About the Exam

Exam Overview

The AP Spanish Literature and Culture Exam will test your understanding of the literary and cultural concepts presented in the course units, as well as your ability to apply what you learned from the required texts to interpret and analyze other non-required texts.

This is a fully digital exam. You’ll complete multiple-choice and free-response questions in the Bluebook testing app, with all responses automatically submitted at the end of the exam.

Exam Duration

3hrs

Section IA: Multiple Choice Interpretive Listening

15 questions | 20mins | 10% of Score

This section includes 3 sets of questions based on authentic audio texts including:

• An excerpt from an interview with an author

• A recited poem that is not on the required reading list

• A presentation on a literary topic related to course content

You will have time to skim the questions for each set before listening to the audio.

The interview and presentation will be played once; the recited poem will be played twice.

Section IB: Multiple Choice Reading Analysis

50 questions | 1hr | 40% of Score

This section includes 6 sets of 7–10 questions based on readings from a variety of genres, periods, and places in the Spanish-speaking world.

Readings include:

• Works from the required reading list

• Works outside the required reading list

• A passage of literary criticism regarding a work or author from the list

One set will contain 2 passages that are related by theme—one of those passages is taken from the required reading list and the other is from a non-required text

Section II: Free Response

4 questions | 1hr 40mins | 50% of Score

The free-response sections includes two short-answer questions and two long-essay questions:

• 2 Short-Answer Questions: Suggested time: 15 minutes each (~30 minutes)

  • Text Explanation: You’ll read an excerpt from a text on the required reading list, identify the author and period of the text, and explain the development of a given theme found within the excerpt in relation to the whole work from which the excerpt is taken.

  • Text and Art Comparison: You’ll read an excerpt from a text on the required reading list and study an image of a work of art (e.g., a painting, photograph, sculpture, or drawing) related by theme to the text. You will compare how a particular theme is represented in both the text and the image, and then connect that theme to the genre, period, or movement of the text.

• 2 Essay Questions: Suggested time: 35 minutes each (~70 minutes)

  • Analysis of a Single Text: You’ll read an excerpt from a text on the required reading list and then analyze how the text represents the characteristics of a particular genre as well as a particular historical, cultural, or social context.

  • Text Comparison: You’ll read 2 excerpts related by theme—one from a text on the required list, the other from a text not on the list—and analyze the effect of literary devices that the authors use in the texts to develop a particular theme that is provided in the question prompt.