Hi guys, I have some questions about AP Chinese. What is the minimum percentage I need to get out of 100% in order to get a 5 for AP Chinese? Will they grade native and non-native speakers separately?
Hello! I’m also taking the Chinese exam. I use a Mac at home, but my school has both of the text inputs that CollegeBoard allows. They do allow multiple characters and will recognize some phrases, but you still need to be careful to not enter the wrong characters.
I completely agree with the speaking part, although reading is my weakest section. Pop culture is difficult, as is the question from 2 years ago (I think?) that was about Chinese values. My Chinese teacher is guessing on idioms, festivals, historical figures, or literature this year. I would prep for all 4 of those, and have some generic structure that would work on most all culture questions.
@BunnyMonster Do you have any tips for the conversation section? I’ll be in a room with people fluent in Chinese and my worst fear is that they’ll finish before me and listen to me speak for the rest of the exam haha. Also what % of questions do you need to answer correctly to get a 5? Thanks!
Hi! 
I’m more or less in the same boat as you. I’m a sophomore ABC, self-studying for the exam. I’d consider myself to be fluent in listening and speaking…but I definitely screw up speaking a lot when I get nervous or if I don’t have a lot of time (haha so basically the ap exam!)
I’m worried about the cultural presentation because like you, my cultural knowledge is limited. What I’m going to do tonight is prep a few last subjects: literature, holiday(origins/how is it celebrated?), idiom story, any chinese values vs. western values, food, travel destination in china, etc.
Can you think of anything else? At least it’s not going to be movies/calligraphy because that was 2014 lol
@kuriosmind I know it’s easy to say but hard to do… but don’t worry about the other people in your room! For cultural presentation, map out everything you’re going to say and have a solid intro sentence/concluding sentence. That way, if you lack content, you can still start strong and finish confidently. It’s okay to speak slowly because you’ll be less likely to stumble!! And it’s okay to pause for a few seconds before answering- you’ll be more likely to articulate a clearer response. I was wondering the same thing about the % of questions!
@kuriosmind The conversations vary year to year. Most years have had something related to school though, so maybe brush up on school related vocab before then. Don’t worry about other people in your room, the test doesn’t allow them to finish before you. The test makes you spend a certain amount of time on listening and reading (which is unskippable), and if the Chinese students in your room are doing the 2 minute presentation on Chinese culture quickly, then they’re probably not doing a thorough job. The exam is very structured, so there’s like 0 risk of people listening in on you. Hope that alleviates your fears!
As for the % correct (@angie414), I haven’t found official reports. I don’t use a test prep book, but on another CC thread someone said that 5 Steps said 80+/120 points is a 5, and 60+/120 is a 4. Remember that each section is 25% of the exam score, so if speaking or whatever isn’t your strong suit, you certainly can make up for it in another section.
@angie414 Thanks for the advice! On top of those cultural things, I also learned some basic geography, four inventions, four great works of literature, some taboos/superstitions, major dynasties and the notable events, and the 12 zodiac signs.
I had a conversation with my parents in Mandarin earlier and they said I was fine. My teacher told me the key to doing well on the conversation/presentation is to talk slowly and clearly, memorize a few phrases that can be implemented anywhere, sprinkle in some idioms and proverbs, and 千万 keep calm.
I wish you good luck on the test tomorrow! We’ll do fine!加油! 
Thanks for all the tips, everyone!
@BunnyMonster Hi! Thanks for replying to my question. I don’t know if you’ll see this in time, but I might as well ask anyway:
For the listening portion, are we not allowed to see the questions at all until after the audio is done, even for the ones that repeat twice? I’m self-studying Chinese, so I don’t have a teacher that’s helped familiarize me with the format of the test or anything throughout the year.
@Constantius You caught me just as I was going to log off!
I did the sample questions from the AP test registration thing today. The software is pretty easy to use, but very inflexible. Make sure to finish what you’re saying before the timer cuts off and to select the multiple choice questions in the listening portion in under 5 seconds.
You cannot see any questions until the audio is done. It will play once (or twice) with no way to pause (even in between runs). The questions will appear one at a time with no way to go back. Only the reading section allows you to toggle between questions.
@BunnyMonster @angie414 Thanks so much guys! Best of luck to us tomorrow!
Well, if push comes to shove, bs really bad and pass it off as satire. One of those social criticism, cynical as if shows. 中文如果是好的就行。天也好地也好没有我的大葫芦好。(<-- no clue what I’m saying but hey! Chinese= OK). throw in some archaic allusions, 春江潮水连海平。 无可放出自己的感受。只可悄悄地降落。. Anyway, from what I’ve been testing, if you run out of ideas, make it sound archaic so it is somewhat right anyway. Or if you know what you are doing, push straight ahead!
@kuriosmind @Constantius @angie414
Hopefully you guys see this in time.
This is a pdf of what the screens look like if you didn’t know:
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/ap-student/pdf/chinese/2013-AP-Chinese-Exam-Overview-Final.pdf
The questions in the pdf are the official sample questions that come with the software. Hopefully this helps those of you who haven’t seen the layout of the test become familiar with the layout?
Good luck to everyone!
@BunnyMonster That’s immensely useful, thanks! Good luck to you and everyone else tomorrow!
@BunnyMonster Thanks! It was so helpful to see the exam format. But now I’m more worried about messing up the software. 
Can’t believe we’ll be writing the test in a few hours! I’ll let you guys know how it goes.
Other than the College Board, nobody knows as they have not released any exams.
No.
Hi sorry I’m seeing this after the exam. I just have some clarification for the people who’ve come here in preparation of future Chinese exams.
Actually, there is one released MC for the AP Chinese exam, and it’s the 2007 version. Many sections of the FRQ have changed, but the MC is pretty much to same to how the MC is every year. Every year, CB releases the FRQ’s (writing and speaking), which also include sample answers. Everything can be found via Google or the CB website.
There’s no way for CB to grade natives/non-natives separately. Each person is responsible for reporting whether they’ve had experience with the language outside of the classroom, so there’s zero enforcement for accurate reporting. Additionally, what constitutes as a “native” speaker is murky (for example, an ABC who speaks a different dialect at home and/or isn’t fluent and/or never learned to read). Some native speakers have spent years learning in a Chinese class-- is it really unfair to count their efforts against them? In short, the above poster is right: they don’t grade separately and probably never will.
My bad. You are correct. However, they did not include their score distribution parameters.
I’ve been experimenting with writing using Windows 7 Microsoft Pinyin New Experience Input, but the AP uses I suppose two older versions of Chinese text inputs, and I was just wondering if the Microsoft Pinyin IME is any different than what I’m using now. Does it allow for typing in multiple characters at once if they’re part of a phrase? Logically, it should, but I’m just being super paranoid about this just in case.
Also, speaking is the hardest part of the exam for me. 
My score for the speaking portion heavily depends on what type of topic they’re going to use for this year’s AP - I know a decent amount about some subjects and absolutely nothing for others (like last year’s topic - I’ve never watched a single Chinese movie in my life). Does anyone have any speculation about what potential topics they might have for the speaking this year? Any common/popular topics? Just wondering.
Hi, I’m an American-Born Chinese and I am taking the 2015 AP Chinese test in a little over 24 hours. I was just hoping for some last minute tips and reminders mainly to calm my nerves.
Which brings me to my next point, I have lots of trouble with nerves and I get extremely anxious and nervous before exams, especially big ones like this.
So:
-Although I’m Chinese and have Chinese parents born and raised in China, I still had to learn Chinese in a weekend school. I have been learning for almost 10 years, I’m a HS freshman.
-I’ve been studying the Barron’s book and I’ve done most of the practice problems in it.
-I have a very rudimentary knowledge of Chinese culture mainly from exposure to my parents.
-I have a limited vocabulary that I’ve been trying to expand it. (I think I have ~1,700 words and phrases under my belt, along with some idioms that I’m trying to incorporate into my everyday parlance)
-One of the biggest drawbacks is that I don’t speak Chinese at home, My parents speak Mandarin to me and I usually reply in English, since we both understand what the other is saying. We never bothered with trying to speak the other language. This means I might have some trouble with the speaking part, which I fear is going to be he thing that screws me.
My teacher tells me that I’m averaging between a 4 and a 5, but due to my heritage and background, there is a lot of pressure for me to get a 5, since that’s what’s expected of me, being Chinese and all that.
So I’d really appreciate some tips and advice, things that might just give me the final nudge I need to get a 5. I’m really nervous right now and any insight would he extremely helpful!
I recently took the AP Chinese exam and I wanted to here what others who also took the exam thought of the FRQ \ and the cultural presntation because the questions were released two days ago. How did everyone feel about the test and what did you all think about the exam sections in general. I am alos a non-native speaker for all those who were wondering!