This year for the first time at Bernards High School, all students in Spanish 3, 4, 4H, and AP took the National Spanish Exam. This exam is an online, standardized assessment given in over 3800 schools throughout the United States to measure proficiency and achievement of students who are studying Spanish as a second language. The National Spanish Exam tests in vocabulary, grammar, achievement, reading comprehension, proficiency, and listening. Spanish 4 Teacher, Ms. Violillo greatly encourages her students to take this exam. She said, “ I like to know how each of my students do on the exam and how Bernards High School compares to many other schools around the state and country.”
In the entire country, 29,166 students took the Level 3 Exam and 16,629 students took the Level 4 Exam. From Ms. Violillo Spanish 3 and 4, Ms. Bracero Spanish 3, and Mr. Daben’s Spanish 3 classes combined, 16 out of the 43 students who took the Spanish Exam here at Bernards, were medal winners. Out of those people, 18 had honorable mentions, three won bronze medals, and four people won silver medals. The Junior honorable mention winners for Spanish 3 were Joe Robinson, Rutger Velloso, Jorge Marquez, Michael Mandarino, and Julianne Paris. The Sophmore honorable mention winners for Spanish 3 were Arabella Berman, Mark Canavan, Caitlin O’Brien, Madison Paulik, Erin Roehr, Ryan Van Dijk, Stephanie Cardenas, and Jose Velazquez. The Senior honorable mention winners for Spanish 4 were Ganimete Lamaj and Florencia Gallardo. The two Sophomore, Spanish 4 honorable mentions were Martin Botti and Melodi Olmeda. The one Spanish 4 honorable mention was Senior, Kathryn Kotwick. For Spanish 4, Senior Catherine Shang, won a bronze medal. For Spanish 3, Senior Mitchelle Abuna, Junior Maria Veligurskaya, and Sophomores Emma Britez and Mayra Ascencio all won silver medals.
In order to win a medal or get an honorable mention award, a person must receive a certain score. A gold medal is a 95% or higher, a silver medal is a 85%- 94%, a bronze medal is a 75-84%, and an honorable mention is a 73%- 50% total score. Overall, Bernards High School did extremely well compared to last year’s results on the National Spanish Exam. However, last year a much smaller group took the test and there were winners even with a smaller number. All the Spanish teachers were delighted to see that their students are always improving and proud of their achievement.
