a CC course her 11th grade year? No matter what we do, I'd like for her to do something Spanish related between the end of her 10th grade year and graduation. Help! :-P Actually, I'd also like to run something else by you - I learned that the majority of dd's tutor's homeschool students elect to NOT take the AP exam citing the fact that they'll take the language placement exam upon college entrance so why pay for the exam. (Majority of this tutor's students test out of second year, second semester college Spanish). I'm not sure what to make of this rationale. Is your GPA only benefited by an AP accredited course? (Meaning, unless our course is AP approved, even if dd does well on the exam, there's no real benefit?). Someone, please help me ferret this out.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 When to take the exam -- Take it by the end of junior year if your dd is reasonably confident she will do well. That way her score will be part of her transcript/admissions packet so colleges can be impressed by her score! :) She should probably put it off until later as long as she is still studying Spanish. Even if she could take it at the end of sophomore year, if she is going to study Spanish her junior year, her score will probably go up if she waits a year to take it. KWIM? Why take the Spanish AP exam? Two reasons -- 1) Having a good AP score is always impressive. If she is applying to competitive schools, having a 4 or 5 on her record will make her appear a stronger candidate. 2) At least at my kids' college, a 5 in an AP language exam not only gets you out of the 100-level classes (and some 200-level) but also gets you CREDIT for them. If you get into a higher-level language class by the placement test, you do not get credit for the lower-level classes. For example, dd1 got a 5 on the AP Latin Vergil exam. She is exempt from the foeign language requirement and has 6 units of Latin course credit on her college transcript. Ds1 has taken 3 years of Greek but has no AP exam. He will need to take the college Greek placement exam. The most he can hope for is to place in a 200-level class; he will receive no credit for his three years of Greek. And since dd1 is trying to do BOTH a BA in art history and a BS in chemistry, she needs ALL the credit she can get! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in IL Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 Two boys, both class of 2006, 150 miles apart, two totally different school systems. Boy 1 -- Smart kid, top 10%. 5 years of Spanish, all the way through AP class. Mother is bilingual and teaches high school Spanish in another district. AP exam score - 2. Boy 2 -- Extremely gifted in all areas, valedictorian, 5's on APs in jr. year without studying, you know the type. 5 years of Spanish through AP Class. Studied like crazy for exam. Score - 2. Said he had no idea about what the exam even was talking about. Based on that score, Purdue gave him 9 hours of Spanish credit. Point being, the exam is very hard. If you want to take the exam, I would definitely us many test prep books and even then, be prepared if the score is not what you would have liked. Most schools don't give a GPA for an AP exam score. They will just give you credit for it with no GPA. You do not have to take an accredited/approved course to take any AP exam. Of course, YMMV. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in SC Posted May 1, 2008 Author Share Posted May 1, 2008 Most schools don't give a GPA for an AP exam score. I know that a GPA is not assigned to the exam score but what I wonder is if a student's GPA for that year's Spanish course only boosted if they take an AP approved course to study for the exam.... "Wow" to those testimonials! Thanks for sharing.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in SC Posted May 1, 2008 Author Share Posted May 1, 2008 Thanks, Gwen, for taking the time to respond. Very helpful information... When to take the exam -- Take it by the end of junior year if your dd is reasonably confident she will do well. That way her score will be part of her transcript/admissions packet so colleges can be impressed by her score! :) She should probably put it off until later as long as she is still studying Spanish. Even if she could take it at the end of sophomore year, if she is going to study Spanish her junior year, her score will probably go up if she waits a year to take it. KWIM? Why take the Spanish AP exam? Two reasons -- 1) Having a good AP score is always impressive. If she is applying to competitive schools, having a 4 or 5 on her record will make her appear a stronger candidate. 2) At least at my kids' college, a 5 in an AP language exam not only gets you out of the 100-level classes (and some 200-level) but also gets you CREDIT for them. If you get into a higher-level language class by the placement test, you do not get credit for the lower-level classes. For example, dd1 got a 5 on the AP Latin Vergil exam. She is exempt from the foeign language requirement and has 6 units of Latin course credit on her college transcript. Ds1 has taken 3 years of Greek but has no AP exam. He will need to take the college Greek placement exam. The most he can hope for is to place in a 200-level class; he will receive no credit for his three years of Greek. And since dd1 is trying to do BOTH a BA in art history and a BS in chemistry, she needs ALL the credit she can get! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra in FL Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 and extremely hard to score high on due to the hit that the curve takes from native speakers. This doesn't include Latin as everyone is on an even playing field. Our local public schools usually offer Spanish 1-4 and then AP Spanish Language. Since we live in South Florida where there is a high concentration of Spanish speakers, my local hs really pushes the AP Spanish exams to boost up its AP results. My ds took Spanish 1 on Florida Virtual School and hopefully will continue through Spanish 5 or 6 (for non-Spanish speakers) at the local ps. Hopefully, she'll test out of whatever language requirement in college. HTH, Sandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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