APCS: AP Computer Science A @sfhs

The first semester exam will be in two parts on December 16 and 17, 2024 In Room 405. The average of the two quarter exams is worth 20% of your grade. The first semester exam is a cumulative exam that covers the summer assignment, Karel the Robot, chapters 3 through 10 of the textbook, and the related topics of these chapters that are part of coding bat and the apclassroom practice problems.

There will be multiple choice and short answer questions on Friday Dec 8, and 2 free response questions on Tuesday Dec 12. (On the actual AP Exam, the multiple choice question pace is 2 minutes, 15 seconds each, and the free response questions pace is about 22 minutes each). The AP Exam will be at noon, Wednesday May , 2025.

It is a good idea to review your code from homework and the labs, the powerpoint slides, as well as SFHS Java (runestone). Don't forget that you don't need a computer to practice writing code at https://codingbat.com/java. "Warm up" , "logic", String-1, String-2, String-3, Array-1, Array-2, Array-3, and AP-1 are good categories to practice.

To practice free response questions try

• Daily Videos from Units 1-6 @AP Classroom
• Sem 1 FRQ Practice @AP Classroom
• SFHS Java (runestone) 1.10, 2.13, 3.11, 4.9, 5.13, 5,16, 6.7 (But anything from units 1-6 will help)
• Making Clock subclasses
• ScrambleWord AP Test Question
• SkyView
• AP Questions from 2019 1,2,& 4 (skip #3 because it requires chapter 11 stuff)

To Practice multiple choice questions try

• Sem 1 MC Practice @APClassroom (For the MC, you will need to us the lock-down browser)
• SFHS Java 1.11, 2.15, 3.12, 4.10, 5.16, 6.8

Things to watch out for:

1. Constructors should initialize the class's fields (fields are private, to encapsulate)
2. When initialzing fields in a constructor, Do not mention its type- this accidentally makes a local variable instead of initializing the classes field that has the same name.
3. Remember to make fields private and methods public,
4. Remember local variables are never public nor private
5. Remember method names should use () for the parameter list, even if there are no parameters
6. Watch for dangling else statements (p 148) - without brackets, the last else belongs to the previous if
7. Do not add a System.out.print when no printing is requested (This can be a 1 or 2 point Extraneous code that causes side effect penalty on the AP Exam)
8. Do not use local variables before first declaring them ( also a AP scoring penalty).
9. Variables are declared ONLY ONCE, not every time.
10. Do not assign a value to a parameter inside a method unless you are asked to (also a AP scoring penalty called Destruction of data)
11. Never use return in a constructor
12. Remember to return something of the same type as a method's header.
13. Do not return something when writing a void method ( a method that isn't supposed to return something (This too has a AP scoring penalty)

Finally, please remember to get a good night's rest and a healthy breakfast! Good Luck!

PS: I have found other helpful free online tutorials for the Basics at LearnJavaOnline.com.