Is AP Italian Hard? Is AP Italian Worth Taking?

Breakdown of the Exam

• Interpretive Communication: You answer 30 questions about different written materials in 40 minutes.

• Print and Audio Texts and Interpretive Communication: You answer 35 questions about the content of audio and print sources in 55 minutes.

• Interpersonal Writing: You have 15 minutes to write a response to an email.
• Presentational Writing: You have 55 minutes (15 minutes of reading time and 40 minutes for writing) to write an argumentative essay using 3 different sources.

• Interpersonal Speaking: You reply to a speaker in a simulated conversation 5 times for 20 seconds each.
• Presentational Writing: You give a 2-minute presentation that compares an aspect of Italian society to that of another community.

How Hard is AP Italian?

"There are different tricks that students can learn to maximize their points on the free-response section, like using certain sentence stems and vocabulary words from each unit."

"The prompts on the free-response section tend to be very open-ended, and because of this, there's a little wiggle room when responding."

"Listening can be difficult because if you miss a word or don't know the meaning of one, it can be hard to understand what the speaker is saying. Also, the audio is only allowed to be played a certain amount of times during the test, which why it's important to take lots of notes while listening!"

"When doing any audio parts, you have to think on your feet and try to figure out which answer option best fits what you listened to. And this all happens while you're listening to the audio play."

So, Is AP Italian Worth Taking?

"Start studying and practicing early! Even if that means watching TV shows and movies, reading newspapers, or listening to music in Italian. Any type of immersion will be beneficial in the long run."

"Learn as much as you can about core Italian values (religious traditions, work ethics, the importance of family, etc) as you go through each of the units."