What is the point of taking the Chinese SAT II subject test? Does it benefit me in any way? I am not a native student, however, I am an American born Chinese and I have been studying Chinese for roughly 10 years on the weekends and I think I can score at least a 600 without a curve. I just want to know why or how it would benefit me? I am also planning to take the AP Chinese exam next year!
Just as an FYI, a 600 on the Chinese SAT Subject test is really, really bad. With the number of heritage and native speakers taking the test, a 600 is in the 4th percentile, so taking this would not benefit you at all. At least with the AP test, you might get some college credit out of it.
http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Subject-Tests-Percentile-Ranks-2013.pdf
I know it’s probably too late for me to help you out here, but I think that the above information is sort of uninformed. Yes the curve on the SAT II for Chinese is extremely difficult, and a 600 is in the 4th percentile, due to the extremely high percentage of native speakers and heritage speakers that take it, but it’s also important to remember that colleges are generally unimpressed by native/ heritage speakers that take the test. An 800 is not impressive on the test at all if you’re a native speaker, so as a non-native speaker, your score is going to be compared to non-native speakers like yourself. And while a 600 might still not be particularly high, I’d bet it’s probably in the 40-50th percentile of non-native speakers taking the test, which would just be fairly average.
You know what, an 800 is in the 64th percentile, which means more than a third of all test takers get perfect scores. Also, for the AP Chinese exam, the percentage for the “5” is 70%+. So if you are not particularly strong at Chinese, leave it alone. (Sincere advice from a native speaker)
By the way, average scores on the SAT Chinese test is well above 700. The curve is not intrinsically tough though. You can get 4-5 questions wrong and still score an 800. However, among such a frightening number of high scores, does a 600 mean, if anything, that you are good at Chinese?