Meredith Kreisa
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Put Your Skills to the Test! 6 AP Chinese Practice Tests Online
Most high school students don’t jet off to Vegas to play the slots.
They’re usually not hanging out at the racetrack betting on the ponies.
But that doesn’t mean high school students don’t gamble.
Case in point: the AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam.
When you sign up to take the AP Chinese test, you’re placing a bet on yourself and your abilities. Win, and could receive thousands of dollars worth of college credits and shave valuable time off of your college coursework. Lose, and you’re out hours of study time and about $100 in fees.
Luckily, if you put in the time and practice for the AP Chinese exam, you can stack the deck in your favor and earn a high score.
One of the best ways to prepare yourself to play a winning hand is by taking AP Chinese practice tests, so we’ve gathered the best ones to set you up for success.
After all, you can’t win the game if you don’t know the rules, right?
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
How to Get the Most out of Chinese AP Practice Tests Online
Use a variety of AP Chinese practice tests for more perspective. Each practice test is different. They have varying questions, vocabulary and takes on the exam. Taking multiple tests will give you a broader perspective of what you could encounter on the real exam.
Start taking practice tests well ahead of schedule. Waiting until the last minute is dangerous. If you start taking practice tests the night before the exam, you might lose essential sleep as you stress over all the studying you still have to do.
If you start taking practice tests well ahead of time, you’ll have the time you need to work on any issues you notice or areas you aren’t fully comfortable with. For instance, you may realize you need to build your Chinese vocabulary, improve your knowledge of tricky grammar rules or fine tune your listening skills.
Take tests frequently. If you take tests often, they’ll start to seem like second nature. Get a hang of the format to make it less stressful on test day. This will allow you to focus on the material rather than the exam itself.
Supplement your studies with other materials. Yes, it’s crucial to take practice exams. But studying with some other resources will both expand your horizons and keep you from burning out.
Now, let’s take a look at the ultimate resource: AP Chinese practice tests online.
Put Your Skills to the Test! 6 AP Chinese Practice Tests Online
Albert
Albert offers a variety of tests on the types of topics you could encounter on the AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam. This gives you a great opportunity to practice your language skills in a relevant context.
Tests are broken down into four main categories: contemporary Chinese society, interpersonal communication, historical contributions to society and China in an international context. These categories are further broken down into more specific thematic groupings, covering topics such as current affairs, literature, economics, politics and more. This breakdown makes it easy to use practice tests to target themes that you feel least comfortable with.
Each subgroup features multiple test questions with a variety of difficulty levels. Easy questions are marked with a blue “E.” Moderate-level questions are marked with a green “M.” Difficult questions are marked with a red “D.” Because they’re so clearly labeled, it’s easy to increase the difficulty of the questions you’re answering slowly over time rather than diving in head first.
Questions feature either a reading passage (in both simplified and traditional Chinese) or a listening passage, so you can easily use Albert’s tests to practice several major skills.
Once you answer a question, you’ll receive a detailed explanation (both in Chinese and English) of what the correct answer was and why. You’ll also get a vocabulary list you can use for additional study.
A couple categories are available for free, but full access to the site requires a subscription.
AP Chinese Language and Culture
While the tests available through the official College Board website aren’t interactive or self-grading, they’re quite helpful. AP has been known to reuse test questions, so you might want to use and/or study this material.
The official page for exam practice offers a number of useful materials. There are examples of multiple-choice listening questions, multiple-choice reading questions, free response writing questions and free response speaking questions. There’s also an answer key for the multiple-choice questions.
To get the most out of this resource, try going through all the activities as if you were taking the real test. Write down your answers for the multiple-choice questions and writing section. Record your speaking section. Once you’re done, grade your multiple-choice questions, reread what you wrote and listen to how you spoke. Take notes on what you did well and what you think you could improve on. This can give you direction for future practice.
Want some additional practice? You can also listen to various audio prompts from previous tests and look at writing prompts. Trying to answer these the best you can can help familiarize you with the types of material on the test and prepare you for what you’ll need to do on test day.
Varsity Tutors
The AP Chinese practice test through Varsity Tutors is just 10 questions long, but it can give you some valuable information.
The test features questions about grammar, questions with reading excerpts and vocabulary-based questions.
What sets this test apart, though, are all the statistics you see when you complete it. You’ll have access to how long it took you to complete the test as well as how long it took you to complete each question. This is a good way to get a feel for how long you can afford to spend on test questions. You can also see how long other users took to answer the same questions and what percentage of users got each question right to see how you’re faring against other students.
Of course, you’ll also see how many answers you got right and have detailed explanations for the correct answers. But Varsity Tutors goes above and beyond here by ranking the difficulty level for each question.
Shmoop
If you subscribe, Shmoop has a whole host of AP Chinese learning resources, from word lists to test strategies to everyone’s favorite, practice exams.
Shmoop offers several full-length practice exams, including a diagnostic exam designed to help you find your weak points right off the bat. There are also 95 drill questions, along with answer explanations to help you understand the material in more depth. Plus, Shmoop has a tendency towards a more fun and playful vibe, so your practice is unlikely to ever feel boring.
Cheng & Tsui
How many full-length practice tests do you need to take to feel confident when the big day comes? If the answer is “eight,” then Cheng & Tsui is the option for you.
Cheng & Tsui offers a purchasable book that’s chock-full of powerful learning materials, including a whopping eight full-length tests. This isn’t a completely online resource, but it does come with some online components, such as downloadable audio MP3s.
The tests include the sorts of themes you’re likely to find on the AP test, including economics, customs, geography and more. And don’t worry… there’s an answer section to grade your work.
Quizlet
If you want an endless array of quizzes intended to help you practice vocabulary for the AP exam, Quizlet is a strong option.
Quizlet is a user-generated site, so it might not always be accurate. However, most of the content seems to be made by other passionate learners who just want the right learning tool for their own use.
Quizlet offers a number of ways to learn. You can use vocabulary sets in quiz form, as flashcards, for writing practice, for listening/spelling practice and even for learning games.
The best part is that you can find content on a nice selection of different themes. For instance, the vocabulary set of idioms could help you learn key phrases that will make you more proficient in Chinese.
Additionally, with Quizlet, you can make your own quizzes, allowing you to practice whatever vocabulary you think you might need for the AP test.
These AP Chinese practice tests might just be the ace up your sleeve you need to nail the AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam.
Happy testing!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
