APFIVE AP Spanish Language Exam Info
Download PDFThe AP Spanish 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 Spanish-speaking cultures.
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 Spanish Language and Culture Exam
This is the regularly scheduled date for the AP Spanish 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 a Spanish-speaking community with which you are familiar to your own community or another community.
Skills You'll Learn
Understanding Spanish 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 Spanish–Speaking Countries
You’ll learn Spanish language skills in the context of studying family life and values in Spanish-speaking communities and explore contemporary beliefs and challenges that families face.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Interpreting promotional materials
- Understanding the elements of a formal letter
- Describing data from a table, chart, graph, map, or infographic
- Conducting an interview
- Crafting an email reply
- Participating in an informal conversation
- Giving a presentation related to family and society
Unit 2 – Language and Culture in Spanish–Speaking Countries
You'll build your vocabulary and learn about how language and culture shape and reflect evolving ideas about identity in Spanish-speaking societies.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Identifying the main idea and summarizing short stories
- Comprehending articles and infographics
- Interpreting audio and video reports
- Drawing connections between texts and their larger cultural context
- Justifying ideas and opinions in writing
- Giving a presentation comparing Spanish cultural concepts to familiar ones
Unit 3 – Beauty and Art in Spanish–Speaking Countries
You'll explore how ideas of beauty and art influence and reflect culture in Spanish-speaking communities.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Analyzing articles, advertisements, and promotional materials about art
- Interpreting literary texts
- Understanding what is included in the format of typical letters and interpreting their meaning
- Interpreting data represented in charts
- Crafting an email
- Practicing conversational skills through class discussion
- Giving a presentation comparing art across cultures
Unit 4 – Science and Technology in Spanish–Speaking Countries
You'll examine how developments in science and technology affect daily life in Spanish-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, infographics, and maps in context
- Understanding and responding to interviews
- Comprehending verbal instructions
- Interpreting a range of sources and perspectives around a topic
- Writing essays and citing sources
- Giving a presentation on the impacts of scientific and technological developments
Unit 5 – Quality of Life in Spanish–Speaking Countries
You'll learn more about contemporary life in Spanish-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 literary texts to larger cultural topics
- Interacting with online tools
- Interviewing community members
- Understanding video interviews
- Interpreting instructions
- Crafting an email reply using idioms and expressions
- Participating in conversations and debates
- Giving a presentation comparing cultures and quality of life
Unit 6 – Challenges in Spanish–Speaking Countries
You'll explore how complex global issues affect people's lives in Spanish-speaking communities and engage in deeper discussions to suggest possible solutions.
Skills you will practice may include:
- Analyzing articles and charts on environmental issues
- Listening for connections and meaning in video reports
- Making cultural connections among video presentations
- Writing essays to address global issues and suggest solutions
- Giving a presentation comparing reactions to global challenges across cultures