Top Language Study Tips for the AP Spanish Exam

As the AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam date approaches, students across the country are looking for the best ways to prepare. You’ve come a long way with your high school classes, but is it enough to score a 5 when you write the exam on May 15th?

Passing the AP Spanish Exam earns students a full year of university Spanish class credit, so it’s worth putting in some extra effort to do your best on test day. If you really want to guarantee your best AP Spanish score, check out BaseLang’s exam prep program where students get access to unlimited 1-on-1 tutoring and expert teachers.

For now, let’s get started with our top language study tips to help you ace the Spanish AP Exam!

Tip 1. Regular speaking practice

This aspect of language study is too often neglected, but isn’t it one of the main goals? If you want to speak Spanish, you need to actually speak. Have you gotten enough speaking and listening practice in your Spanish classes? Over half of the AP Spanish Exam’s multiple choice questions have an audio component where you need to be able to quickly understand spoken Spanish, while two of the four free response questions require you to provide oral responses.

Having conversations in Spanish forces your brain to use the building blocks of grammar and vocabulary to come up with phrases of your own. It’s also a quick way to practice putting new ideas together in the language without needing to write anything down. And since you never know how your conversation partners will respond, it’s a great way to put your listening comprehension to the test too. Immersing yourself in Spanish conversation can even get you thinking in the language!

We recommend having conversations in Spanish as much as possible. Why not have lunch in Spanish with your classmates, for example, talking about everyday topics like your weekend, your vacation plans, or even gossip? If you’re at a restaurant or a shop where the staff speak Spanish, or even on a customer service line with multiple language options, you can get exposure to different accents there while you practice speaking. If you really want to excel, you can even hire private tutors, whether locally or online, who can give you some intense speaking and listening practice while helping you improve any weaknesses.

Tip 2. Study Spanish Grammar

Even though the AP Spanish Course Framework aims to “avoid overemphasis on grammatical accuracy at the expense of communication,” it still aims “to promote both fluency and accuracy in language use.” (p.9: Introduction)

The multiple choice sections of the AP Spanish Exam don’t focus on grammar, but you’ll want your grammar skills to shine when you tackle all four of the free response questions. Fortunately, traditional high school Spanish classes generally place a lot of emphasis on grammar, so you should just need to review what you’ve learned.

Do you always conjugate regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs correctly? Do you know all of the most important irregular verbs? How many verb tenses are you comfortable with? Do you know when and how to use the conditional or the subjunctive? How about when to use imperfecto vs preterito, ser vs estar, or ahí vs allí? Do you use gustar correctly? When do you choose tú vs usted vs vosotros, and what conjugations do they take? Do you always pick the right direct and indirect object pronouns? How well have you mastered gender agreement with adjectives or articles?

We know there’s a lot to keep track of, but you covered all these units and more in class, right? To brush up on your grammar, review your Spanish textbook and course notes, or check out the basic and advanced grammar lessons on our blog like the ones we’ve highlighted here.

Tip 3. Master a variety of vocabulary

The AP Spanish Exam questions can cover any number of themes around language and culture, so your vocabulary skills should span a wide variety of potential topics. Vocabulary is vital in all sections of the exam.

You should already have mastered the basics like talking about food, family, professions, and animals, and you’ve probably covered plenty of specialized topics like sports, health, and travel. You can also go a long way by just knowing the most important Spanish verbs.

If you could use a refresher on certain units, be sure to review them in your textbook or through our vocabulary lessons. You can also memorize vocab on specific topics by using free flashcards. To practice your vocab, try discussing specific topics during speaking practice with your classmates or your tutors.

Tip 4. Study cultural content

Don’t forget that the full name of this test is the AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam. According to the AP course overview, students are expected to engage in “an exploration of culture in both contemporary and historical contexts.” By the end of the course, you should be able to demonstrate an “awareness and appreciation of cultural products… practices… and perspectives.”

Although many of the multiple choice questions will surely include cultural references, you should be able to answer them just by knowing the language. In the free response sections, however, your responses will definitely benefit by incorporating content about historical events or cultural figures.

Familiarity with a Spanish-speaking community is vital for the final free response question, where you’ll be presented with a prompt and asked to deliver a two-minute oral presentation comparing an aspect of that community with your own. We recommend preparing for this question by talking with someone from there, discussing your two communities together in Spanish. If you don’t know anyone locally, it may be worthwhile to pay for an online session or two with a native speaker somewhere in Latin America.

Tip 5: Get to know the AP Spanish Exam

You can do well on the exam if your focus is strictly on studying the language, but you’ll increase your chances of success if you also put some effort into familiarizing yourself with the AP Spanish Exam ahead of time.

Know what the different sections are like, get some practice by writing exams from previous years, and analyze your mistakes to see what you should focus on for review. Be sure to strengthen the aspects of grammar and vocab that need attention, while also strengthening your familiarity with the test itself.

Check out our other post where we explain more details about the AP Spanish Exam, and also provide additional exam tips.

Conclusion: AP Spanish Exam language study tips

We’ve just gone through our top language study tips for the AP Spanish Exam: speak as much as possible, review your grammar lessons, make sure you know enough vocab, and don’t forget the cultural content. We ended with a recommendation to study the exam itself.

BaseLang’s week-by-week curriculum leading up to the AP Spanish Exam is specifically designed to help students maintain a consistent study schedule, addressing each of the language study tips we touched on today. If you want that extra push, check out our AP Spanish Test Prep course, including regular practice tests, where BaseLang’s teachers will support you in the final stretch of your AP journey.

We wish you the best as you prepare and write the AP Spanish Exam!