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Exam Content
The goal of the AP Spanish Language Exam is to evaluate how well students understand written and spoken Spanish, and their ability to respond in correct and idiomatic Spanish. With the exception of directions, Spanish is used exclusively both in the exam materials and in the student responses. Use of dictionaries or other reference works during the exam is not permitted.
The exam is approximately three hours long and consists of two sections:
- Section I (the multiple-choice section) consists of two parts that assess the students' understanding of spoken Spanish (listening) and of literary and non-literary prose selections (reading).
- Section II (the free-response section) has two parts, which are designed to measure a student's writing and speaking skills in Spanish.
The four skills are tested as follows:
- The listening part of the exam begins with several short dialogues and narratives. For these exercises, the questions are spoken on the master recording but are not printed in the exam book, while the answer choices are printed but not spoken. After these short pieces, there are two longer selections each lasting about five minutes. During the recording, students may take notes and can see the printed questions; these questions are not spoken on the master recording. Students' notes will not affect their scores.
- For the reading comprehension portion of the exam, the student must read several passages, each of which is followed by multiple-choice comprehension questions. The passages are typically prose fiction, journalistic articles, or essays.
- The writing part of the exam begins with a passage containing several blanks. The candidate must write the appropriate form of the base word indicated for each blank. The first exercise in writing is a paragraph with the root words given in parentheses. Students will be asked to read the paragraph and fill in 10 blanks with the correct forms of the root words that are provided. This part of the exam measures accuracy, grammar, and usage (inflected words, subject-verb agreement [person, number, verb forms], noun-adjective agreement [number and gender], article agreement, plurals, pronoun agreement [gender and number], etc.). The second exercise in writing consists of two passage-completion exercises. The root words will not be provided. Students will be asked to read the two brief passages and fill in 10 blanks (5 in each passage) with the most appropriate word. The part of the exam measures accuracy, grammar, and usage (function words, prepositions, helping verbs, perfect tenses, conjunctions, demonstratives, set expressions, articles, and relative pronouns, etc.). Only one word must complete each blank. The third part of the writing section will be an informal writing task. Students will be have 10 minutes to read a prompt and write their response. Examples may include writing an email message, a letter, a journal entry, or a postcard. The fourth writing exercise reflects an integration of the following skills: listening, reading, and writing (an example of the interpretive and presentational modes). Students will be required to read two documents, listen to a related source/recording, and respond to a written prompt. All sources, both written and aural, will be authentic -- either in their original format of rerecorded. Students will be encouraged to make reference to and cite all of the sources. Students will have 7 minutes to read the printed sources and then will listen to a stimulus of 3 minutes. After listening to the sound file, students will have 5 minutes to plan their responses and 40 minutes to write their essays. The total time allotted to this section will be approximately 55 minutes.
- The first speaking task is an example of the interpersonal mode of communication. It itegrates listening and speaking in an informal setting of a conversation role-play. Students will be asked to interact with a recorded conversation. There will be five of six opportunities for the student to answer. Each response wil be 20 seconds in length. Students will have time to read an outline of the stimulus conversation and the instructions before participating in the simulated conversation. The second part of the speaking section is an example of the interpretive and presentational modes. It itegrates three skills: reading, listening and speaking. Students need to give an oral presentation in a formal and/or academic setting. They will be asked to read one document and listen to a recordin, after which the will have two minutes to prepare for the presentation and two minutes to answer the related question making reference to both sources.
Multiple-Choice Questions
For sample multiple-choice questions, refer to the Course Description.
 AP Spanish Course Description (.pdf/1.6MB)
Free-Response Questions
Below are free-response questions from past AP Spanish Language Exams. Included with the questions are scoring guidelines, sample student responses, and commentary on those responses, as well as exam statistics and the Chief Reader's Student Performance Q&A Report for past administrations.
Important Note About the "Form B" Exams
Because of the worldwide growth of the AP Program and the administration of exams in multiple time zones, another version of the AP Spanish Language Exam, called "Form B," may be administered in order to maintain security.
2008: Free-Response Questions
2008: Form B
2007: Free-Response Questions
2007: Form B
2006: Free-Response Questions
2006: Form B
2005: Free-Response Questions
2005: Form B
2004: Free-Response Questions
2004: Form B
2003: 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 4.0 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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