<p>Who was your provider?</p>
<p>Approximately how many hours per week did it require (average, maximum)? </p>
<p>Was it self-paced or were there specific due dates?</p>
<p>Was it a video that met at a specific time or was it flexible within your schedule?</p>
<p>Overall how was the class?</p>
<p>How well did it prepare you for the AP exam?</p>
<p>Do you recommend it?</p>
<p>Keystone National High School.</p>
<p>I <333 computer science so I did it for like every free hour I had and finished the whole course in 3 months. So I’m not really sure how long it would take – probably a solid hour a day or so should be enough.</p>
<p>Self-paced, but I went ahead of the expected pace. The only requirement of the course (at least when I enrolled) was that all assignments, tests, and quizzes need to be in within 365 days of enrolling in the course. But they may have changed that policy – at the time it gave total flexibility though.</p>
<p>It was an online textbook on Java that you worked your way through at your own individual pace completely.</p>
<p>The class overall was lots of fun and did help solidify my knowledge of Java and understanding in preparation for the AP. The only notable disadvantage of the class (imo) is that instead of having you write programs on your own, a good 50% of the assignments require you to write programs based on programs that the book provides which don’t necessarily correspond to the AP. In that sense, the book uses a very Karate-Kid like approach – as you work your way through using various applications they built and coding programs that use programs they already made, you are building the techniques needed on the AP. But there aren’t many assignments that involve you writing your own code from scratch, start to finish, and for some, this lesser degree of practicality in terms of the coding assignments may make the class less interesting.</p>
<p>In terms of how well it prepared me for the AP exam… I think it certainly helped, but it’s not enough to get a 5. In order to really master the AP, I recommend also working your way through both Barron’s review for AP Computer Science as well as Litvin’s “Be Prepared for the AP Computer Science Exam in Java”. If you are able to master those two review books and really understand every question you get wrong and every point you lose on the practice, then you will be set to get a 5.</p>
<p>I do recommend the course, but with one reservation – I don’t think it is ideal for a student who has never had computer science before. This course starts off with Object Oriented Programming (a philosophy I personally dislike yet common among programmers), and therefore can be overwhelming / incomprehensible for someone who has never explored Java before. I recommend this class, but I recommend preceding it with a bit of self-study to cover the basics of Java – a good book for this is “Beginning Java Programming for Dummies”. If you go through the first several chapters of the for Dummies book prior to taking this Keystone class, you will be in much better shape.</p>
<p>And of course if you have any actual java questions feel free to shoot me a message. Good luck~!</p>
<p>PS. AP Comp Sci is the most fun AP I have seen. It’s awesome ^^ I had fun taking the test.</p>
<p>NOTE: You may see a thread on this forum about doing the AP Comp Sci with like 7 minutes a day or something – I have seen the youtube videos they refer you to but I truly don’t think it is enough to ace the AP. If you are only looking to pass the AP and not to ace it, they might be satisfactory. But you really do need to devote a solid hour or so a day to preparing for the exam.</p>