Advanced Placement - Computer Science A

What is AP Program?

“The Advanced Placement Program® has enabled millions of students to take college-level courses and earn college credit, advanced placement, or both, while still in high school. AP Exams are given each year in May. Students who earn a qualifying score on an AP Exam are typically eligible, in college, to receive credit, placement into advanced courses, or both. Every aspect of AP course and exam development is the result of collaboration between AP teachers and college faculty. They work together to develop AP courses and exams, set scoring standards, and score the exams. College faculty review every AP teacher’s course syllabus.” (Cited from AP-CSA: A Course Overview)

What is AP-CSA?

“AP Computer Science A introduces students to computer science through programming. Fundamental topics in this course include the design of solutions to problems, the use of data structures to organize large sets of data, the development and implementation of algorithms to process data and discover new information, the analysis of potential solutions, and the ethical and social implications of computing systems. The course emphasizes object-oriented programming and design using the Java programming language.” (Cited from AP-CSA: A Course Overview)

Why take AP-CSA?

• Please refer to AP official website: 3 Reasons to Take AP Exams.
• Please also refer to AP Computer Science A - About.
• Some messages from selected universities.
  • University of Waterloo: Advanced Placement (AP) transfer credits
  • Simon Fraser University: SFU Undergraduate Admission - Advance Placement
  • Pennsylvania State University: AP Computer Science A Credit

Course Syllabus

1. A Java Subset (A pure OOP programming language)
   • Programming Language Fundamental
   • Classes and Objects
   • Inheritance and Polymorphism
   • Object, String, Wrapper and Math
   • Unified Modeling Language (UML)
   • Traditional Array and ArrayList
   • Recursion
   • Sorting and Searching
   • etc.
2. AP Computer Science A Past Exam Questions: year 2015 onwards
   • Question 1: Methods and Control Structures
   • Question 2: Write an Entire Class
   • Question 3: Array/ArrayList
   • Question 4: 2D Array
3. Longer Vision Technology AP CSA YouTube Channel
4. Longer Vision Technology Github AP CSA Solutions

Material

1. BARRON’s AP Computer Science A Premium
2. AP Computer Science A - A Course Overview
3. Java Quick Reference
4. AP Computer Science Java Subset
5. AP Computer Science A - COURSE AND EXAM DESCRIPTION