When he surveyed his students, author Quanyu Huang found that only two out of 300 used a Chinese dictionary. Their main obstacle is how existing dictionaries are organized; either a user needs to know the "radical" of a character, how to recognize or count writing strokes, or how a character is pronounced. In McGraw- Hill's Chinese Dictionary and Guide to 20,000 Essential Words the author overcomes this problem with his unique "broken marks" method. Each character is comprised of different marks separated by a physical space or sharp change of direction at the end of a mark. Count these marks, and you can locate the Chinese character you need in less than a minute. This dictionary and guide will also be a perfect complement to your AP Chinese studies.