<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am a freshman this year in the IB program and am taking AP World History and AP Human Geography (Yes I probably should be studying instead of posting this). I have gotten straight A's in those classes all year long and I feel that I can get a 5 on both exams (fingers crossed). Next year (sophomore year), I am taking the following classes:</p>
<p>AP European History
AP Biology
AP Physics B
AP English Language
French 4
IB Precalculus (IB Math SL 1)
AP Statistics</p>
<p>During the summer, I would like to self study AP Computer Science A from a Prep book like Barrons.</p>
<p>Has anyone done this before? Could you please tell me whether this is doable and how to approach it?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, AP Comp Science is pretty challenging. Personally I wouldn’t try to teach myself a “hard AP” class.</p>
<p>Are you actually interested in this class? Or are you just trying to add another AP to your transcript? From my experience, Comp. Sci. can be a very tedious/aggravating subject to someone who’s not genuinely interested in programming, and I can only see it being worse for someone who’s trying to teach himself. </p>
<p>If you are actually interested in programming, I would recommend waiting until Junior year and then actually take the class. But if you insist on self-studying, there are plenty of good lectures available on youtube and if you are as studious as you seem, you should be okay.</p>
<p>I agree with yankeesfanatic, and would like to know same questions. My basic answer is to go through the tutorials on cplusplus and see if you get the hang of it and if you like it. A friend of mine switched majors his freshmen year of college to Comp Sci and did the tutorials over 3 weeks of his winter break, which got him caught up (he’s a good programmer) and he liked programming.</p>
<p>[C++</a> Language Tutorial - C++ Documentation](<a href=“http://cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/]C++”>http://cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/)</p>
<p>Super easy, just go with it.</p>
<p>Comp Sci is a weird subject in that the smarts you’d have typically to do well in AP Euro and AP Bio, for example, is completely different from the type of smarts you need for comp sci. If you have the natural ability/affinity, there’s nothing to lose; however, if you have trouble grasping it, it may not be worth it. I’m in the latter boat, took the class but not good at comp sci thinking. As a result, the exam was pretty tedious for me and the curve makes it very tough to get a 5 if you aren’t any good.</p>
<p>@yankeesfanatic and psydent: I actually do like computer programming. In seventh grade, I did some Python programming but somehow it just slipped by and I couldn’t continue. </p>
<p>I want to make USACO finals in junior year and actually want to learn the workings of computers. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the responses!</p>
<p>I’m taking plain computer science next year as an elective, and the teacher said that I would have to know math up to the quadratic formula. Of course, this isn’t AP Computer Science, but I’m just saying that if you have a basic programming experience you’ll be fine.</p>