Studying some Computer Science

<p>So I guess since I'm a graduated senior now this doesn't technically fall under AP but still I need some CC help. Since I'm horrible at Calculus ( got a 3 on the AB AP :( ) I'm planning on doing some self study to try to get some credit at my college since they offer placement tests. Anyways I saw that they offer a placement test for Comp Sci so I became interested in learning some. I took the pre-AP course at school but obviously I still need a lot of work. I was looking to self study some comp sci over the summer and was looking for suggestions for the best way to do it. I found Stanford's free online lectures and stuff so I'm going to check it out (I saw MIT has one too but this one looks more user friendly). Any suggestions on what else I can do to learn the equivalent of AP Comp Sci A?</p>

<p>Comp Sci A is like a semester of a computer programming class in college, but it give little credit (if you were given 8 credits for say AP Calculus, you’d get 4 for Comp Sci AB, 2 for A). I guess you could get a prep book and/or find some online tutorials</p>

<p>From my experience it seems that unless you actually enjoy programming/computer science you will probably have an extremely painful time self-studying it and you will probably do poorly on the test.</p>

<p>If you want to learn the equivalent of AP Comp Sci A then get an AP Comp Sci A study book. Barron’s would work quite nicely. The AP program is built to teach Comp Sci at the level of an entry-level Comp Sci course in college. And if you learn the material that is taught in an entry-level Comp Sci course, then you will do well on the exam for that course.</p>

<p>Be warned: AP Comp Sci A may not match up with your college’s intro comp sci course. I see that you’re going to Dartmouth. From [the</a> CS department’s FAQ page:](<a href=“http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/ug_faq.php]the”>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/ug_faq.php)</p>

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<p>From the italicized material, it looks like studying just AP Comp Sci A won’t cover all of the course. If you really want to do this, I suggest buying a prep book for the AB exam (which doesn’t exist anymore, but you can find old books on Amazon or something) and using that to prepare. You will probably want to make use of previous syllabi and the textbook they use in CS 5 in order to pass the placement exam.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the answers guys. And Energize what a beast. Ya I had seen that if you had the AP credit you got credit for CS 5 so I figured whatever they learn in AP CS A I need to learn for the placement exam. The one very important detail that I missed is that I need to learn AP CS AB which was discontinued not AP CS A. Thanks a lot for pointing that out and I’m going to take your suggestion and look for that syllabus and get the textbook they use.</p>

<p>How much did your pre-AP course cover? And was it in java? Depending on how much was covered, I think that it would be very difficult to cover all the material by late August. I’d say that you would need to spend at least 3 hours a day studying, if not more. I used to Barron’s 2008 book to prepare for A, but it includes AB as well. The main topics that you have to learn in AB are linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, collections, and more sorting. I took the course equivalent to AB this past year and you definitely don’t need a full school year for AB, but a lot of the topics are challenging and involve a lot of time, so don’t be fooled by the few additional topics in AB. I definitely recommend getting the textbook your school suggests.</p>

<p>I also recommend practicing because just reading CS theory won’t be enough to implement it perfectly.</p>