APFIVE AP Japanese Exam Info
Download PDFThe AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam will test your ability to apply communication skills developed in the course, including interpreting different types of written and audio texts, writing to and speaking with others, and presenting your ideas in written and spoken Japanese. Throughout the exam, you’ll be asked to demonstrate your understanding of Japanese-speaking cultures.
This exam is administered on school-owned and -controlled devices via an exam application (not Bluebook). On exam day, you’ll read text on the screen, listen through a headset, type using the keyboard, and speak into a microphone.
The input method for typing Japanese is the Google Japanese IME, which allows you to type in different modes including hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Instructions are provided on the exam screens.
AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam
This is the regularly scheduled date for the AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam.
Exam Components
Section IA: Multiple Choice Listening
This section consists of a variety of audio materials, including public announcements, voice messages, instructions, cultural presentations, school debates, radio reports, and dialogues.
Questions will test your ability to:
- Identify the main ideas and supporting details in the audio material
- Determine the meaning of a variety of vocabulary and deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words
- Decide the meaning of a text based on cultural and/or interdisciplinary information
- Infer implied meaning through context
Section IB: Multiple Choice Reading
This section consists of a variety of written materials (e.g., journalistic and literary texts, emails, letters, instructions, and travel brochures). Questions will test your ability to:
- Identify the main ideas and supporting details in the written material
- Determine the meaning of a variety of vocabulary and deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words
- Decide the meaning of a text based on cultural and/or interdisciplinary information
- Infer implied meaning through context
Section IIA: Free Response Written
- Interpersonal Writing: Read and answer text-chat messages (10 minutes; 12.5% of exam score)
- Presentational Writing: Write an article comparing and contrasting 2 given topics or perspectives (20 minutes; 12.5% of exam score)
Section IIB: Free Response Spoken
- Interpersonal Speaking: Respond to a series of 4 related prompts as part of a simulated conversation (3 minutes, respond time: 20 seconds per question; 12.5% of exam score)
- Presentational Speaking: Deliver a presentation on your view or perspective of a Japanese cultural topic. You’ll have 1 minute to read the prompt, 4 minutes to prepare, and 2 minutes to present. (7 minutes; 12.5% of exam score)
Skills You'll Learn
Understanding Japanese when you hear it and read it
Holding conversations in real-life situations
Writing text messages, letters, emails, essays, and other texts
Units
Unit 1 – Families in Japan
You’ll learn Japanese language skills in the context of studying family life and values in Japanese-speaking societies and explore contemporary beliefs and challenges that families face.
While engaging in activities related to these topics, you’ll practice skills such as:
- Understanding audio recordings (for example, a voice message)
- Reading letters and other texts
- Taking part in spoken and written exchanges of information
- Writing text-chat messages, short emails, and letters using the 3 writing systems and appropriate formality
- Giving suggestions or opinions with reasoning
- Explaining your perspectives or preferences on a topic using reasons, details, and examples
Unit 2 – Language and Culture in Japan
You'll build your vocabulary and learn about how language and culture shape evolving ideas about identity in Japanese-speaking communities.
While engaging in activities related to these topics, you’ll practice skills such as:
- Understanding audio recordings (for example, a public announcement)
- Reading travel brochures and other texts
- Taking part in conversations, including starting and ending them appropriately
- Exchanging information while using strategies like clarification and paraphrasing
- Identifying and explaining cultural differences between Japanese-speaking communities and your own
- Writing a short article comparing 2 sides of a topic
Unit 3 – Beauty and Art in Japan
You'll explore how ideas of beauty and art influence and reflect culture in Japanese-speaking communities.
While engaging in activities related to these topics, you’ll practice skills such as:
- Understanding audio recordings (for example, a school debate)
- Reading short stories and other texts
- Using a variety of vocabulary and sentence structures in conversations, text chats and email exchanges, and compare-and-contrast articles
- Writing emails and letters with appropriate formality and standard conventions
- Creating oral and written presentations that include your perspectives and have an introduction, development of the topic, and a conclusion
Unit 4 – Science and Technology in Japan
You'll examine how developments in science and technology affect and shape daily life in Japanese-speaking communities. You’ll use your growing language skills to help you interpret unfamiliar words and engage in more complicated texts.
While engaging in activities related to these topics, you’ll practice skills such as:
- Understanding audio recordings (for example, a dialogue)
- Reading newspaper articles and other texts
- Preparing a short presentation that includes viewpoints, supporting evidence, and elaboration
- Getting and providing information in written and spoken exchanges using strategies such as requesting clarification, rephrasing, and asking for repetition
- Researching information needed to compare and explain 2 sides of a topic
Unit 5 – Quality of Life in Japan
You'll learn more about contemporary life in Japanese-speaking communities and how social status, cultural perspectives, and access to jobs and resources can make an impact on the quality of life.
While engaging in activities related to these topics, you’ll practice skills such as:
- Understanding audio recordings (for example, a radio news broadcast)
- Reading letters, short stories, and other texts
- Applying what you’ve learned from working with real-life Japanese-language materials to discuss and explain a cultural topic
- Taking part in a conversation and correcting yourself when you make mistakes
- Using kanji, hiragana, and katakana appropriately when you write
- Preparing and delivering an organized cultural perspective presentation
Unit 6 – Challenges in Japan
You'll explore how complex global issues affect people’s lives in Japanese-speaking communities and engage in deeper discussions to suggest possible solutions.
While engaging in activities related to these topics, you’ll practice skills such as:
- Understanding audio recordings (for example, a public announcement)
- Reading step-by-step instructions and other texts
- Taking part in conversations and written exchanges using a variety of vocabulary, sentence structures, and communication strategies
- Preparing a cultural perspective presentation in which you give different viewpoints on topics using cultural information acquired from sources
- Explaining and comparing the similarities and differences between 2 topics or options, and then stating a position and supporting it with reasoning