Based on the conventional arc-length method, an improved arc-length method with high-efficiency is proposed. The weighted modifications with respect to the variation of structural stiffness and extra-interpolation modification by using the information of known equilibrium points are introduced to improve the incremental arc-length. An approximate expansion method for the accumulated and expected arc-length is used to ensure the convergence at given load levels in large range of applications. Numerical results show that the improved arc-length method has well adaptability and higher efficiency in the post-buckling analysis of plates and shells structures for tracing whole load- deflection path and obtaining the convergence values at any specified load levels.