<p>I am thinking about self-studying for the AP Computer Science exam and taking it this coming May. I have had previous experience with programming in mysql, php, and html. I have never had experience with OOP, though. Would my prior experience make self-studying from now until the exam and obtaining a 5 realistic? How much time would I need to devote to learning java? Are all the questions on the exam based on syntax, functions, and code? Or are there other questions based on computer science in general? I don't plan on majoring in comp. science in college, but I want to show colleges my wide range of strengths. Would the 5 be obtainable?</p>
<p>As I have mentioned in other posts, I taught myself Java after having previous knowledge of C. Java and C share many, many similarities; therefore, I was able to learn Java in a matter of 10 weeks without any trouble at all. I am not completely familiar with the programming languages you listed above, but, as long as you have some experience with the basic concepts of programming in general (for loops, if blocks, etc…) I would say that you will have a much easier time learning Java for the AP Test. Now, getting a 5 on the AP tests does not just require a good knowledge of programming in Java. You have to be good an analyzing code segments and predicting the result of executing code segments:</p>
<p>For example,</p>
<p>Predict the output of executing the following code segment.</p>
<p>for(int x=0;x<100;x+=10) {
System.out.println(x + " ");
}</p>
<p>Getting good at the multiple choice requires practice, along with the FRQs. I would say it is possible to learn all of the information you need at this point.</p>