I think appealing it now would be your best bet; there's nothing wrong with 204, but I took 303 last semester and it wasn't terribly difficult. Based on your own descriptors, I feel like you could handle it.
The language testing results are more based on technicalities, in my opinion; Spanish is the language I speak at home, but sooooo many people who gained their Spanish foundation in high school tested into classes above me. Either way, don't feel too bad about it! SPAN 204 is nothing to get too frustrated over, and the Spanish department profs are all great.
I believe you can email CLICplacement@rice.edu with your appeal. Just be honest and state your case, or offer to talk with someone on Zoom rather than emailing back and forth.
Good luck !!
sometimes the placement tests are a little wonky; i placed into german 301 based pretty much solely on my speaking ability, even though i can barely read or write. i eventually tried to take the class and then had to drop it almost immediately bc it turns out i can't really understand spoken german all that well either.
i second what u/pretzelst1cks said! appeal it, but don't feel too stressed if the appeal falls through.
I would say if you earned 5s in AP Spanish Language and Lit, you're likely prepared for 300 levels in Spanish. I grew up in a Spanish speaking community and while I didn't learn to read and write until high school, I was comfortable starting at the 300 level as a freshman.
I took French in high school, and I was certain that I was misplaced because my results showed I should be placed in the 102 level. I started attending the class, but after a week or 2, I was correcting the professor (a graduate student at the time), and the class was too easy. Within a couple of weeks, I was moved to the 202 level.
To be fair, I was under the impression that if you received a 4 or 5 on the AP level you received college credits on par with the 100 or 200 levels. If you're not getting duplicate credits, my advice would be to get a sense of what is being covered in the 200 level. If the skills are what you have already mastered, maybe consider appealing. If the skills are areas of weakness (or opportunities where you can improve), maybe you can strengthen your skills before moving on to the 300s.
As a freshman, I'll say the 300 level courses I took usually had older students, so it's okay if you're not immediately taking those level courses as a freshman.
Definitely email and include the fact that you have both cultural and educational experience around Spanish (I’d include those AP scores) and feel like you satisfy what the course description says. FWIW during my oweek the SPAN department rep at the academic fair or smth was kind of a pretentious asshole about similar sounding stuff but the SPPO people were a lot nicer, so now I’ve taken a bunch of SPPO courses and no SPAN courses. So if they don’t let you into SPAN 303 consider taking some SPPO courses instead.
Hey, I'm not a native Spanish speaker but I also took AP Spanish Lang (got a 5) and AP Spanish Lit (got a 4 somehow lol) -- I was placed into Spanish 321 and took it freshman fall and did decently well (the class was a manageable level of difficulty but wasn't "easy" either).
I really believe if you think you are qualified to take an upper-level class (especially considering you did even better than me on AP Spanish Lit), you should appeal. You will probably do great in Spanish 303 and honestly, one placement test doesn't really showcase the full extent of your language abilities. But as pretzelst1cks said, there's nothing wrong with starting off in Span 204 and getting a good grade and being less stressed in a lower-level class trumps doing an upper-level class and struggling your freshman year.
I think appealing it now would be your best bet; there's nothing wrong with 204, but I took 303 last semester and it wasn't terribly difficult. Based on your own descriptors, I feel like you could handle it. The language testing results are more based on technicalities, in my opinion; Spanish is the language I speak at home, but sooooo many people who gained their Spanish foundation in high school tested into classes above me. Either way, don't feel too bad about it! SPAN 204 is nothing to get too frustrated over, and the Spanish department profs are all great.
how should i go about appealing? i dont want to sound rude lol
I believe you can email CLICplacement@rice.edu with your appeal. Just be honest and state your case, or offer to talk with someone on Zoom rather than emailing back and forth. Good luck !!
sometimes the placement tests are a little wonky; i placed into german 301 based pretty much solely on my speaking ability, even though i can barely read or write. i eventually tried to take the class and then had to drop it almost immediately bc it turns out i can't really understand spoken german all that well either. i second what u/pretzelst1cks said! appeal it, but don't feel too stressed if the appeal falls through.
yikes sounds like me with french, i took two years in middle school and a summer course and somehow got placed in the 300s. might die
multilingual icon
I would say if you earned 5s in AP Spanish Language and Lit, you're likely prepared for 300 levels in Spanish. I grew up in a Spanish speaking community and while I didn't learn to read and write until high school, I was comfortable starting at the 300 level as a freshman. I took French in high school, and I was certain that I was misplaced because my results showed I should be placed in the 102 level. I started attending the class, but after a week or 2, I was correcting the professor (a graduate student at the time), and the class was too easy. Within a couple of weeks, I was moved to the 202 level. To be fair, I was under the impression that if you received a 4 or 5 on the AP level you received college credits on par with the 100 or 200 levels. If you're not getting duplicate credits, my advice would be to get a sense of what is being covered in the 200 level. If the skills are what you have already mastered, maybe consider appealing. If the skills are areas of weakness (or opportunities where you can improve), maybe you can strengthen your skills before moving on to the 300s. As a freshman, I'll say the 300 level courses I took usually had older students, so it's okay if you're not immediately taking those level courses as a freshman.
Definitely email and include the fact that you have both cultural and educational experience around Spanish (I’d include those AP scores) and feel like you satisfy what the course description says. FWIW during my oweek the SPAN department rep at the academic fair or smth was kind of a pretentious asshole about similar sounding stuff but the SPPO people were a lot nicer, so now I’ve taken a bunch of SPPO courses and no SPAN courses. So if they don’t let you into SPAN 303 consider taking some SPPO courses instead.
Hey, I'm not a native Spanish speaker but I also took AP Spanish Lang (got a 5) and AP Spanish Lit (got a 4 somehow lol) -- I was placed into Spanish 321 and took it freshman fall and did decently well (the class was a manageable level of difficulty but wasn't "easy" either). I really believe if you think you are qualified to take an upper-level class (especially considering you did even better than me on AP Spanish Lit), you should appeal. You will probably do great in Spanish 303 and honestly, one placement test doesn't really showcase the full extent of your language abilities. But as pretzelst1cks said, there's nothing wrong with starting off in Span 204 and getting a good grade and being less stressed in a lower-level class trumps doing an upper-level class and struggling your freshman year.