For nearly 30 years, Benilde-St. Margaret’s has hosted National Language Exams to test knowledge and celebrate what students have learned through their world language classes. Not only is it an opportunity for students to be seen in the BSM community and honored for their achievements, but scoring high can have a great impact on a student’s later years. “[The purpose of] the National Language Exams is because we want to nominate students to win awards, and we want to highlight our best and brightest students, and we think that these students will represent BSM really well,” Spanish teacher Megan Hanson said.

BSM has offered multiple language courses in the past, ranging from Latin to Chinese. Now, with only Spanish and French courses for students, it becomes more challenging to take the test. “It ends up being about the top 5%, five to ten percent of all of our levels. We have a limited number of students every year who can take the test because it’s due to budgetary restraints,” French teacher Amy Jo Hyde said.

This year, in a recent poll mainly targeted at all those in honors or AP language classes, most students seemed more anxious about the test this year. Out of the 22 students, 11 expressed feeling pressured to score higher than average. In past years, students have scored high, and there are also prizes and awards at stake, contributing to the pressure. Juliet Scallon has participated in the National Spanish Exam since seventh grade, and from then on, she has performed pretty well each year. Scallon has gotten all of the gold, silver, and bronze medals, and now, she emphasizes how performing just as well this year is crucial. “I kind of feel like if I don’t get a medal again, I’m a failure, and … if I don’t do well, I’ll just feel like I’m worse than I used to be, and I need to live up to my own expectations,” Scallon said.

The Spanish classes are still in early preparation and are predicted to take the exam around April 14 this year. French, however, has already taken the exam. After hearing from the French teachers, the test seemed to be more challenging than in past years. “This year, it seems like the test was really hard. We noticed our students didn’t quite do as well. It just kind of depends on the year. Some years are harder than others, but I think our students, I would say, they’ve improved listening,” Hyde said.

In summary, the National Language Exams are great ways for students to represent themselves in schools and a great tool to bring into further education. The language department points out that while in high school, students should take advantage of these courses as much as possible. “I’m really grateful for the students who take a language and stick with it, because learning a language is a lifelong endeavor and for those students who stick with it for four years in high school, just have that much knowledge under the belt to keep going and do good in college,” Hanson said.