Customer Reviews

Barron's AP Chinese Language and Culture: with Audio CDs (Barron's: the Leader in Test Preparation)

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So far, I think this is the only AP Chinese and Culture book out there. I have been taking Chinese for 10 years (born in states, Chinese American), and I can speak Chinese pretty fluently. This book gives a good overview of the exam, but even for me, the culture paragraphs towards the end of the book are a little hard to understand. However, if you have been taking Chinese for a while and pretty good at it, this book will give you a great cultural overview of China (and my mom makes me read this book in my spare time, lol.) The culture part on the real AP exam though, is definetly not that hard. I barely did the listening and writing parts (just skimmed and did the practice tests), and I'd say that the difficulty level is just right. They also have word lists, so if you need to brush up on your vocab, get this. I think everyone who is looking for a review for Chinese (AP or not), should get this book. Very well written!

Any preparing for the AP Chinese Language and Culture test needs BARRON'S AP CHINESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE, a powerful set of review and practice tests for the AP test. Questions in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters are just like the actual exam, offering two full-length practice exams with answers plus audio CDs of spoken material.

I bought it just because it's from Barron, however when I opened the book, I was kind disappointed that how the structure and content disconnected each other, it says it's for AP prep, but I found the difficulty was quite beyond the comprehensibility of high school grads who wish to take their AP exam in Mandarin Chinese.
Anyway, it's a nice start for those who want to better design and teach the AP Chinese course in future.

The title says it all. The female voice in the cds is sooo squeaky that I cannot stand it. Her voice needs to be lowered two octaves. The written material is fine, just the CD voice is unbearably annoying. I just want her to shut up instead of actually listening.