<p>Yeah obviously this is about next year, but i'm just considering my schedule now. I wanted to take Compsci AB, but my school doesn't allow students to take the AB course without the A course. and I haven't taken the A course, and my teacher won't make a exception for me. I was just wondering, how different are these two courses? is AB that much harder than A? and also in terms of getting college credit, how are these two courses different (like i know in some majors Physic B won't get you credit, you have to have Physic C)?</p>
<p>most colleges prefer a 4 on the AB over a 5 on the A even though there isn't much difference. the only extra thing i remember on the AB is unbounded and bounded environments in the MBSCS</p>
<p>AB Comp Sci AB includes a few extra topics: Big-O notation, and more Data Structures.</p>
<p>Yeah, definitely the Big-O notation (runtime of different searches) and data structures like linked lists and queues. It's a BAD idea to try to take the AP AB test w/o first passing through an A class.</p>
<p>Is AB really hard without A? or is it still doable? Consider that i plan to study compsci over the summer anyways?</p>
<p>I took AP Computer Science this year having no prior knowledge of computer programming at all. At our school the class covers A and AB in two semesters and the student has the choice for which test to take. There was 18 kids in my class and only 1 ended up taking the AB test cause the topics included and the test itself is somewhat more difficult. I took the A test and it was nice because it wasnt horribly difficult, but it was hard enough...I wouldn't recommend taking AB unless you feel COMPLETELY confident with all the A topics since many of the AB topics extend ideas from the A material.</p>