So what is AP Computer Science Principles?
This is an Advanced Placement course made and developed by the CollegeBoard designed to teach students an introduction to college level Computer Science. This course, like all of the courses offered by the CollegeBoard, has a test that accompanies them near the end of the year that will help assign students the credit they deserve by passing the test. Scores range from 1-5 and 1 being the lowest score and 5 being the highest score. 3 and above is passing, and most U.S. colleges and universities will accept a score like this to give credit to a student.
AP Computer Science Principles can be taught in many languages like Python or Java, but at Rancho, it is taught in python utilizing CodeHS (a website used for programming and to teach programming in various languages) as its curriculum and base
At Rancho, the course encompasses many collaborative projects that employ the use of teams or groups of people to complete a task. The curriculum also utilizes various forms of electronics like toy robots to program for coding practice. Coding projects like the Color Filter Project or the Story Project are examples of projects that use group of coders to program something
Student Examples Like:
https://codehs.com/sandbox/id/into-the-backrooms-ap-csp-game-VLkZfT
Or
https://codehs.com/sandbox/id/ikea-story-apcsp-gVZDRC
How is the Course Designed?
AP Computer Science is split into 5 “Big Ideas” or Units. These units comprise of Creative Development, Data, Algorithms, and Programming, Computer Systems and Networks, and Impact of Computing.
Each Unit has different weighting or different amounts of covering in the exam.
For Example:
Creative Development: 10-13%
Data: 17-22%
Algorithms and Programming: 30-35%
Computer Systems and Networks: 11-15%
Impact of Computing: 21-26%
So, How is the Test Designed?
The AP Computer Science Principles Exam is approximately 2 hours long
For Section I:
It has 70 multiple-choice questions:
- Single-select questions (57 questions)
- Single-select questions based on a reading passage (5 questions)
- Multi-select questions (8 questions)
Section I is 70% of the exam’s score and has only 4 answer options A, B, C, and D
For Section II:
- The first part of Section II that requires the student to create a program code, video, and a PPR (Personalized Project Reference) that is made from 9 Hours of In-class time (This is 10% of the score)
- The final two parts are two response questions taking up 60 minutes (This is 20% of the Score)
Section II Is 30% of score
How can we Study/Prepare? Any tips?
- Do as many practice questions from AP Classroom as possible
- Utilize videos from AP Classroom to study and to tweak different areas of your AP Computer Science Principles knowledge
- You are able to collaborate with others for your Performance Task section of the AP Computer Science Principles Exam
- Practice Free-Response Questions and utilize the rubric to grade your answers
- Repetition = Perfect Practice, repeat topics and different questions that test on theses topics to master your skills
Image Credit: Radowan Nakif Rehan From Unsplash (Free to use under Unsplash License)