Chinese AP language and culture exam

[Iluvchinese]

Hello guys,

I was actually born in Hong Kong and learned to speak both Cantonese and Mandarin from my parents. Since I attended an International school, I had mandarin classes once a week from grade 1-8, then I left HK to England for boarding school. I pretty much stopped learning Chinese for the whole summer from grade 8-9 and when I got to England, I did not pick it up again. Fortunately, there was an English Mandarin teacher who comes to our school quite often and he was able to teach me (like halfway through grade 9). Then, when I left the school (due to homesickness and other personal reasons) and moved to another boarding school in Canada(only 1 hour away from my uncle's home), I did not pick up Chinese again, for another year until summer (gr10-11) which I started to attend weekend classes. However, since I go to boarding school, I can only go home some weekends to attend my Chinese class. Concerning the AP exam, does anyone know how many Chinese characters I should know to be able to read the texts without any problem? When I took a practice HSK intermediate exam, I got 173 (first time) and 187 (second time). Does it look like I'm prepared for the Chinese AP language and culture exam this May? I am still trying to leave time in my schedule to do Chinese and go to the classes on Sundays whenever available.

Thanks!

Andy