<p>CompSci is seriously similar to riding a bike- once you learn how to do it, you don’t forget. </p>
<p>Like many people have stated above, I would also strongly suggest to jump in as soon as possible! There are a bunch of videos that one can watch to learn. </p>
<p>Last year was my first time ever coding, and I LOVED it! I joined Computer Science club, joined competitions, and overall just coded for fun. When I took the AP test, I basically viewed it as fun- seriously! And yes, I got a 5 :D</p>
<p>The awesome thing about computer science is that a lot of coding languages are really really similar; once you master one of them, it becomes really easy to learn new languages.</p>
<p>Finally was able to sign up for amplify. Just me or can I not play the welcome to AP computer science YouTube video because it says its private o.O</p>
<p>I’m using Amplify too, and I just found this thread. Hi everyone! </p>
<p>I’m just worried Amplify won’t be as good as an actual class, and when I realize it at the end of the year, it’ll be too late to self-study. What review books are you guys buying?</p>
<p>@Woandering hmm I just think it’s not that well known tho I actually seen some posts about the litvin book on some self study and past official apcs posts</p>
<p>My daughter will be graduating in 2015. Her school does not offer AP CS so she will be self studying for the exam. Lucky for her, although her opinion sometimes differs, I have a degree in CS and will be coaching her through the year.</p>
<p>The change from the Gridworld to the three new labs has made it confusing to find study materials. As I understand their rules, the College Board is only releasing details about the three new labs to schools / teachers with an approved AP CS curriculum. I’m sure Barrons, Litvins, etc. are rushing to publish new books.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Amplify Course looks promising and thanks to the original poster for the link. I’ll throw out a suggestion that you look at the “Teen Coder: Java” course at the first link below. Their “Why Us” section will explain their background as homeschooling parents with degrees in CS and EE. They do have an approved curriculum and access to the three new labs.</p>
<p>The second link explains the process of taking the AP exam as a homeschooler or, I suppose, independent student. If you school is not offering the AP CS course, there are steps that must be taken to insure the exam materials are on hand at test day.</p>
<p>As other posters who have taken the course have said. This boils down to learning Java and being comfortable playing in the language. Happily, the AP uses a reduced set of Java, described on their site.</p>
<p>@Cherrybark Hi there, former AP CS self-study-er here. Has your daughter done AP tests before? If so, have her talk to guidance about taking a test which they do not offer. My school didn’t offer the course either, but they got me signed up for it after I asked (all registration for tests at my school have to go through guidance, as they pay part of the fees). Anyway, they set me up in a room by myself on test-day, and it was without complication.</p>
<p>As for self-studying, the test is fairly easy to self-study for. Make SURE you have her take old tests. I have been programming in Java for the better part of 4 years, and the MC was entirely too tedious - I can’t speak for past exams (because I didn’t bother doing them), but the 2013-2013 exam featured almost entirely tedious code analysis (“read through this entire segment of code and tell me what will happen if I call method(4)”).</p>
<p>Basically, just have her learn the language, and then experiment.</p>
<p>@terrapin45, Thanks for the comments. She took AP tests last year and, being a good test taker, did very well. She also went through a disciplined grind of studying and taking practice exams to prepare for ACT. Now it’s mostly a matter of setting aside regular study and programming time as the new year starts. Happily the old test are readily available and there are always small problems to be coded in Java. You are correct that playing with the language makes it much easier to walk through someone else’s code and figure out how it will behave.</p>
<p>I appreciate, as most people of this thread must, you participating and giving feedback on your experiences with the test.</p>
<p>@cherrybark Don’t worry about the “new labs”. They’re simply interesting practice environments for developing programs. They aren’t testable on the exam. </p>
<p>My APCS teacher has spent more time using Python and C++ than Java because he thinks that they are “easier.” Last year over 60% of his students got 1s, and about 25% got 2s.
We use the eIMACS online textbook which I think is actually very fun and useful because most of the “learning” is programming driven; that is, you learn by trial and error.
The Lab requirements are kind of odd… They don’t really teach you how to actually run your own code in a Java program. It’s more like a series of coding activities (which are in effect logic puzzles). Along the same lines, CollegBoard should require that students learn how to use the Main method. </p>
<p>uhm, i started studying ap comp sci a over the summer, stopped a bit when school started, and now i’m starting back up w barron’s 5th addition. it’s going well, except i hear some things about the GridWorld being replaced. is that being replaced as in we have to learn something new not covered in older editions or just “bye bye sayonara”?</p>
<p>The class has been pretty easy so far. I’m not really sure if that’s because we’re behind. We’ve just been doing lab sets from the curriculum that my teacher buys from the APlus Computer Science website. So far, we’re on do/while loops. </p>
<p>After talking to some of the former students, they’ve told me that the teacher really knows Java and will teach it to you, but the test format isn’t ever covered. The class is more recruiting for the coding team than it is a class to prep for the AP exam. </p>