Even though im not home schooled I felt like this was the place to put it cause of the people here would probably give me the best answers.
Basically Im in high school doing the IB and my school doesn’t offer comp. science so what I want to do is do the ap test for comp. science in another school but learn everything by myself. Since my IB exams will be overlapping with the AP exam I will not be able to do it next school year so that leaves me with 2 options either do a gap year and do the test then (but im not yet sure if i want to do a gap year) or do it this year (in 5 months). I have no experience learning AP comp sciences but im very interested in computers and therefor know a great deal.
Is it realistic for me to expect a good grade?
P.S. I know im doing the IB as well and thats like suicide but im a hard working student and therefor I do not get scared by extra work.
Hi, I am a parent but also a high school AP CS A teacher (brand new though). The school I teach at is on a block schedule so we are starting the course January 9th for the exam on May 2nd (1.5 hour classes that meet every day). It will be very compressed and difficult, but it’s how our program is set up. We are using the course from Edhesive . com which, I believe, is available for less than $200 to individuals. It is designed to prepare students for the exam and learn JAVA programming. You might want to look into something like that to prepare.
if you are smart, and a quick learner (and good at self-teaching), you can do it. My son takes it through a virtual course designed for the whole school year (2 semesters) but his program is a lot of busy work. He already knew Java going in. But he does think a smart kid that picks stuff up quickly could self-teach it between now and May. Good luck!
PS> I would not do the gap year just for AP CS! There are summer classes you can take at universities and comm colleges, and even prep schools and camps, that are similar. It is basially just one way to learn Java.
As an AP Computer Science student I think you can do it! I advise you to get the 5 Steps to a 5 book for the class so you can get a feel of what the test is like. Other websites which have great practice are PracticeIT and CodingBat.