Rose Schnabel not only scored a 5, the highest possible score, on her Advanced Placement Spanish Language and Culture Exam, she was one of only 100 students in the world to answer every question correctly.
Schnabel, a Zionsville resident, has been a student at the International School of Indiana since fifth grade.
“Before that, I was at the Montessori school in Fishers, and in fifth grade I decided to do an immersion program, which is a half-day in Spanish entirely and the other half in English. The beginning was definitely a bit of a shock,” Schnabel said. “Essentially, you’re doing the same curriculum in English and Spanish.”
ISI offers students in preschool through fifth grade are offered full language immersion classes in three languages: Spanish, Mandarin and French.
Schnabel said she was overwhelmed at first because most students at ISI already had exposure to Spanish because they were younger.
“I picked it up pretty quickly. I had some great teachers and I wound up where I am today,” she said.
However, when Schnabel finished the AP exam in spring 2018, she didn’t expect to score perfectly.
“When I took the test, it was a lot of familiar material, but by no means did I think ‘I got this in the bag,’ she said. “I thought it was a difficult test and was proud of what I had done and that I might’ve missed some things here and there, but when I got the letter I was absolutely shocked.”
Schnabel wants to attend Yale and double-major in biology and Spanish.
