How hard is the AP Chinese Exam?

I am planning to take the AP Chinese exam in May so I wonder how it’s like and what should I do to prepare myself for it. I currently speak Chinese fluently at home and I am pretty good with speak, listening, and writing but I lack the reading part. I can’t understand most characters in a passage so I am going to review that a lot. I know a lot of people get 5’s on the exam but I don’t know if I can get a 5 since I am not too good at reading Chinese characters without pinyin. I can speak and understand things really well but I just lack reading. I know we only type on the AP Chinese exam.

I took the exam many years ago but I’ll assume it hasn’t changed that much. There was a part where you had to record into the microphone a response to a conversation with a prerecorded voice, a part where you wrote a letter in response to a letter, a story narration, a segment on Chinese culture to which you had to reply and a larger question/answer section. If you speak fluently and can hold a solid conversation, you’re doing pretty well already and I’m guessing you can at least get a 3-4 off that alone. I personally also speak chinese fluently at home and can type it but don’t really have a solid foundation in writing/reading but still scored a 5 when I was ~13-14 yrs old.

You just need to understand the exam is not geared towards native Chinese speakers but rather American high schoolers so as long as you can read simple/common characters you’ll do fine. I would go over some basic intro chinese guides and you should be fine.

Good luck!

What percent do I have to get to get a 5 on the exam?

I dont think that is released information but for reference, in 2016 93% of students scored a 3 or above as per: https://www.totalregistration.net/AP-Exam-Registration-Service/2016-AP-Exam-Score-Distributions.php

It also has one of the higher percentages of kids getting a 5 on the exam. If you can comprehend Chinese at a pretty good level, you are completely fine.

How did you prepare for the exam?

Also do you know if the late testing exam is the same as the normal testing exam?