I had been intending to give the next assignment yesterday, but had been holding off a little bit longer until I had received all the results of the survey the class was asked to fill out by yesterday. Less than half the class has bothered to answer it as of the end of the day today. Considering the lack of effort exerted by many in filling out a mere survey to help me determine the material which the class would like me to emphasize, I am not filled with optimism on the amount of effort that is being spent on the actual assignments given in preparing for the exam. Based on the summary of responses that were actually received we will be moving forward as follows: 1) Areas of greater emphasis will be Array Lists and writing classes and their interaction with other objects. 2) Most are finding the answer keys sufficient and grading rubrics helpful. Several of those who said the were not helpful also indicated that they were NOT looking at the answer keys and rubrics. ??? How can an answer key be helpful to you if you are not even looking at it ??? 3) I have yet to receive a single email request for further clarification on any assignment from any of the respondents who said they are not finding the answer keys helpful. You're taking an AP level class ladies and gentlemen. Take some ownership of your education and ask me questions if you have them. Several people have been doing so and I have given them detailed responses to their queries. I am always happy to answer your questions. 4) Some people indicated that when they do the assignments, they make silly mistakes and it would help if they had the syntax rules, method headers, code examples, etc. in front of them when they answer the questions. Ladies and gentlemen, you can and should be using your notes as you answer these questions. The exam itself is going to be open notes. Start getting yourself organized now as to what kind of "cheat sheets" you want for reference when you take the exam. You are even allowed to use a compiler and development environment to double check your code if you wish. We will talk more about maximizing your time and test taking strategies next week. I am opening up the last section of assignments from the college board that will be tested - Unit 7. These are the multiple choice and free response questions. They will be due on Monday, 5/4/20. Starting Monday, we will start emphasizing the material that people indicated they wished me to review more. IMPORTANT: You should already be aware of this if you have been checking the updates on the student portal from the College Board. ON MONDAY, MAY 4 the college board is opening up an AP EXAM DEMO that allows you to practice taking an online AP exam this year. It will give you familiarity with the process and also verify that your testing device will be able to access and submit the online exam. IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE DEMO EXAM, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE AP EXAM. So check on Monday to make sure that you can access the demo and familiarize yourself with the format being used this year for the online test. You will NOT have the time to waste figuring it out on the day of the exam itself. Also attached is the exam day checklist you should have for your AP exam. You should have it printed out in hard copy next to you on the day of the exam. We have a little more than two weeks left for the exam. There is still time to properly prepare yourself, but you need to get serious about your efforts. I have received several updates from the College Board as to what you should be doing to prepare for the actual exam and will be giving you a checklist shortly.
For today, Wednesday, 4/29/20, please click on the link below and answer the following survey questions.
I will be posting more information later on today about preparing for remote testing procedures for the AP exam. Please go through them thoroughly. The next homework assignment will be posted tomorrow. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfdhYi4aHo6aGI1As0tVX3O0x3WN9_iM1yahv-mJDHXB4HYbQ/viewform The next assignment opened up is for the unit 6 multiple choice and free response questions.
These are due by Wednesday - 4/29/30. I have been tracking your progress and will be contacting the parents of certain students to discuss lack of completion of assignments. Past assignments are now all open, so you have the opportunity to make them up. Starting Monday, I will be calling those who have not taken advantage of this opportunity. The answers and scoring feedback to free response question 5 are below drive.google.com/file/d/1KvFPHojxjRVgncEL_byADFUrqS1yXZ7G/view?usp=sharing On Wednesday, 4/29/30 I will be sending a link to you for feedback on various items. Please make sure you fill out the sheet and submit it. We're coming into the last few weeks before the big test so stay healthy everybody and stay on top of things! At the bottom of this post is a link with the answers to the free response question assignment for unit 4.
Static methods and variables and the this keyword. We discussed static variables and methods briefly in class before distance learning began. To review, the key points that you should know. A static variable is a class level variable (field) whose value is the same for EVERY instance of a class. If one instance of a class updates that variable to a new value, that new value is now referenced by every other instance of that class. Think of the fish program where every fish had its own individual ID number (non-static) variable. But when the fish spawned, they all had to be looking at the same available nextID number so that two different fish would not be assigned the same ID number or numbers would not be skipped. In the constructor class for the fish objects, when the fish spawned that fish would be given the current nextID number, and then the constructor had an instruction to increment the next ID number by one. So for example, if there were 20 fish, the nextID number would be 21. If fish number 3 spawned, it would call the constructor who would set the ID number of its child to 21 and change nextID to 22. Let's say fish 8 was the next one to spawn. It would then see the nextID of 22, assign that number to its child and increment the nextId to 23. This is a static variable - the value seen is common to all instances of a class and if one class object changes it, the change is now seen by all members of the class simultaneously. A class can have both static and non-static methods. Static methods in a class can only see and modify static variables in the class. It can not access the instance variables which are non -static (meaning specific to one individual instance) of a class object. Also, a static method can be called on the class itself. It is generally not called on an instance object of the class. For example: If you have a class called Stuff with a static method called doThis( ), the following syntax is allowable: Stuff.doThis( ); Call the static method on the class itself. You do NOT have to create an instance of Stuff. (More or less, you do not use a static method on an instance object of a class.) (As an FYI there are some work-around solutions, but generally you should not be calling a static method on an instance object of a class. ) The this keyword is used when the code is referring to the object that is currently calling a method. It is used in code to represent the object itself that made the call. The object is referring to itself. (similar to reflexive verbs in foreign language). It is often used in constructors so that the global variables of fields in a class are not confused with the instance variables of the object calling the constructor if they have the same exact name. Code examples using the this keyword: www.guru99.com/java-this-keyword.html Example where this is used to distinguish between same named object variable x and specific class instance variable called x. www.w3schools.com/java/ref_keyword_this.asp More examples of how this can be used in code: www.javatpoint.com/this-keyword With the last two post and the discussion of the topics this, static variables/methods and for each loops, we have pretty much covered the last of the curriculum that may be included on this year's AP exam. Check over your answers for free response question assignment number 4. Number 5 will be posted shortly. At this point, you should be starting to notice a similarity to the questions being asked. Email me if you are not sure why the answers are as shown. Answers to FR 4 drive.google.com/file/d/1nl6SVtRX2o19mnCrN-mJk3LRql8n3E2s/view?usp=sharing 1) Per the email I received from Guidance today, I am posting this reminder for those who are taking the AP exam and did not get a confirmation email. If you did, you may skip down to the next section of this post. Next steps for those who didn’t get the AP Confirmation email:
We are sharing the list of students who confirmed their exams with teachers today. They will be able to follow up with students who didn’t respond to the email. We are aware this is a concern and are working hard to help you address this. 2) The for each loop. This is a technique use to traverse an array or array list in java. It is a quick and easy way to go through every element in the collections object (array or arraylist), but there are certain limitations. Since you are going through the array or list as a whole, you do not have the individual index positions of the list as you traverse it. See the attached link for a general description of how the for each loop works. Attached at the end of this post is a word doc with some examples of for each loops for both array objects and array list objects. Look at them and make sure you understand how they work. www.geeksforgeeks.org/for-each-loop-in-java/ 3) Check your answers to the free response question 3 assignment at the link below. drive.google.com/file/d/1EPD_aLrmt1HBlYh1fE7rcqvY4kyhV410/view?usp=sharing As always, let me know if you have any questions.
The college board sent out a personalized email to each student asking you to confirm which AP tests you are taking and also to fill out a survey.
Please make sure that you have received and responded to this email if you are taking the AP exam. The email subject line is: Your Personalized AP Exam Schedule. It was sent last evening. If students don’t see it in their inbox, please have them check their spam folder. If they used a Gmail address, it may be in their updates folder. At this point I am opening up the Unit 5 multiple choice questions and the free response questions assignment for unit 5. Remember, the unit 5 review questions are due by Monday, 4/20/20. Expect a short quiz on the type of material in those questions on Tuesday, 4/21/20. Click below for a link to feedback on the free response questions from unit 2. Question 2 answers. drive.google.com/file/d/1ecUyUNTbN1O6sMXLS3vGWNG3Bt_zZlp1/view?usp=sharing And don't forget guys, if you have questions, don't be shy!. Email me with any questions. The college board has been giving online review sessions for various topics for the AP Computer Science curriculum. Hopefully you have been checking your student AP College board site and are aware of this. The main link for the online review sessions is: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoGgviqq4845xKOY11PnkE7aqJC7-bYrd Included below is a word document file that lists the dates and topics of the various live online review sessions. You may still access any prior sessions by clicking on the appropriate links at the above site. I have been following your progress as you work through the assignments on the AP classroom. Most are doing well in both effort and understanding. Some have not been doing much work on the assignments and need to step up their efforts. I am always happy to contact home to help clarify what work needs to be done on your part if that appears to be necessary. You should be able to check the results of your multiple choice assignments upon completion of the questions. Valid solutions and feedback to the free response questions you were assigned will be forthcoming starting tomorrow. Please review them and If you have any questions about them, or any of the multiple choice questions, EMAIL ME WITH YOUR QUESTIONS!!! I like your questions. Shortly, I will be opening up the unit 5 progress checks. They will be due by next Monday. Both the multiple choice and free response questions in this unit are excellent practice for the material you will see on the exam - writing classes, constructors, class methods, static variables in a class and their use in instances of a class, creating class level objects for use with other classes. These topics will be covered in the exam free response test questions in May. I hope everybody is staying healthy!
Starting next week, there will be more emphasis on free response questions emphasizing the types that are most likely to be seen on the exam.
You are to do the progress checks for units 3 and 4 from the college board site. This is a total of 4 Progress checks being assigned. There is a multiple choice section and free response section for each unit. Please note that for both of the free response assignments in units 3 and 4 there are TWO PROBLEMS in EACH ASSIGNMENT that you must complete. Make sure you complete two free response questions for both units 3 and 4! These free response questions emphasize adjusting classes and writing methods for them. You ARE going to see questions that deal with these topics on the AP exam. So put some real effort into understanding the question and writing a valid response. Finally, the grades are up in Eschool for the survey form assignment. Those who filled out the form for my AP survey (see link from previous post), have received their 100. Those who did not are currently showing a zero for the grade. I recommend you fill out the form. Due to the fact many celebrate Easter or Passover, the deadline for this assignment is a week away so that people have time to observe their holy days. I strongly recommend not waiting until Tuesday night to start these assignments. They will all close at 12:00 a.m. on Wednesday, 4/15/20. No exceptions. Going forward, you should be checking this site every day for your latest assignments and updates regarding the AP exam. The latest updated information from the AP College Board for the AP Computer Science exam: Primary exam date: Friday - May 15th Start time Eastern standard at 4:00 p.m. Make up date: June 3rd. Start time: Eastern Standard 2:00 p.m. You should be taking the test on the primary exam date unless illness prevents you from doing so. READ the attached at the bottom of this post for the most updated details on the test conditions and material to be evaluated. Short summary - You will be writing two (2) extended response questions on material involving methods and classes, arrays and arraylists. For those who have not already done so, you must fill out the questions at the following link. https://sites.google.com/sachem.edu/mr-ks-math-and-computer-land/ap-comp-science Approximately half of the class has finished all the assignments due by today. Please make sure you have completed your assignments by tonight. At 12 midnight tonight, you will be locked out. As of this morning, there are three people who have not started any of the assignments. Contact will be going out to those individual's homes shortly. Assignment due by midnight tomorrow (Tuesday) - Unit 2 free response questions - Unit 2 Progress Check FRQ: on the college board AP site. This assignment will be the first where you need to read some partial code and then write the appropriate code instructions to complete a method or class. As with the multiple choice questions, I will have the answers for this first FRQ assignment released so you can evaluate your answers. The answers for this first FRQ assignment are fairly simple. Don't overthink your response. It does NOT take a lot of code to answer the question. Since your AP exam will consist of free response questions with no multiple choice section, you want to make sure that you spend a concentrated effort on these types of questions. If after looking at the answers, you still are unsure or have questions, contact me by email. Overall, the results from those who have already taken the multiple choice assignments have been very good. Keep up the good work! Test details - topics and format:
Midweek through our first week of distance learning, things seem to be going fairly smoothly. Please email me with any questions you might have.
For your first graded assignment, click on the link below. This 4 question quiz will be due by tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. The last question is about online access for the AP exam. Once you click submit, you are done. P.S. This is not an April Fool's joke! I expect everybody to get 100 on this grade! https://sites.google.com/sachem.edu/mr-ks-math-and-computer-land/ap-comp-science |