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The AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam
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Exam Content
The AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam is approximately three hours in length. It assesses interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication skills in Japanese along with knowledge of Japanese culture.
The exam is computer-based. Each student works at an individual computer, which processes everything read, heard, written, or spoken by the student. That is, the student reads on the screen, listens through headphones, types using the keyboard, and speaks into a microphone. There is no paper component; although the student may use paper to take notes during the exam, the proctor will collect the notes at the end of the exam, and they will not be scored.
There are two sections in the exam:
Section I consists of multiple-choice questions that assess communication skills in the interpretive mode.
Part A assesses interpretive communication skills by requiring the student to answer questions about different types of listening stimuli.
Part B assesses interpretive communication skills by requiring the student to answer questions about different types of reading texts.
Section II , the free-response section, assesses communication skills in the interpersonal and presentational modes by requiring the student to produce written and spoken responses.
Part A assesses writing in the interpersonal mode by requiring the student to respond to a series of thematically linked questions as part of a simulated exchange of text-chat messages. It also assesses writing in the presentational mode by requiring the student to compare and contrast two given experiences and to describe an example of a given cultural topic.
Part B assesses speaking in the interpersonal mode by requiring the student to respond to two series of thematically linked questions as part of two separate simulated conversations. It also assesses speaking in the presentational mode by requiring the student to make three presentations: one announcing a school event, one narrating a story suggested by a series of pictures, and one discussing a given cultural topic.
Each part of the exam contributes a specific portion to the final AP grade. Grouped by communicative mode, the various parts contribute as follows: Interpretive -- 50 percent, Interpersonal -- 25 percent, and Presentational -- 25 percent. Grouped by language modality, the various parts contribute as follows: Listening -- 25 percent, Reading -- 25 percent, Writing -- 25 percent; and Speaking -- 25 percent.
Multiple-Choice Questions
For sample multiple-choice questions, refer to the Course Description.
 AP Japanese Course Description (.pdf/1.6MB)
Free-Response Questions
2008: Free-Response Questions
2007: Free-Response Questions
Important Note: PDF Files
The links to exam questions for this course are in Adobe® PDF format, and you will need to use the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to view them. If you don't have Acrobat Reader 6.0 or higher installed on your computer, choose the link for the Adobe Web site below for installation instructions. For help downloading and printing PDF files, choose the link "PDF Troubleshooting" below in "See also."
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