I plan to self-study Ap Computer Science. The course’s teacher at my school is not very good, and I don’t have room in my schedule. Right now I’m reading Devid Eck’s Introduction to Programming Using Java, and my plan is to purchase Barron’s review book for the course. Do you think that this course of action will leave my sufficiently prepared for the exam? If not, what alternative would you suggest?
I’m going to be using Edhesive, formerly known as Amplify. It’s this MOOC for high schoolers wanting to take AP Computer Science. You can sign up for an update of when they plan to open the course. I’m pretty sure that will be in 1-3 weeks. Hopefully, it will still be open and free to those auditing the course for self-study.
I think you are doing a good job. I self-studied for the AP Computer Science as well and used ‘Introduction to JAVA Programming’. Personally, I don’t recommend Barron’s. I tried using Barron’s at first, but I felt that the book wasn’t really ‘friendly’. It threw a lot of random, unnecessary facts that would definitely not be on the exam.
Instead, go to the AP website and look for the topics that are on the test. They are quite well organized and surprisingly specific. Most of them are covered by David Eck’s book and for the few parts (Inheritance maybe) that are missing you can find great courses online.
Mostly, I feel that AP Computer Science doesn’t ask you to understand hard concepts. It was more like ‘How well can you keep track of all the loops and how the answer is changing’ so it’s crucial to understand how variables are stored. There are online programs that actually show you where each variable is stored and how the value changes as the program executes so you might want to become familiar with that as well. I hope this helps and good luck! 
Yeah, that is good to know. I’m also being taught some programming for a robotics team now. I appreciate the advice.
I simply used Barron Computer Science and got a five. I think that’s enough. Little Advice: the exercise on Barron is too hard and not worth doing