comp sci placement test?

[AnnaSmith]

<p>Is there a computer science placement test? If you don't get AP credit, can you test out of introductory/intermediate programming and into intermediate/advanced programming if you know programming?</p>

[mathmom]

<p>When my son was a freshman, I believe there were placement tests for computer programming, calculus and discrete math. They offer the three levels of intro programming at the same time so if you end up in the wrong class it’s easy to switch.</p>

[Marilyn]

<p>They’re calling it a “placement instrument” now.</p>

<p>[Introductory</a> Computer Science](<a href=“http://www2.csd.cs.cmu.edu/education/bscs/placement.html]Introductory”>http://www2.csd.cs.cmu.edu/education/bscs/placement.html)</p>

<p>And this is the link to the freshman advisor’s welcome page - they have renumbered the beginning CS courses and apparently are redoing the placement tests and surveys:
[SCS</a> Freshman Advising](<a href=“http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jxc/advising/]SCS”>SCS Freshman Advising)</p>

<p>His FAQ’s detail the considerations for placement - you can probably find the answers to most of your questions here; it covers all the CS and math placement situations:</p>

<p>

Essentially we use the Advanced Placement tests in Computer Science (AP/CS) to determine your placement in three possible courses:
•
15-110: for students with no or little programming. To skip this course you must have either a 4 or a 5 in the AP/CS A test or a 4 in the AP/CS AB Test.
•
15-121: for students with some programming, who understand variables, declarations, expressions, control structures, classes (instance variables, constructors, and methods), and arrays. To skip this course you need a 5 in the AP/CS AB Test.
•
15-123: for students with a lot of Java programming, who understand the material above, and interfaces, inheritance, exceptions, using/implementing collection classes, big-O notation, (recursive) manipulation of linked-lists and trees, and graphs. There is no way to skip this course.
Page 5
To allow students to sort themselves out between 15-110 and 15-121, these classes are scheduled at the same time. So, it will be easy to move down, from one course to the other, during the first few weeks of the semester. Last year of the incoming students were evenly divide in those three courses (i.e. 1/3 took 15-110, 1/3 took 15-121, and 1/3 took 15-123)

</p>

[wildwildwes]

<p>15-100 has become 15-110. Intro to prog
15-111 has become 15-121. Interm/Adv Java. It’s about data structures, sorts, hashing.</p>

<p>15-123 (kept the same) is C and Unix, so it would not make sense for AP to cover it.</p>

<p>The test I took was 25 questions about Java, so if you are from a C++ background, read up on Java strings.</p>

[AnnaSmith]

<p>so if, say, you did not score a 4 or 5 on the exam, but know java and score well on that placement test, could you possibly go into 15-121?</p>

[Marilyn]

<p>Anything’s possible but it would be an exception and probably require special permission:</p>

<p>

15-101, 102, and 110 do not have a pre-requisite. 15-117, 121, and 123 require either credit or placement. A placement instrument is available. Students who wish to skip 110 and take one of these courses should contact Scott McElfresh … Over the summer, a placement instrument will be in place for entering freshmen.

</p>

<p>It really would be a good idea to take the AP - if you score less than 4, assume CMU knows from experience where you would best be placed.</p>

[wildwildwes]

<p>I didn’t take any of the AP Comp Sci exams. I doubt the test has changed much, so 20 questions right or above will get you out of 15-110, which is a waste of time if you already know arrays, classes, and strings.</p>