[macosxnerd101]

So the AP Computer Science exam is coming up in a couple days. Who is taking it this year? What are you hoping to get on the exam? Are there any topics you want to see? What about those you don't want to see? And what is everyone thinking about the GridWorld questions?

Discuss.

[skybomb0]

I'm taking the AP test. Of course I hope to get a 5 on it, but I think I will most likely get a 4 on it. The GridWorld stuff will mostly be going back and forth to the API. How pressed for time are you on the exam? Will I have time to spare or do I actually have to move quickly?

[Sergio Tapia]

Good luck Macos, you'll probably demolish the test after I read what it contains.

I'm familiar with the concept of AP tests in highschool, but I don't know what you gain. If you manage to pass it, do you skip the first year of university?

[macosxnerd101]

Actually, I took it last year and got a 5. If you know your Java, it's really straight-forward. There are two hours for the 4 Free Response questions, and I had a lot of time leftover afterwards. Usually, it gets you out of the Intro to Programming class in college.

[Sergio Tapia]

In the states you take five courses each semester. Does this mean that you are automatically 100/100 in that particular semester course?

[macosxnerd101]

I don't know if it counts towards GPA or not. I'm quite happy simply to get credit and not have to take the intro class again.

[Java Student]

macosxnerd101, on 28 April 2011 - 09:46 PM, said:

So the AP Computer Science exam is coming up in a couple days. Who is taking it this year? What are you hoping to get on the exam? Are there any topics you want to see? What about those you don't want to see? And what is everyone thinking about the GridWorld questions?

Discuss.

At the least a 3, I think i,ll get a 4. I want recursion because i think it will confuse most people. What i don't want to see is GridWorld, it's horrible, it's learning someone else's program. I hope to see even less questions about GridWorld on the exam than i saw on the practise exam.

[macosxnerd101]

There is one GridWorld FRQ and 5 Multiple Choice, unfortunately. I feel the same way about GridWorld being a terrible API. In the real world though, you will have to work with other people's code.

[eker676]

I think I'll breeze through the actual java portion but I haven't studied gridworld at all.

I should probably make a few programs using gridworld before tuesday.

[lognaturel]

eker676, on 29 April 2011 - 12:06 PM, said:

I should probably make a few programs using gridworld before tuesday.

Regardless of the design merits of Gridworld, using other people's code is an important skill, as others above have posted. You may be interested in some of the Gridworld projects I do with my students:

• Snake game
  
• Game of Life
  
• Fifteen puzzle
  
• Maze
  
• Ant Farm

Here are additional resources that I'm sure your instructors have pointed you to as well but that are nice to see in one place: AP review. The vocabulary list at top is particularly helpful, say my students.

Hélène Martin
http://helenemartin.com

[ComicStix]

I hope to get at least a 3 on it because our school got a grant that gives everyone with a 3 or above 100 dollars! I'm scared though because my computer science teacher sucks and I'm basically learning out of an AP review book

[Yamis]

I challenged that test in my junior year of HS it got me out of intro to proging + a data structures class when I went into college no you don't get any GPA points for it. It works like transfer credits. I liked the gridworld thing though it was fun I designed a cute little robot battle game that would parse a simple language I made up so that the user would write a program that would autonomously control the robot deciding how to move/how to attack. All the gridworld questions were things you could look up in some api pamphlet so if you can read that part shouldn't be super hard. Good luck you guys.

[streetfights]

Unfortunately, I grew up in the CS black-hole that is Minnesota. Only 7% of schools in the state offer AP CS, and mine wasn't one of them. In fact, my school offered no programming or CS courses whatsoever. Luckily, I managed to discover how much I liked CS when I got to university, but it's a miracle it happened...

[skorned]

Strange, I thought I posted here yesterday, but apparently it wasn't submitted. (And again, it ignored my post right now) Anyhow, I'm surprised that you're also still in high school, macosxnerd101. I feel terribly under-accomplished! They don't offer APs here though, I have my IB exams beginning in a couple of days, including Higher Level CS.

[Luckless]

macosxnerd101, on 29 April 2011 - 11:03 AM, said:

In the real world though, you will have to work with other people's code.

No joke man. Very rarely do I ever get to start with a clean slate. Right now I'm overhauling the way a host and client interact with each other through a database and somebody didn't use PreparedStatements... talk about a pain in the butt, lol (But hey, I'm now intimately familiar with the Java SQL API, so it's not all bad ) Spent 6 hours of my free time learning about JDBC and SQL. After all, all great things are learned on your own time.