<p>I'm running out of titles. Anyway, how hard do you think an AP Computer Science A self study would be for someone like me:</p>
<p>Prior programming experience-
Played around with TI Basic due to boredom in class
Labview for FIRST robotics
Math knowledge-
Took Calc AB last year (sophmore year) and self studied BC and got a five.
I do all of your typical math nerd stuff like MAO
Some basic set theory from one of my extracurriculars
Interests-
Math and Computers (duh) ,Foreign Languages, and Science</p>
<p>Do you think I could self study Comp Sci A for a five? If so, what is a general range of time that I may need to devote (hours a week) to Computer Science? I work best in a short amount of time ie last minute panic, but I'm trying to kick the habit and spread out work. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>You don’t need much math background to do well in CS, but the people who tend to do well in CS do well in math as well since they involve the same logical reasoning. It’s possible to self-study and get a five. You definitely can’t wait until the last minute to study though. I would get a textbook that starts with the basics of Java. I recommend [Lawrenceville</a> Press - A Guide to Programming in Java](<a href=“http://www.lvp.com/java.htm]Lawrenceville”>http://www.lvp.com/java.htm) or [Big</a> Java / Java Concepts](<a href=“http://www.horstmann.com/bigjava.html]Big”>http://www.horstmann.com/bigjava.html). Also get the Barron’s book. As you work through the book do the programming exercises. You can’t just read the book. It’s like math…practice is what will help you to learn the material. Be sure to download the case study (Grid World) and I’d recommend also downloading the packet that has questions and programming exercises. As you learn the material in the textbook, read the same chapter in Barron’s and do the questions at the end of the chapter.</p>
<p>You should try and learn all of the concepts by early to mid March. Then spend a month or so working with GridWorld. And for the last 3 weeks or so, take practice exams and practice free-responses. If you set aside 3-4 hours each week to study, then you should be able to cover all of the material in time.</p>
<p>I know this is a bit late and I don’t mean to bump.</p>
<p>I took the test last year and got a 5. Of course, I did take the class, albeit it was an online course with a really lenient instructor and at this excruciatingly slow speed (I love CS).</p>
<p>Besides this, my only preparation was taking the 2009 test as practice. IMO, the actual 2010 one was way easier. When I took the practice test, I panicked on the free response GridWorld questions. However, you should realize that you get about 10 minutes more than you need per question. When I had finished my free response and double-checked all my answers, I had about 10 minutes left and I actually went to sleep…before I decided to check my answers one last time and realized I wrong one of my answers on the the DO NOT WRITE ON THIS PAGE page. I was transferring them when time was called and led to perpetual anxiety about my score for the next 2 months.</p>
<p>What kept me from going crazy was reading that almost 25% of those who take it get 5s in recent years.</p>
<p>Now to actually answer your questions:
Self-studying should be viable.
Seeing how you’re a mathematically competent, I don’t think you’ll need to devote more than an hour a week after you’ve grasped Java. The latter part may take a while by yourself though. </p>
<p>After this, I suggest you to write a program such as a standard-deviation calculator (this is what I did) every month as part of your preparation. I find that learning computer science out of a book is utterly boring and near impossible, while coding is just the opposite.</p>