Preparing your students for success

on the AP CS Principles Exam

Dan Garcia (UC Berkeley) & Baker Franke (code.org)
2017-04-05 @ 4:30pm PST
This document: tinyurl.com/APCSPExamSuccess
YouTube webinar: youtu.be/ncGwuKu2Gp8
Agenda
Overview
Sources of Questions
Resources
Vocabulary that our students didnt know
Tips for doing well

Overview
(from CED p.70) The end-of-course AP Computer Science Principles Exam is 2 hours long. It is
a paper and pencil exam and includes 74 multiple-choice questions. There are two types of multiple-
choice questions:
Single-select multiple-choice questions: Students select one answer from among
four options.
Multiple-select multiple-choice questions: Students select two answers from
among four options.
(from CED p. 82) Approximate Percentage of Multiple-Choice Questions
Big Idea 1: Creativity: 0%
Big Idea 2: Abstraction: 19%
Big Idea 3: Data and Information: 18%
Big Idea 4: Algorithms: 20%
Big Idea 5: Programming: 20%
Big Idea 6: The Internet: 13%
Big Idea 7: Global Impact: 10%
Date: May 5th (Cinco de Mayo)

Sources of Questions
CB Official
22 questions from original CED (p. 83)
74 questions from AP CSP Sample Exam (ask CB for it -- you get it for free
once your course has passed the CB audit, its a teacher resource - Baker)
Bakers (lightweight) breakdown of 74 questions on practice exam
Unofficial
Cengage Book: Fast Track to a 5: Preparing for AP Computer Science
Principles Examination
John Hajel: There are errors (some in the questions, some in the
answers), be aware
Eric Romins VERY incomplete list of issues that a few teachers
have put together
albert.io sample questions
 CodeHS CSP review course. Or get started from here:
https://codehs.com/playlist/1780/ (It requires a CodeHS login, but that's free.)
Abstracting CSs practice test, analysis by Big Idea, extra probs:
http://www.abstractingcs.com

Resources
Dan Garcias Snap! project to explore the code from the reference sheet and make your own
Robot problems! (tinyurl.com/snapcsp)
Baker Frankes APBML (AP Blocks Markup Language) to make up your own questions
Code.orgs resources: Widgets, Lossy Text Compression, and Internet Videos
Blown To Bits Appendix (incredible description of how the Internet works)
Caroline Meeks AP CSP Exam Review Vocab Quizlet
Myra Deisters AP CSP Final Exam Review Quizlet
Mike Phelans AP Computer Science Principles Review Kahoot

Vocabulary Review
While we dont recommend you make your students memorize the EKs, there were vocabulary
words that our students have struggled with and didnt know coming into the course. Make sure they
know these!
Big Idea 2: Abstraction
Overflow (error that results when the number of bits is not enough to hold the
number, like a cars odometer rolling over),
Round-off (error that results when the number of bits is not enough to represent the actual
number, like 3 digits to represent as 3.14)
Big Idea 3: Data and Information
Lossy (Compressing data in a way that throws some data away and makes it
almost impossible to recover the original, great compression, like JPEG images)
Lossless (Compressing data in a way that preserves all data away and allows
full recovery of the original, good compression -- usually not as good as lossy, like PNG images)
Check out the Aloe Blacc video that sits in front of the text
compression lesson which you can find on the widgets page
Metadata (data about data, like a camera storing the location, aperture, shutter
speed, etc. for a digital photo)
Big Idea 4: Algorithms
Sequencing (code flows line by line, one after another, like a recipe)
Selection (a boolean condition to determine which of two algorithmic paths are
taken, aka if-then)
Iteration (using a looping control structure, like while, for, foreach, repeat,
repeat-until, etc.)
Reasonable time (polynomial in the number of steps an algorithm takes in the
worst case based on the input size)
Not reasonable time (Usually exponential in the number of steps, like doubling
every time your input grows by one)
Heuristic (using a rule to guide an algorithm, like always walking toward the north star if you
were stuck in a forest)
Undecidable (A problem that is so difficult, we cant ever create an algorithm that
would be able to answer yes or no for all inputs, like determining if a users program run on
some input would always stop and not run forever)
 Linear vs binary search (Going one by one vs starting in the middle and going
left/right like looking for a word in the dictionary -- binary search requires the list to be sorted in
order)
Big Idea 5: Programming
APIs (Application Programming Interface, how you define libraries and call them)
Big Idea 6: The Internet
Essentially every EK was a new idea...all of them! (Blown to Bits Appendix is a
good resource)
Big Idea 7: Global Impact
Citizen Science (Lots of people to help with a scientific project, like asking
everyone around the world to count the butterflies they see one day)
Cloud Computing (Using distributed calculations and/or storage for big data or a
web application)
Crowdsourcing (Asking lots of users online to help with something, like funding
a project, or running SETI@Home to help look for extraterrestrial signals)
Creative Commons (An alternative to copyright that allows people to declare
how they want their artistic creations to be shared, remixed, used in noncommercial contexts,
and how the policy should propagate with remixed versions)
Open Access (A policy that allows people to have read access to things, e.g.,
libraries or online data)
Moores Law (The # of transistors on a chip doubles every two years)
Peer-to-peer networks (A system where one users computer connects through
the Internet to another users computer without going through an intermediary centralized
computer to manage the connection)
Digital divide (The idea that some communities / populations have less access
to computing than others)

Tips for doing well

Do a lot of practice questions!
Know the vocabulary
General test-taking strategies
Eliminate obvious wrong answers
Read the whole question and all the answers before choosing
Dont get bogged down on one question, keep a good pace and skip the hard
ones to return to later.
Remember what section youre in! Sometimes you have to choose just one,
sometimes you have to choose two.