1. Understand the format of the presentation. You will be expected to answer the question and show the following:
a. an effective treatment of the topic
b. a clear comparison of your own community with the target culture
c. an understanding of the target culture
2. Read the question prompt carefully. Make certain that you understand the question and its requirements so that you know exactly what you need to do. Your presentation must compare your community with a cultural product, practice, or perspective of the Spanish-speaking world. You should explain how the cultural topic relates to your own community and include supporting details, specific examples, and other relevant information to substantiate your explanation. Make sure your response makes a clear cultural comparison between your community and the Spanish-speaking world, using transitional elements as needed to highlight the similarities and differences.
3. Take notes strategically. As time permits, use simple outlines and graphic organizers to help you plan your response. You may want to jot down some key words and phrases as you outline, but do not waste time writing out long phrases and sentences that you will recall anyway.
4. Pay attention to verb tenses. Try to maintain a consistent framework of tenses and to use tenses that are appropriate for the theme.
5. Include references, allusions, and opinions. Mention books and stories that you have read or tell about famous people and events with which you are familiar or have studied.
6. Review transition words in Appendix G of this book and use them in your presentation. Transition words make your presentation sound smoother, and they help you link thoughts and ideas or signal a slight shift in direction.
7. Listen to yourself speak. If you make an error, correct yourself. This will show that you do know the correct speech pattern.
8. Speak clearly and enunciate. Speaking quickly is not a sign of fluency, and you want to make sure that your recording is clear enough for your teacher (and the person who will eventually score your presentation on the actual exam) to be able to evaluate it.
9. Learn how your work will be evaluated. Become familiar with how your teacher scores the cultural comparisons and/or the scoring guidelines that will be used to evaluate this part of the exam. This will allow you to know beforehand what is expected of you. If your teacher gives you a score for an oral presentation, go back to the scoring guidelines an determine why you received that score. This will also help you to improve in those areas in which you may be lacking the skills you need to succeed in this task.
10. Practice speaking about cultural topics related to the various themes of the AP Spanish language and culture curriculum guidelines. Practicing in advance of the exam will help you learn to organize your ideas under time pressure and to gauge your time in order to make a two-minute presentation. Frequent practice will help you determine how much information and how much detail you will need to include in your presentation.