In 2025, 182,670 high school students took the AP Spanish exam. AP exams are an opportunity for high school students to demonstrate to college admissions officers that they took rigorous coursework. They also allow students to potentially earn college credit. The most unfamiliar task on the test for many students is the formal email (Free Response Question #1), as most high school Spanish students and high school Spanish teachers do not regularly send formal emails in Spanish. This is an in-depth guide to help students prepare for Free Response Question 1 of the AP Exam. Click here if you would like expert assistance preparing for the AP Spanish Exam.

Test Outline  

The AP Spanish Exam includes the following sections:

Part I 

• Multiple Choice Questions based on readings
• Multiple Choice Questions based on audio and readings

Part II

Written Components:

• Free Response Question 1: Email Reply
• Free Response Question 2: Argumentative Essay

Spoken Components:

• Free Response Question 3: Conversation
• Free Response Question 4: Cultural Comparison

This blog post focuses on Free Response Question 1, the Email Reply. If you would like assistance with this or other components of the exam, please reach out to hello@mindfish.com

Free Response Question 1: Email Reply

In order to get a 5 on Free Response Question 1, students will respond to an email in formal Spanish and answer the questions in the email. 

Sample Topic

An example of a College Board topic from a past year is an email requesting an interview with the student to speak more about the student’s experience volunteering in a Spanish-speaking country.

Task

1. Use “usted” to address the writer of the email (think “él, ella, usted” verb conjugations instead of “tú” verb conjugations)
2. Include a formal Spanish opening
3. Answer all questions
4. Ask for additional Information
5. Include a formal Spanish closing

Rubric Summary

There are two categories of skills on the rubric. The first is a set of requirements specific to how well the student responds to the content in the email. This is best practiced with sample prompts and expert corrections. The second set of requirements can be met by memorizing sentence frames and including them in the email response.

Skills that are best Practiced with Sample Prompts and Expert Corrections

• Respond to the email in a way that makes sense based on the email
• Answer all questions in the email
• No written errors that interfere with understanding

Skills with Sentence Frames that Can Be Memorized

• Formal Language
• Simple, compound, and complex sentences
• Advanced vocabulary

How to Use Sentence Frames

Memorize the following sentence frames to include in the email response. These meet the formal rubric requirements of formal register in Spanish, advanced vocabulary, and complex sentence structures.

Greeting

In place of saying “Dear ________,” start with Estimado/a/os/as ________(name)

Body of email

First line of the email: Espero que se encuentre bien, y agradezco su interés por contactarme.

This is a formal way to say “I hope you are well, and I appreciate your interest in contacting me.”  

Asking for more information about something after answering email questions: Me interesaría tener más información al respecto de __________ (whatever you want more info about).

This means “I would be interested in having more information regarding _________”

Ending

Saludos cordiales 

This means “kind regards,” but you can remember it by thinking “cordial greetings”

Atentamente, 

_________________

This means “Sincerley”

These sentence frames help students earn points in the following categories in the rubric:

• Formal Language (Estimados, usted, se encuentre bien, su)
• Compound and complex sentences (Espero que se encuentre bien, y agradezco su interés por contactarme.)
• Advanced vocab (Saludos cordiales)

How to use model texts to help you prepare

College Board provides sample student responses to help you prepare for the test. Study with these texts by doing the following activities:

1. Read the email prompt from 2025 

2. Text 1A – Score 5/5

• Read the text and look up any phrases you don’t know
• Memorize and practice writing these new phrases
• Use this text as a model and write a response to one of last year’s prompts

3. Text 1B – Score 3/5

• Read the comments and pay attention to what scored points
• Find the errors
• Rewrite with some of the language from Text 1A

4. Text 1C – Score 2/5

• Find the errors and check your guesses with the comments
• Rewrite this text adding more ideas and language from Text 1A

How to Use ChatGPT to help you prepare

AI is never a substitute for generating your own work or ideas. However, it can be a helpful tool to guide learners when used appropriately. AI is able to search available web resources for formal email examples and borrow language. Of course, take AI’s response with a grain of salt. You must fact check the Spanish language for accuracy and appropriateness at the end.

1. Pick a past Free Response Email Question and draft a response
2. Upload the question and your response into ChatGPT
3. Use the following instructions: correct grammar, use “usted,” and make it sound formal and natural in Spanish 
4. Fact check the new language by searching for it within quotes on Google to see if it is commonly used on reputable Spanish language websites

Help and Support

If you have any questions about preparing for the AP Spanish Exam or other AP exams or would like additional support, please don’t hesitate to reach out to hello@mindfish.com.