AP Italian Exam Info
Download PDFThe AP Italian Language and Culture Exam will test your ability to apply communication and language skills developed in the course and ask you to demonstrate your understanding of Italian culture.
In this exam, you’ll complete the multiple-choice and written free-response sections on paper, and you’ll record your spoken free response on a device supplied by the testing school.
AP Italian Language and Culture Exam
This is the regularly scheduled date for the AP Italian Language and Culture Exam.
Exam Components
Section IA: Multiple Choice
This section presents 4 sets of authentic print sources (announcements/advertisements, literary texts, articles and charts, letters) with questions. The questions will ask you to:
- Identify the main ideas and supporting details
- Determine the meaning of vocabulary words in context
- Identify the author’s point of view or the target audience
- Demonstrate knowledge of the cultural or interdisciplinary information contained in the text
Section IB: Multiple Choice with Audio
This section includes a variety of authentic audio sources, including conversations, audio reports, interviews, instructions and presentations. It is divided into 2 subsections:
- The first includes 2 sets of audio sources that are paired with print materials on the same topic with questions (articles and audio reports, charts and conversations)
- The second includes 3 sets of audio sources with questions (interviews, instructions, presentations)
You will respond to questions about main ideas and supporting details. Some questions will require you to show understanding of cultural or interdisciplinary information.
You will have time to read a preview of each selection and skim the questions before listening to the audio. All audio texts will be played twice.
You are encouraged to take notes during this part of the exam and are given writing space for that purpose. Your notes will not be scored.
Section IIA: Free Response Written
There are two writing tasks in this section:
- Interpersonal Writing: Read and reply to an email message (15 minutes).
- Presentational Writing: Write an argumentative essay based on 3 sources, including an article, a table, chart, graph, or infographic, and a related audio source (played twice), that present different viewpoints on a topic (~55 minutes total: 15 minutes to review materials plus 40 minutes to write). You will have access to the print sources and any notes you may take on the audio during the entire 40-minute writing period.
Section IIB: Free Response Spoken
There are two speaking tasks in this section:
- Interpersonal Speaking: Participate in 5 exchanges in a simulated conversation (20 seconds for each response). For this conversation, you will be provided with a preview of the conversation, including an outline of each exchange.
- Presentational Speaking: Deliver a 2-minute presentation in response to a prompt in which you compare a cultural feature of an Italian-speaking community with which you are familiar to your own community or another community.
Skills You'll Learn
Understanding Italian when you hear it and read it
Holding conversations in real-life situations
Writing stories, letters, emails, essays, and other texts
Units
Unit 1 – Families in Italy
You'll learn Italian language skills in the context of studying family life and values in Italian-speaking communities and explore contemporary beliefs and challenges that families face.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Interpreting promotional materials and advertisements
- Understanding the elements of a formal letter
- Describing data from a table, chart, graph, map, or infographic
- Interpreting the context of a conversation and participating
- Crafting an email reply
- Giving a presentation on the nature of family and society
Unit 2 – Language and Culture in Italy
You'll build your vocabulary and learn about how language and culture shape and reflect evolving ideas about identity in Italian-speaking societies.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Identifying the main idea and summarizing short stories
- Comprehending articles and charts
- Interpreting audio reports and videos
- Justifying ideas and opinions in writing
- Giving a presentation comparing Italian cultural concepts to familiar ones
Unit 3 – Beauty and Art in Italy
You'll explore how ideas of beauty and art influence and reflect culture in Italian-speaking communities and you’ll learn about the value that is placed on preserving Italian traditions, language, art, and culture.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Analyzing advertisements and museum guides
- Interpreting fables
- Understanding what is included in the format of typical letters and interpreting their meaning
- Understanding interviews and drawing cultural connections
- Replying to emails
- Practicing conversational skills
- Giving a presentation on music, film, and the arts in Italian-speaking culture
Unit 4 – Science and Technology in Italy
You’ll examine how developments in science and technology affect daily life in Italian-speaking communities and use your growing language skills to help you interpret unfamiliar words and engage in more complicated texts.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Interpreting charts, tables, and infographics in context
- Reading articles about scientific developments
- Understanding interviews on technical subjects
- Following verbal instructions
- Comprehending oral presentations
- Writing essays and citing sources
- Giving a presentation on the impacts of scientific and technological developments
Unit 5 – Quality of Life in Italy
You’ll learn more about contemporary life in Italian-speaking communities and how social status, cultural perspectives, and access to jobs and resources can make an impact on the quality of life.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Connecting short stories to larger cultural topics
- Identifying perspective, tone, and attitude in a conversation
- Participating in conversations
- Interpreting audio and video recordings
- Understanding instructions
- Crafting an email reply using idioms and expressions
- Giving a presentation comparing cultures and quality of life
Unit 6 – Challenges in Italy
You'll explore how complex global issues affect people’s lives in Italian-speaking communities and engage in deeper discussions to suggest possible solutions.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Analyzing articles and charts on social issues
- Listening for connections and meaning in video and audio reports
- Making cultural connections among presentations
- Writing essays to address societal issues and suggest solutions
- Giving a presentation on societal challenges
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