FRQ 3 – Conversation

This guide organizes advice from past students who got 4s and 5s on their exams. We hope it gives you some new ideas and tools for your study sessions. But remember, everyone's different—what works for one student might not work for you. If you've got a study method that's doing the trick, stick with it. Think of this as extra help, not a must-do overhaul.

📌 Overview

• Students participate in a simulated conversation with 5 exchanges, 20 sec for each response. Students are provided with a preview and outline of the conversation
• 13% of Exam Score
• 16 minutes
• 5 Pt Rubric
  • Demonstrates excellent presentational speaking and cultural knowledge (5)

💭 General Advice

Tips on mindset, strategy, structure, time management, and any other high level things to know

• Mindset wise, it is important that you keep cool. Trust your knowledge and vocabulary, trust yourself; you are more likely to remember things you’ve learned if you are in the state of mind that you learned them in.
• It is CRUCIAL that you read the introduction provided to you in that section of the FRQ. The Introduction gives you relevant information regarding the conversation and the topic, and sets the stage to how you should respond in the simulated conversation. Sometimes, student responds to the speaker in the conversation with a different topic than what was supposed to spoken about.
  • Ex: Instructions saying you go to the mall to fix your cell phone and you respond to a question asking you what you’re doing at the mall by saying you’re there to buy clothes.
• Also look at the table provided. It tells you how you should respond to the person speaking to you.
  • Ex: “Te saluda y te hace una pregunta // Contesta con detalles y negativamente.” The speaker asks you a question, the instructions tell you to respond negatively (saying no) and with details.
• Don’t speak too fast. It is better to be concise and understandable than to speak extremely fast to try and get as much conversation in as possible but not be understood. Speak in a warm, normal-toned voice.
• Always aim to add a bit of extra information to your responses. Vague answers may not be as appealing to the AP readers (or in this case listeners). You have 20 seconds in between each question/interaction so aim to talk through at least half or three-fourths of that time.
• Make sure you’re addressing the person you’re “conversing” with with the appropriate gendered words and in the appropriate manner (formal or informal).
• If you truly are stuck and do not understand anything the speaker says, just start talking. If you say nothing, you will for sure receive no points. If you understand a few words or phrases, go off of that. This is not optimal, but again, it’s 100% better to say something rather than nothing based on my experiences and other AP Spanish test-takers.
• As previously said, it’s better to say something than nothing, something that can give you a good amount of points is “No pude escucharte, ¿puedes repetir la pregunta?” or something similar will, again be better to say.

🕛 Before you Write

What should a student do in the first few minutes, before they start writing?

• There isn’t necessarily a writing portion during this FRQ, but it can be a great idea to jot down a few things on your paper that first come to your mind as you hear the audio and the person “speaking to you.” Of course, don’t distract yourself too much because the audio won’t be repeated and if you fail to listen you’d have to think on your feet and take a chance to provide an answer that may not be relevant to what was said or asked by the person “speaking to you.”
• Read the prompt, look at who you are talking to, and consider whether the conversation is formal or informal (this is so important!). Jot down any simple greetings, endings, or phrases you may like to use in case you get frazzled at the start or by the end.

🏛️ Structuring Your Response

• These responses are spontaneous. You get no heads-up to what the speaker in the conversation will be asking you. It is important that you keep your attention strictly on the audio and not distract yourself from it because you don’t get a second try.
• It is more than okay to wait around 3 seconds during the 20 seconds given to think before formulating a response. Remember, it is better for your answer to be concise, cohesive, relevant, and understandable than for it to be rushed and incomprehensible. Just be careful and make sure to state your response before the 20 seconds are up; nothing you say after the buzzer goes off counts toward your score.

😬 Common Mistakes

• Not answering questions in the manner that the instructions ask you to.
  • Ex: Instructions telling you to answer positively (saying yes, agreeing, etc.) and with details but you answer negatively (saying no, rejecting, declining, etc.)
• Students will sometimes stop talking once they mess up while speaking. Do not do this. Quickly recuperate and continue speaking, as once you stop talking they cannot give you points.
• Students do not answer a question at all. Do not sit in silence. Worst come to worse, if you do not know what to say, explain you could not hear what they said or continue speaking about a previous point. Show off that you can speak the language at least.

💡 Tips for Fluent Conversation

• Trust yourself, the knowledge you have, and the vocabulary you possess. Even though impressing the AP graders with your expanded vocabulary may be on your checklist, it is important to focus on providing a concise and relevant answer even if it is with simple words. It is better to get the point for answering the question rather than no points for answering with large and impressive words that don’t help your response.
• Just make sure you maintain good exchange between you and the speaker by using transition words, etc. Also make sure you provide all the required information and elaborate on it, have good grammar, good pronunciation, and moderate pacing.
• IT IS OKAY IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, STUDER, FREEZE FOR A SECOND, ETC. As long as you correct yourself you should be more than fine. Correcting yourself makes your response more understandable and shows the AP graders that you are conscious about your mistakes and know enough about the subject to correct them.