AP Spanish Literature and Culture

Advanced Placement Spanish Literature (shortened, AP Spanish Lit or AP SpLit) is a high school course and examination offered by the College Board's Advanced Placement Program.

The course

This course is based on improving skills in written Spanish and critical reading of advanced Spanish and Latin American literature. It is typically taught as a Spanish V or VI course. The AP Spanish Literature course is designed to be comparable to a third-year college/university introductory Hispanic literature course. Students concentrate on developing proficiency in reading and writing in preparation for the AP Spanish Literature examination. In addition, this course emphasizes mastery of linguistic competencies at a very high level of proficiency.

The course has a required reading list that draws from a variety of sources, including such well-known authors and poets as Federico García Lorca, Miguel de Cervantes, Tirso de Molina, Gabriel García Márquez, Alfonsina Storni, Juan Rulfo, Isabel Allende, and Miguel de Unamuno, as well as a miscellany of lesser-known short stories, poems, and novels. A complete list of the readings is regulated annually by the College Board. The course is meant to be taught entirely in Spanish, though English translations of the stories are often common resources for students.

The exam

The exam is divided into two sections with several parts. Section I, consisting of multiple-choice questions, is split into two parts. Part A (15 questions) is the listening component, which includes a twice-recited poem, a recording of an interview with an author, and a presentation concerning a topic that relates to the course. Part B (50 questions) is reading comprehension based on a wide variety of works, including a literary criticism and selections from works that are not on the required reading list. 80 minutes is given for the entire section.

Section II is free-response, containing two short-answer questions and two long-answer questions. The first question is based on an excerpt from a work on the required reading list, and students must name the author, identify the time period, and, most importantly, elaborate on the theme presented in the passage (15 minutes). The second question asks students to read an excerpt from a work on the required reading list and compare the theme presented to that of an accompanying piece of artwork (15 minutes). The third question tests the students' ability to link a piece of literature on the required reading list to the greater genre or movement to which it belongs (35 minutes). Finally, the fourth question directs students to analyze the literary techniques in two excerpts, one of which is from the required reading list, that are used to convey a shared theme (35 minutes). 100 minutes is allotted for this section.

In all, the test is approximately 3 hours in duration.

Grade distribution

In the 2016 administration, 24,061 students took the exam, with a mean score of 3.04.

The grade distributions for 2007 and 2012-2016 were:

Score	2007	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
5	11.5%	11.5%	10.8%	9.9%	10%	8.8%
4	22.6%	21.5%	28.2%	25.5%	24.9%	24.3%
3	27.5%	28.9%	37.6%	39.1%	38.1%	36.9%
2	14.9%	16.5%	18.2%	19.5%	20.6%	22.5%
1	23.6%	21.6%	5.2%	6.0%	6.4%	7.6%

See also

• AP Spanish Language

External links

• AP Spanish Literature at CollegeBoard.com
• Spanish Literature Advanced Placement (AP) 2012 readings