Preparing for College in the US: taking the French AP exam

The Advanced Placement (AP) French Language and Culture, also known as AP French is a class that lets US high school students earn credit for a college-level French class. It culminates with the AP French Exam, which is generally considered equivalent to a college-level French 301 final exam. Not only does it require to read and write at a certain level, it also implies an ability to follow a college level course and to perform high level thinking around themes spanning from identity and family to communities and global challenges.

A typical high school student usually get at least 4 to 5 hours of instruction per week to prepare for this exam. Our students only meet once a week for 2 hours at most. Each year, we prepare about forty students by offering courses and two intensive workshops during the school holidays. Despite the pandemic, we held our intensive preparation workshops online during the winter and the spring break. Enrollment was lower than usual but around 15 motivated students showed up during their school breaks on zoom to prepare for the exam.

In late June, 25 students took the 3 hour long exam, in person, in their respective schools. This year, despite the pandemic  and less than ideal conditions, 70% of our students pass the exam (i.e get a score between 3 and 5, the maximum): 38% got a 4 and 20% a 3.