Currently a sophomore in high school and I’m planning on taking the AP Computer Science course but it’s not offered by my school. I have extensive previous programming experience, including Java, but I was looking for a sort of crash course made specifically for the AP test just to make sure theres not anything I’m missing. Also have any of you with previous programming experience taken the course? How was it? Thank you!
I’m currently doing AP CS online with Amplify’s MOOC (https://course-mooc.amplify.com/course). It’s free and self paces (although they do have recommended deadlines). Since you have prior experience, I recommend starting it and doing the assignments and exams to see how you do on those. You can then figure out which lessons you want to repeat, if any.
The lessons are videos, usually 5 - 10min, with both multiple choice and coding exercises after. They’re really clear (although somewhat slow), and there’s a forum where you can ask for help–the instructors and other students are all very nice and helpful.
I can’t say how well it prepared me for the exam yet, but I guess I’ll know in May! Good luck!
My friend and I both self-studied AP Computer Science sophomore year as well, and we both also had prior experience with programming (mainly USACO). We ended up forgetting about it until the weekend right before the exam (oops), but we both did manage to get comfortable 5s on the exam after a bit of cramming (harder for him since he only used C++ before).
The test wasn’t too bad - the multiple choice section was tricky (you should make sure you know all the nuances of different things well, and take at least a few practice tests), though the open-ended were pretty straightforward (if you have experience writing hands-on code, then you should be fine).
I’m not sure how much experience you have (for instance, we knew stuff up to more in-depth data structures and algorithms not touched by the exam or even by the past AB exam, but not much about interfaces or GridWorld or non-algorithmic concepts), but I would recommend thoroughly learning all the topics covered (i.e. if you’re missing a bit of the curriculum, learn it).
I used a Barron’s AP book to make sure I had covered all the topics and did a few practice tests from the book. The first try I found the questions very difficult and tricky, but just like the SAT, after some practice, it gets much easier. As for open ended questions and GridWorld stuff, all you need is some good hands-on experience (but you do need some).
Also, http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/ is very good for self-studying some Java (but definitely supplement it with a book covering the AP curriculum and hands-on programming).
You may want to read this to learn about changes to the course and exam, effective this school year.
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/221994.html
If you already have extensive programming experience, the Barron’s review book for AP Computer Science should suffice. I also self-studied AP Comp Sci, I had prior programming experience in Java and C++ so all I needed was the Barron’s book.