<p>Hello :) I will be taking the AP French, AP Chinese, and AP Japanese exams my senior year. I am not a native speaker of any of these languages, however. I'll be taking French throughout high school, Japanese with a private tutor/teacher, and Chinese online (counts for high school).</p>
<p>At my school, AP French is French 5, but since I'm starting French 1 in 9th grade, I won't be able to get that far :( I'll just have to self-study. Also, since I'm taking Japanese on my own, I'll have to self-study for that as well. Chinese 4 is AP though, so at least I'll know the material.</p>
<p>However, I'm really worried about the difficulty of these tests. I know a lot of non-native speakers take the AP French exams, but AP Chinese and AP Japanese are different. I heard it was almost impossible to pass the AP Japanese exam if you aren't a native speaker. Most people who take it are native speakers, so the curve is really hard. I think around 50% of people receive 5's. As for AP Chinese, I'm guessing it'll be easier for me since I'm taking the actual AP course.</p>
<p>Thanks! :D</p>
<p>For non-native speakers in 2013, 5’s were earned by 27% on the Chinese exam, 19% on Japanese, and 14% on French; so your odds are actually bleakest on French.</p>
<p><a href=“2013 AP Exam Score Distributions”>2013 AP Exam Score Distributions;
<p>I got a 5 on this year’s AP Japanese test (2014). I found it surprisingly easy, but I lived in Japan fully immersed for a year, so I don’t know if my advice entirely counts as “non-native.”</p>
<p>In my opinion, it seems that it will be difficult to get 5’s on all three language tests during the same year. The average score for non-native AP Japanese test takers in 2013 was 2.8. Furthermore, those who took the test (non-natives) were predominantly students who had actually taken Japanese class formally in high school.</p>
<p>If you’re confident that you want to take these three tests all during one year, go for it. I would personally stagger the testing, or just prioritize and pick one test to focus on. AP World Language tests take a <em>lot</em> of work (I had a friend who immersed herself in French radio and television at home for a full year before the test and got a 4) and it’s even harder when one’s experience with a language is self-taught. </p>
<p>My D took AP Spanish Lang & Culture this year. Similar to AP Chinese, majority of the students taking it are native speakers or self study (~2/3). The overall percentage for get 5 is 24.1% (35.1% for 4) though. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to get a 5 for non-native speakers.</p>