AP CSA Exam

Test Preparation AP Mathematics & Computer Science
1

Hello. I’m going to take the AP CSA exam on the 17th and I am really scared, because if I don’t make at least a 3, then I my schedule in college will be slowed down.

So, I’ve been doing coding bat and practice from 5 steps to a 5 and asking the teacher everything and relearning some concepts, trying to memorize the order to do things.
I’ve found that figuring out the problems faster is key, so I’ve been trying to find ways to solve things faster. (Before, I was solving for every iteration of nested for loops, when I could have just multiplied them. I review problems where the variables of the outer for loop effects the inner for loop.

Tomorrow, I’m going to go to the meeting the teacher has at school on Saturday morning and he says we’ll review all of Java for three hours.

But the FRQ practice is pretty hard. I don’t know what is being asked of me 1/3rd of the time, and when I check the answer, I actually have something far from correct because what I read, I thought was not what it is.

TL; DR

So, what have you been doing to prepare for this exam? For those of you who have already taken it, what tips do you offer? And how am I supposed to understand the FRQ instructions?

2

I’m also taking that exam this year and I generally do pretty well on FRQs, so hopefully I can provide some advice. When I read the FRQ instructions, I usually skim through the introductory stuff that explains the context for the problem (since that stuff is rarely useful in determining what is being asked of you) and focus on the actually question (that is, the parts labeled a, b, c) and the sample code provided, taking particular note of any methods available for your use. Make sure to read all examples given to better understand what the expected output is for the given inputs. If the output given for a particular case does not match what you expect, slow down and re-read to figure out what you’ve missed (I also find that these sometimes contain hints for possible cases that you may not have thought about, but will need to account for).

Good luck! It seems that you’re showing a lot of initiative in learning the material, so keep it up and I’m sure you’ll do great on the exam!