Hey! So I am asian, and right now I am most afraid of the reading comprehension quarter of the AP Chinese test. I should be fine with the other 3 parts because I speak mandarin at home and I know pinyin. However, it seems that the only sections I need help with (reading comprehension) has no real practice questions online! Does anyone know where I can find some? It would also be EXTREMELY useful if you could provide me a list of common characters on the test.
P.S. I am self studying, so I have not taken the course
Hi! I’m not in AP chinese but I’ve heard for most comprehension tests, there are no released test answers so you would have to study from a book. AP Lang and AP lit have no released reading passages. I’m sure you’ll do fine. the passing rate for AP Chinese last year was 95% and about 70% got a five.
Thanks! But do you know what percentage I need to get on the test to get a 5? What is usually the cutoff?
For AP Chinese, nobody knows except the College Board, and they’re not telling.
@Punisher1998 Remember that the AP Chinese test is standardized towards non-Native speakers. If you are Chinese, and speak and read the most decent Chinese possible, then you’ll get at least a 4.
For reference: when I took the AP Chinese test two years ago, I didn’t finish the signoffs/conclusions of both the writing tasks, ran out of time for some of the listening comp questions, and still got a 5 (and yes, I am Taiwanese).
If you’re trying to improve reading comprehension, the solution is simple. According to my parents, the level of Chinese we learn in AP is roughly equivalent to that 10-12 year olds learn in China/Taiwan. My parents brought me both the regular Chinese newspaper and the “Just for Kids” Chinese newspapers so I could read them. I turned on Chinese subtitles for movies, and read those instead of paying attention to the movie. It’s all about character memorization. Although my ability has decreased throughout the years, I knew roughly 3000 characters by the time the AP test rolled around.
Oh thanks for the insight thisisfine2020!
For the speaking portion where you answer short questions, do they expect you to take up all 20 seconds? could I just give one decent sentence to answer the prompt? do they expect you to elaborate on your answers?
Bump, anyone know the answer to the question above?
@Punisher1998 Hi, when I took the exam I was recommended to try to fill up the time as much as possible. Just make sure you speak steadily (not too fast!). As for elaboration, you can just add a followup reason to support your answer. Eg, if they asked your opinion on volunteering, your direct answer would be something like “I think volunteering is good” and then you would add on “because then you can help other people and society”. That easily fills up 20 seconds if you don’t speak too quickly.
would they take points off if you spoke too much and were cut off mid-sentence? because I did that quite a few times
Ok, AP Chinese reading comprehension was ridiculously easy. Honestly, I felt like the reading comprehension was the easiest part of the test. Listening and the conversation were harder than I expected for sure. I heard it is better to be cut off than finish too early. Still, the conversation was quite difficult due to a lack of time to prepare. Also, it is worth mentioning that I was probably the worst person in my whole class but still got a 5. If you prepare for the culture, study some vocabulary, and practice writing some essays(Picture narration is generally more difficult),