Should I take an AP Chinese course next year if I don't really want to?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi,

I’m a junior in HS. I’m in my third year of Mandarin right now. I’m not really that good at it IMO; I’m pretty slow to comprehend dialogue or form my own sentences on the spot. I have an OK average (90+) because I study before tests and I’m a little better at writing/reading/vocab (most of our tests are written), and I participate in class. But I tend to forget a lot of the vocab not long after taking the test, and I always feel like I’m behind my peers.

I’m not sure whether I should go for AP Chinese next year. On one hand, colleges might like to see that I’m taking an additional AP course. This isn’t exactly a drop in the ocean; I have (idiotically) taken zero AP courses so far, and due to my low GPA of 89.75 (because I was sick a lot last year), my high school is barring me from requesting more than 2 APs next year. Except foreign language APs don’t count at all towards this limit, so if I take AP Chinese I’m getting a 3rd AP course for free. My school in fact automatically enrolls all foreign language learners for an AP class their senior year, unless they opt out.

On the other hand, I feel like I’ve lost interest in Mandarin over the years. I want to focus my efforts next year on calculus/physics, and Chinese just feels like a boring distraction. I wish I’d learned Greek/Latin instead, I’d have way less trouble keeping up with them. In addition, I’m afraid I wouldn’t do well in AP Chinese because of aforementioned problems learning Mandarin.

What do you think I should do?

2

I think you should take take Mandarin. I think many students feel like they aren’t any good at the language they learned in high school, even in AP. (Even after four years of consistent over 100% in the French, I still doubt myself!) Half the battle of learning a language is getting through the introductory courses, so I think it’s worth a shot to just go through with it and take AP (plus colleges want you to take the most rigorous classes possible for you). The AP course (at least in my school) is designed to help you pass the test, even if your language skills are less than perfect, so you will be well prepared for the exam in the addition year of Chinese instruction. In addition, in the end, all AP tests for languages know that most people are nowhere near fluent and that’s ok! You don’t need to be fluent to get a 5 - in fact 5s are allowed to make mistakes and don’t have flawless grammar and speaking.

3

Well I think all colleges like calculus & physics, but not all require or recommend 4 years of a language. If you aren’t interested in Mandarin it won’t contribute to any spike, unlike calculus/physics you actually are interested in. Plus if you want to get your GPA up, if you do bad in AP Chinese, it won’t help your UW GPA. But at the same time, an AP is an AP. So in short, if you don’t think you will do well, I would the calculus/physics instead of AP Chinese if you think you will do better at that.