Is AP Chinese Hard? Is AP Chinese Worth Taking?

Introduction

1. Multiple choice listening, where you'll have 20 minutes to answer 25-35 questions about audio prompts.
2. Multiple choice reading, where you'll have 60 minutes to answer 30-40 questions.
3. Written free response, where you'll have 30 minutes write a story and an email.
4. Spoken free response, where you'll have 10 minutes to respond to conversational questions and present on Chinese culture.

How difficult is AP Chinese?

• 5: 60.1%
• 4: 14.9%
• 3: 14.8%
• 2: 4%
• 1: 6.2%

• Students who spoke Chinese at home found the test to be slightly difficult (average score: 2.25).
• Students who rarely or never spoke Chinese at home found the test to be moderately difficult (average score: 3).

"Speaking was the hardest part for me and my classmates. The issue isn’t that you don’t remember how to speak, but rather how to respond. Sometimes the questions that the College Board throws you can be confusing, especially since you only have 20 seconds to respond. It makes it extremely challenging to be suddenly thrust into a scenario where you are supposed to imagine a conversation with no build up. Even in English, I feel like I would struggle with immediately coming up with a response after being forced into a situation where I’m bombarded with questions."

"The most difficult was the speaking presentation; it’s hard to talk about a topic that you may not know a lot about nonstop."

"I found the writing part the easiest because although it was similar to speaking, I had more time and could revise what I had written. It was also nice that we could use a computer to input the characters instead of writing them out by hand."

"The easiest part for me in AP Chinese was the writing section. All you have to do is study the images, find a correlation, and simply describe the images. The story can be what you make of the images, and adding in details is a secondary thing."

Is AP Chinese worth taking?

Closing statement

"Familiarize yourself with the format ahead of time, don't be afraid to ask for help if your software is not working properly, and don't stress too much!"

"I personally watch a lot of Chinese dramas, and it honestly helped me a lot. I’d say practice is definitely key, whether it’s speaking or writing Chinese."