AP Spanish vs Spanish 5

[Anonymous]

DC wants to take Spanish 5 instead of AP Spanish senior year. Thoughts on how AOs might view this if the rest of the classes on senior transcript are APs as well as a math post AP? Also cons of not having taken AP Spanish when they get to college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC wants to take Spanish 5 instead of AP Spanish senior year. Thoughts on how AOs might view this if the rest of the classes on senior transcript are APs as well as a math post AP? Also cons of not having taken AP Spanish when they get to college?

AOs won't care if your kid isn't planning to be a Spanish major based on what you describe.

[Anonymous]

It should be fine. Just make sure gpa isn’t impacted by not having an AP bump if that’s how your school does it.

[Anonymous]

Either is fine. If they don’t want to have to take language in college, it might be worth taking the AP *test* even if they don’t take the AP class; many colleges will take a high AP score in lieu of a language requirement. They usually also offer a placement test that if students do well enough on, the can place out of the requirement that way, too, so it isn’t critical, but going the AP score route gets that out of the way sooner.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is planning on same as OP. Spanish 4 HN has been challenging, though she's finally brought it up to an A. She claims she's not a language person, but I feel she's just not putting in the daily time and effort it takes to learn a language.

Our paid college counsellor said it's better to take Spanish 5 and get a A (maybe a B) than bomb AP Spanish. She was adamant about not skipping Spanish in 12th grade though...at least for more selective colleges. At least one AO with an online following has said 4 years of language *in HS* is recommended.

Agreed that AP Spanish exam or college placement exam might help her to satisfy that requirement in college.

[Anonymous]

i wish I had suggested DD take Spanish 5 instead. she took AP and is a junior and has 5 other AP exams this year. She's struggling -- most of the students in her class are native speakers so she finds it hard to keep up. If I had to do it again I would have had her take Spanish 5 and wait til next year for AP.

[Anonymous]

this MCPS?
At our school they advised the kids to take Spanish 5 then AP Spanish. Which is what my kid did. Later found out that lots of kids skipped Spanish 5. Most of AP Spanish is native language speakers but my kid doing fine.

[Anonymous]

At our MCPS hs, it’s mostly native/heritage speakers who skip 5. I think it’s fine to take 5.

[Anonymous]

In MCPS my kid did 5 then AP (6th year). They will not take a language Senior year. It's enough.

[Anonymous]

Spanish 5 is the pre-req for AP Spanish af our HS.

[Anonymous]

My daughter initially started in AP Spanish senior year after Spanish 3 and regretted it. She dropped down to Spanish 4 and it was the right decision. She got into Georgetown and other top schools...no issues.

[Anonymous]

Interesting that a lot of MCPS kids skip SP5 to go straight to AP. I wonder if that's better for immersion kids who can already speak it well. Any regrets from those who have done this?

Spanish 4 is considered the hard one by a lot of people. I feel like it's a hurdle that covers a lot of advanced grammar and SP5 and AP is more about using the language when speaking and writing about other subjects.

I hesitate to let my son skip 5 because I want as much exposure to Spanish as possible. I wish he would take Spanish journalism or TV production, whish are offered at his school.