AP Spanish Email Reply: Guide, Rubric & Model Response
The email reply is the first of the two written free-response tasks on the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam, and it is the one most students underestimate. It looks simple — read a short email, write a reply — but it is scored on six separate criteria, and missing any one of them caps your score. You have 15 minutes to read the prompt and write a response of roughly 60–80 words that responds to every question, asks something back, uses the right register, and shows cultural awareness.
This guide breaks the task down the way a rater reads it: what the prompt asks for, what each rubric band actually looks like in a student response, and what a high-scoring reply contains that a mid-scoring one does not. It includes a model prompt and a model response annotated line by line against the rubric, so you can see exactly where the points come from.
The goal is not to memorize a template. The goal is to understand what the task rewards, so that whatever prompt you get in May, you know what to do in the first two minutes and what to check in the last two.
Task Overview
The email reply is an interpersonal writing task. You read a short email from a fictional person — a friend, a host family, a school coordinator, a coworker — and you write a reply. The prompt is in Spanish. Your reply must be in Spanish. You have 15 minutes total, including reading time.
The prompt always contains a set of things you must address. These are usually three or four questions or requests embedded in the email. Your reply must respond to all of them, and it must also do two things the prompt does not explicitly ask for: ask the sender a question back, and use the appropriate register (formal or informal, depending on who is writing to you).
Here is the full list of what a complete reply contains:
| Element | What It Means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | Open with a greeting that matches the register | Hola Ana, / Estimado señor García, |
| Response to each question | Answer every question or request in the prompt | Sí, puedo ir el sábado. / No, no tengo el libro. |
| Question back | Ask the sender something to keep the exchange going | ¿A qué hora nos vemos? / ¿Necesitas algo más? |
| Closing | Close with a phrase that matches the register | Un abrazo, / Atentamente, |
| Register | Formal (usted) or informal (tú), consistent throughout | ¿Puedes…? vs. ¿Puede usted…? |
| Cultural awareness | Show awareness of a cultural practice or difference where relevant | Llevaré algo para la cena, como es costumbre. |
The register is set by the prompt. If the sender uses tú, you reply with tú. If the sender uses usted, you reply with usted. If the sender is a friend, a host sibling, or a peer, use tú. If the sender is a teacher, an administrator, a host parent, or a professional contact, use usted. The rubric penalizes inconsistency, so decide the register in the first ten seconds and hold it.
How the Rubric Works
The email reply is scored on a 5-point scale. The score is holistic — the rater reads your reply once and assigns a single number based on how well it fulfills the task. The table below translates each band into what a student response at that level actually looks like.
| Score | What the Response Does | What It Looks Like |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Fully addresses the prompt, responds to all questions, asks a question back, uses appropriate register, and shows cultural awareness. Language is accurate and varied. | Complete reply with a clear greeting, answers to every question, a natural question back, a correct closing, consistent register, and at least one culturally aware detail. Errors do not impede meaning. |
| 4 | Addresses the prompt and responds to most questions. Register is mostly appropriate. May be missing one element or have minor errors. | Solid reply that answers most of the prompt but may skip one question or miss the question back. Register is correct most of the time. Errors are noticeable but do not block understanding. |
| 3 | Addresses the prompt partially. May miss multiple questions or the question back. Register may be inconsistent. Errors sometimes interfere. | Reply that answers some of the prompt but skips parts of it, or answers everything without asking back. Register may switch between tú and usted. Errors require the reader to work. |
| 2 | Addresses the prompt minimally. Responds to one or two elements. Register is often wrong. Errors frequently interfere. | Short reply that answers only one question or ignores the register. The reader struggles to follow the response. |
| 1 | Barely addresses the prompt. Isolated words or phrases. Little or no control of language. | Reply is a few words or a fragment. The reader cannot reconstruct the response. |
| 0 | Does not address the prompt. Blank, off-topic, or in the wrong language. | No reply, a reply in English, or a reply on an unrelated topic. |
Model Prompt and Model Response
Model prompt (informal register):
¡Hola!
Soy Marta, la hermana de tu amiga Lucía. Lucía me dijo que vas a venir a Madrid el próximo mes. ¡Qué emoción!
Tengo algunas preguntas. ¿Cuándo llegas exactamente? ¿Ya tienes dónde quedarte? ¿Te gustaría que te organice una visita a la ciudad? También quiero saber si tienes alguna preferencia de comida, porque mi madre quiere cocinar algo especial para tu llegada.
¡Escríbeme pronto!
Un abrazo,
Marta
Model response (high-scoring, informal register):
Hola Marta:
Muchas gracias por escribirme. ¡Qué amable de tu parte! Llego a Madrid el 15 de mayo, por la mañana. Todavía no tengo dónde quedarme, así que cualquier recomendación tuya sería perfecta. Me encantaría que me organices una visita a la ciudad — he oído que el barrio de Malasaña es muy interesante. Sobre la comida, me gusta casi todo, pero si tu madre quiere preparar algo típico, me encantaría probar la tortilla de patatas.
¿Crees que podríamos quedar el primer fin de semana? Así tengo tiempo de instalarme antes.
Un abrazo,
[Nombre]
Annotation:
| Rubric Element | Where It Appears in the Model | Why It Earns the Point |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | Hola Marta: | Informal greeting that matches the prompt’s tú and the sender’s own greeting. |
| Response to question 1 (arrival) | Llego a Madrid el 15 de mayo, por la mañana. | Direct, specific answer with a date and time. |
| Response to question 2 (lodging) | Todavía no tengo dónde quedarme, así que cualquier recomendación tuya sería perfecta. | Answers the question and adds a natural follow-up that keeps the exchange going. |
| Response to question 3 (city visit) | Me encantaría que me organices una visita a la ciudad — he oído que el barrio de Malasaña es muy interesante. | Accepts the offer and adds a specific detail (Malasaña) that shows genuine engagement, not just a yes/no. |
| Response to question 4 (food) | Sobre la comida, me gusta casi todo, pero si tu madre quiere preparar algo típico, me encantaría probar la tortilla de patatas. | Answers the question and names a specific dish, which doubles as cultural awareness. |
| Question back | ¿Crees que podríamos quedar el primer fin de semana? | Asks a question that moves the exchange forward. |
| Closing | Un abrazo, | Informal closing that matches the register. |
| Register | tú throughout: escribirme, tu parte, tuya, organices, quedar, tengo | Consistent informal register from greeting to closing. |
| Cultural awareness | tortilla de patatas, barrio de Malasaña | Shows knowledge of Spanish cultural references beyond the prompt. |
Checklist
Run through this in the last 60 seconds of the task. Every row is one point that is easy to lose if you forget it.
| Check | What to Look For |
|---|---|
| 1. Did I greet the sender? | A greeting that matches the register (Hola + name, or Estimado/a + title). |
| 2. Did I answer every question? | Re-read the prompt and check each question off. If the prompt has four questions, your reply needs four answers. |
| 3. Did I ask a question back? | A question that fits the conversation, not a throwaway. |
| 4. Did I close with the right register? | Un abrazo / Hasta pronto for informal; Atentamente / Cordialmente for formal. |
| 5. Is my register consistent? | No mixing tú and usted. Check the verbs: tienes vs. tiene, puedes vs. puede, tu vs. su. |
| 6. Did I show cultural awareness? | A specific detail — a place, a dish, a custom, a practice — that fits the prompt. |
| 7. Did I use the subjunctive where required? | Espero que, me gustaría que, cuando llegues, para que, a menos que — if you used any of these, check the mood. |
| 8. Did I check agreement? | Adjective-noun agreement, subject-verb agreement, ser/estar, por/para. |
Common Mistakes
1. Answering the questions but forgetting the question back.
✗ Hola, llego el 15, no tengo dónde quedarme, me gustaría visitar la ciudad. Un abrazo.
✓ Hola, llego el 15, no tengo dónde quedarme, me gustaría visitar la ciudad. ¿Crees que podríamos quedar el primer fin de semana? Un abrazo.
The question back is a separate rubric element. Without it, the reply is capped at a 4 even if everything else is perfect.
2. Mixing tú and usted.
✗ Hola señora García, ¿puedes ayudarme? Espero que tenga un buen día.
✓ Estimada señora García, ¿puede usted ayudarme? Espero que tenga un buen día.
The greeting in señora García is formal, so the verbs must be formal throughout. Inconsistency costs a point.
3. Using a formal greeting with an informal sender.
✗ Estimada Marta: … Un abrazo,
✓ Hola Marta: … Un abrazo,
Marta writes with tú and closes with un abrazo. The reply must match. Estimada is for a professional or unfamiliar contact.
4. Answering only one or two questions.
✗ Hola, sí, voy a Madrid el próximo mes. Gracias. Un abrazo.
✓ Hola, llego el 15 de mayo, todavía no tengo dónde quedarme, me encantaría la visita, y me gusta casi toda la comida. ¿A qué hora te va bien quedar? Un abrazo.
The prompt asks four questions. A reply that answers one is a 2. A reply that answers all four is a 4 before you even look at the language.
5. Ignoring the cultural element.
✗ Sobre la comida, cualquier cosa está bien.
✓ Sobre la comida, me gustaría probar la tortilla de patatas.
The first version answers the question but leaves the cultural-awareness point on the table. The second earns it with a single specific detail.
6. Writing too much.
✗ A 200-word reply that narrates your entire trip, answers the questions somewhere in the middle, and buries the question back in a paragraph.
✓ A 60–100-word reply with one answer per question, one question back, and a clean close.
The rubric rewards task completion, not length. A longer reply with buried answers is harder to score and more likely to contain errors.
