Customer Reviews

The Best Test AP Spanish Language Exam-The Best Test Prep for: 6th Edition (Advanced Placement (AP) Test Preparation)

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grammar review is a condensed version of REA's Handbook of Spanish Grammar, Style, and Writing. so buy that instead!

practice tests suck. they are on an entirely different level than the ap test. i can't even express how much more difficult the ap exam was.

so don't waste your time with this product.

(But BUY 'REA's Handbook of Spanish...'! it's incredible.)

This seems suspiciously easier than any AP books I've used before. The reading sections that have been "adapted" have many misspelled words and I've found errors throughout. It might be useful as extra practice if you proofread it carefully before letting students loose with it, and the CDs are useful. It also doesn't have the scoring guide which will help you determine at what level (1-5) your students are scoring. Not worth the money.

I only bought this book because it was required through my teacher, and honestly expected more. I've used the REA review books for two other AP exams, both history, and have felt confident in their material and review. However, the AP Spanish is full of mistakes in the grammar review section, making it a very inefficient study guide. Despite the seemingly thorough amount of pages it contains, only about one hundred pages of it (likely less) is actual grammar review. The rest of the first two hundred pages are drills and answers that overall are not helpful.

It contains only three practice tests that are incredibly easy to get through, especially the reading comprehension. The listening sections speak much slower than what is on the actual AP, and the long narratives stretch more to 10 minutes than the five with long pauses in-between sentences. The reading comprehension is ridiculously easy and the free-response fill-ins are not nearly sufficient enough for practice.

The directive dialogues are very different from that on the actual exam as well, which though in the same format, the actual directive conversation was much simpler. The sample dialogues contained far too complicated situations that were not going to be repeated on the real exam. The samples for the free response sections at the end were also useless, not offering any useful material.

Good points were that there was a comprehensive list of idioms in the grammar review that was great to use for the fill-in free response questions and the last section of the grammar review gave the common mistakes that many students make as well as a list of common false-cognates. The practice tests were good for students at the beginning of the year who want to get a feel for the general test format with easier questions to build higher from.

It could have been improved in many ways, including using a proofreader. A list of common AP vocabulary words would have also been very helpful, as well as more insight strategies to use during the exam.

Overall, it's not recommended to buy unless required. You're more likely to get more help by directly asking your teacher for extra material to either make copies of or borrow than buying a language study aid. The teachers often have copies of past exams that they are willing to land, or own a few decent practice books to learn from.

I am teaching AP Spanish for the first time and bought this with the intention of using it to help my students better prepare for the test. I thought I was getting a new copy. When I opened the box and saw that I received a used copy where the CDs were torn out of the back page, I was quite upset. I needed the CDs more than anything else, I have grammar books by the dozen, I didn't need another one. The picture clearly states that this book comes with 2 CDs and I have NONE! If it would not cost me more to ship it back, I would put it back in the box right now and never buy from this company again. I am completely dissatisfied.
I guess I had best go to Barnes and Nobles and be able to verify that what is pictured is what I am getting.