Spanish AP Exam Free Response Questions

Here is a list of Free Response Questions found on the College Board for the Spanish AP Language and Culture Exam. It appears to be the actual questions that will be posed, not just examples. If so, this is really nice, but you won't find actual questions for the Spanish Praxis, just sample questions.

If these are the actual questions then it would be wise to practice them all and write out responses to each prompt, practice writing it and saying it.

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/apcentral/ap13_frq_spanish_language.pdf

The Spanish AP Exam

Help with the Spanish AP Exam. The Spanish AP Exam and the Spanish Praxis are designed using the National Standards for Foreign Language Teaching and Learning in the USA. Both test students and teachers on their ability to understand authentic written and spoken Spanish. Authentic written and spoken Spanish are written and audio that are taken from sources that write for and speak to an audience who are native speakers of Spanish which are called "authentic" sources. Both tests also require the test taker to speak and write at a level that a native speaker could easily understand.

This blog has been created to provide reviewed authentic sources for students preparing to take the AP Spanish Exam and teachers preparing to take the Spanish Praxis. There is so  much material out on the Web and not all of it is good quality. You want to make sure you are getting excellent sources of writing for your reading practice and a wide variety of authentic listening materials for practice. Please don't wait until just before the test to start using these sources. You will have the most success if you try to read and listen to at least one authentic source everyday. If you are feeling really ambitious, write a summary of what you read or listened to in order to practice your writing skills while reinforcing the new vocabulary. You will need vocabulary to be in your long term memory which requires time and a lot of reading, listening, and writing.

Place my blog somewhere easy for you to access so that whenever you have a free moment you can just open up any of these excellent reviewed sources for a high quality reading / listening experience.

All of these sources have been reviewed by me personally and I would use them in my own classroom. Don't be afraid of fast authentic listening sources. Just listen several times until you get the main and supporting ideas.

Best of luck. 

Link to the College Board to learn more about the Spanish AP Exam:

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/exam/exam_information/4554.html

This is a great topic for your Spanish classes; bullying from PBS. I hope to find an authentic source, but this is good too.

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/friends/bullies/index_sp.html

This is a free English as a second language podcast. I've included it because many of my visitors are from Europe and often learn several languages as a norm. I hope you enjoy it.
It's called English as a Second Language Podcast.

http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

Are you a Spanish teacher?

If you are a  teacher of Spanish (or a student) who is often looking for quality information to share with your students, this is your blog. Let's say you come across something in a textbook, but you want more information on that subject. It will save you a lot of time to use the links I have provided than to just start doing a US google search. Search by country using any of the Google country specific links provided on this blog. Maybe you want a video or listening comprehension on a particular theme, look through the listening links provided. If you are studying an author from a particular country, you can use the link "A Country by Country tour" where you will find multimedia links for each country. You can find images of that country, maps, the city the author is from, even a historical timeline on BBC country profiles and US Deparment of State country profiles. If you want to add authentic materials to your curriculum, this blog will help you achieve that. For Spanish II, III, and IV high school, check out Reader's Digest in Spanish to find articles that they can manage on a subject that interests them or is in the textbook. I felt as a teacher that I was spending too much time searching the Internet and that my students needed more direction for their research too such as finding an Hispanic artist to present to the class with an image of his or her work. I continue working on this blog to narrow the path to high quality authentic materials minimizing the number of keystrokes and the amount of time it will take you to find what you need.

Preparing to write for the Spanish Praxis

During the writing section of the Spanish Praxis you will be given 5 minutes to practice using the writing tool. Though it is simple to use, it will reduce your anxiety during the writing portion if you have already practiced. It's one less thing to think about while you are writing if you have already practiced. Take a few minutes to practice using the writing tool. This is the tool that will allow you to use accent marks, etc. My strategy for this was to just write my essay without using the tool because it would have stopped my flow of ideas and thinking. I watched the clock and allowed myself time to go back and place all the correct vowels with accents where they belonged. It would be nice if they made this tool available online to practice writing with it.

I noticed on the sample questions that ETS provides that they show you the format for an email, so use that exact format, but of course change the salutation / closing and the use of formal / informal based on the task.

You will be asked to write three essays; one memo/email/letter at least 60 words and two other essays about 120 words each. Practice doing this ahead of time if you are not in the regular habit of writing in Spanish. In fact, you could even practice just hand writing out the email memo they have provided. One thing that is nice is that you will be given a passage to read and then you will respond to that passage in writing as directed. If you are nervous about doing this then practice until you are not nervous. Find articles on Reader's Digest in Spanish or El Pais for example, both links on this blog. Print the article. Read it. Then write a summary or opinion of what you just read in around 120 words within the time required. Type out your response in Word so you can see the Word count. Set a timer to go off so you know what it feels like to write under pressure. Then you can do a spell check with Word using its language tool. This will give you a good feel for what a 120 words feels like, writing under pressure, and how many errors you are making. If this seems easy to you after one time, then stop. You're probably ready. But, if you feel nervous still, keep doing this everyday until you don't feel nervous.

A typical typed double spaced page is about 250 words, so 120 words isn't really a lot. They are looking for your ability to respond to question asked with a beginning, a middle, and an end, use complete sentences, spell correctly, and use accent marks correctly, etc. Ask your teacher or an educated native speaker to proof read your writing showing them the printed article so they can see how well you wrote the summary or opinion of that article.    

The Spanish Praxis: Test at a Glance with sample questions.

The makers of the Spanish Praxis offer sample test questions for free with answers to follow. Take the sample test and see how you do. If you do well, then you'll probably do well on the Spanish Praxis. (?) If you don't do well, then calculate the sections with the most errors and use that as your guide on what you need to work on. You will find a variety of high quality reviewed sources that you can use to start reading authentic materials daily and/or listening to authentic speakers daily at www.cs-spanishnews.blogspot.com.

From the ETS link below you will find the following approximate breakdown of the test:

Listening: 30 questions (26%)

Reading: 30 questions (26%)

Culture: 15 questions (12%)

Writing: 18%

Speaking 18%

Prepare for all sections of the test well, but keep in mind that listening and reading are a little more than 50% of the test. That is significant. These skills must be strong. The best way to improve these skills is to start reading and listening to authentic Spanish media daily. You probably already know this, but just a reminder; "authentic materials" are written and spoken media that were designed for native speakers of Spanish, not for second language learners. This is a critical distinction because you will be required to understand "authentic Spanish" on the Spanish Praxis. This blog was designed to help teachers and students find high quality sources of authentic Spanish for lessons and student practice. I hope you will use it to prepare for the Spanish Praxis. Have fun exploring, reading, and listening to all the authentic materials provided in links on this blog. Check out a different one every day! Here is an example of the Argentina BBC link to the left on this blog; first you will see English, but when you scroll down you will see links to authentic newspapers, television, and radio in Argentina. It doesn't get much better than that!

You will know after you take the sample test on the link below where your weak skills are. You can't test your listening skills though on this sample test and it's quite important, so buy their prep book because it has a listening practice component. At least you'll know ahead of time if you are strong or weak in that area. Don't give up if you don't pass the first time. ETS will provide you with a breakdown of where you made mistakes by category, so you will know where to work harder for the next test. Here is the ETS link showing you the breakdown of the test and it includes free sample test questions with answers.

 http://www.ets.org/s/praxis/pdf/5195.pdf

Free prep materials for the Spanish Praxis and a book you can buy.

If you are preparing for the Spanish Praxis, I highly recommend you review all the free preparation materials that ETS makes available. You don't want to be learning how to take the exam during the exam. I purchased their test prep book and was glad that I did. I took it in 2012. I wish they would require testing center to provide a quiet room for each test taker because it's quite distracting to take your test while other people are taking the speaking part of their tests. I took a test in Florida for certification there, not the Praxis, and the testing center provided an individual sound proof room. That was nice! I took the Spanish Praxis at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and there were others testing and talking at the same time. Some test takers even made high pitched screeching noises as they left the room and did other bizarre discracting things during the test. If you find it hard to concentrate in such an environment, you might want to look for a testing center with a sound proof room for individual test takers. Here is the link for ETS's free and for purchase materials.

 http://www.ets.org/praxis/prepare/materials/5195

How to register for the Spanish Praxis.

How to register for the Spanish Praxis: ETS, Educational Testing Services, is the organization that administers the Spanish Praxis. It's worth looking around their website for testing preparation materials because I found them to be excellent, not only for the Spanish Praxis, but for other tests they administer too.

Here is their Web page:

http://www.ets.org/praxis

Listening section of the Spanish Praxis.

The Spanish Praxis listening section of the test is very important. It weighs heavily in your grade. If you have never taken a listen comprehension test like this, the Spanish Praxis is not the place to learn. One of their test prep materials comes with a listening comprehension practice component. You don't want to be learning how to take the test during the Spanish Praxis. That you should already know and I am pleased that the Spanish Praxis Test makers provide this opportunity in their Spanish Praxis Test Prep book. The free sample online test shows you a printed dialogue that you will actually hear, not see, instead of providing a link for an audio of that dialogue which it should. Then you will be asked a series of written questions to which you will reply by clicking the correct answer. If you feel you aren't strong in this area or you scored low on this section of the test, then I recommend that you go to any of the highy quality sources for students and teachers of Spanish at www.cs-spanishnews.blog.spot and start listening daily and often. Watch t.v. in Spanish, listen to the radio in Spanish, buy an audiobook in Spanish that you can listen to in your car. If you are weak in this area try to listen to only Spanish all day everyday for at least a month leading up to the test. Listen for meaning. That's what they are testing you on. Do you know what's going on in the dialogue.