The SAT Spanish test is a 1-hour exam consisting of 85 multiple-choice questions. According to the College Board, the test measures your knowledge of Spanish parts of speech and idiomatic expressions, in both sentences and longer paragraphs.

The questions measuring different language skills are distributed on the test in approximately the following percentages:

On the test, many questions will ask you to choose the word or words that best complete a sentence or that best fill a blank in a sentence. Sometimes the correct answer will be a word or words that make the sentence grammatically correct. Other times, the correct answer will be a word or words that make sense in the context of the meaning of the sentence.

Also on the test, you will be asked to read short passages and then answer questions about them. The passages may be stories, essays, nonfiction articles, or common materials such as advertisements, train or bus timetables, or official forms.

The College Board recommends that you have at least 2 years of strong preparation in Spanish before taking the test. You are also advised to take the test while you are actually enrolled in a Spanish class, rather than after you have completed your studies. If you wait until later to take the test, your recall of Spanish may not be as good as you might wish.

On the SAT Spanish test, your “raw score” is calculated as follows: you receive one point for each question you answer correctly, but you lose onethird of a point for each question you answer incorrectly. You do not gain or lose any points for questions that you do not answer at all. Your raw score is then converted into a scaled score by a statistical method that takes into account how well you did compared to others who took the same test. Scaled scores range from 200 to 800 points. Your scaled score will be reported to you, your high school, and to the colleges and universities you designate to receive it.

Scoring scales differ slightly from one version of the test to the next. The scoring scale provided after the Spanish test in this book is only a sample that will show you your approximate scaled score.

The College Board also offers a test called the SAT Spanish with Listening test. Unlike the regular Spanish test, which requires you only to read Spanish, the Listening test requires you to listen to spoken Spanish and answer questions about what you hear. If you are confident of your ability to understand spoken Spanish, you may choose to take the Listening test instead of the regular SAT Spanish test.

The Listening test is offered only in November. If you choose to take the Listening test, you must bring an acceptable CD player with earphones to the test center.