2021 AP Computer Science guide: Get prepared for AP CSP A and Principles

Introduction

Living in an era that is fully laced with technology, it is vital to embrace yourself for the greatest revolution of technology. To compete with the rapid advancement of exploring computer science is the need of the hour. To get the full opportunity of creating a great career, learning AP computer science principles or AP computer science A is high in demand. To enhance your knowledge and expand your interest in the relevant subject, we bring you all the relevant information from explaining the basics to the best available AP computer science courses. Adopting the best general AP computer science principle and AP computer science A courses, you can do best in learning Java programming and other important, relevant subjects.

Table Of Content:

What is AP Computer Science?

Before going into the depth of the topic, let's start with the basics to have a better grasp of what AP computer science (AP CS) is actually about? AP CS is an introductory course that is offered at the college level. These courses offer college-level advanced content. Via the examination process, these courses allow the add-up credit in the student's grades, which is highly important in the placement preference at different high-ranked colleges and universities. AP computer science courses are actually for those high school students who want to achieve their big goals of getting acceptance in some great colleges of their preference. Needless to say, AP computer courses are an excellent choice for those students who are willing to take extra work to be academically prepared for the college level while being in high school. 


AP Computer Science Courses

There are two types of courses that come under the umbrella of AP computer science. Both of these courses hold their own respective value, and the choice solely depends on the student’s interest in the relative subject.

AP Computer science courses

Students are offered the great opportunity to choose an AP computer science course by understanding their direction of interest. These courses have a significant impact on their future career selection or selection of their major for college. AP computer science principle course basically holds excellent values for the student who does not have any prior knowledge of computer language or programming. By choosing the right online course and expert tutor, anyone can learn and explore any of these courses. Students need to explore their choice and see what the course offer and what it is about before going for the final selection. We bring you all the needed information to help you decide your choices and get a clear idea of what direction you want to choose. Let’s dig deep into exploring all the attributes of these courses.

What is AP Computer Science Principle?

AP Computer Science Principle is an important course of AP computer science and designed to offer its help to a vast range of students. The one highly prominent feature of this course is that it holds a great appeal for those students who want to enter the exiting field of computer and technology but lack any prior knowledge of this domain. If you want to choose the upfront field of computer science technology for your further academic career, the AP computer science Principle course is the right choice for you. This course holds wild popularity among the high-schoolers who want to pursue computer science technology from the basics for their other leanings. 

AP Computer science principles are prepared to be aligned with the introductory courses of computing and technology that are offered primarily in the first year of many colleges and universities across the countries. The best specialty of this course is that it does not hold any particular programming language, so it is pretty flexible for the underrepresented students in computer and technology. After learning all the basics yet necessities of AP computer science, you can choose and decide your own preferred programming language that you want to learn or explore. The course offers a complete knowledge of how bits and byte work to investigate all the newest technologies linked to the computer science field.

The AP computer science principles lead you from the basics to the software, creating a lot of reliability and ease. The course holds lots of interest from ethical to socially responsible points of view of current and future computer science technologies. The AP computer science principle course holds a vast range of interest bounding approaches for the students. According to a conducted survey, students who take AP Computer science principles are 16.9% more likely to major in Computer Science in college compared to non-taker who hold the figure of about 5.2%. 

AP computer science content


Types of Skills Developed by AP Computer Science Principles

Computer science technology is the need of not only an hour but the era. You can learn a wide range of skills by adopting Advance Placement of Computer Science Principles, also known as AP CSP or AP CS principles. We summarized the fundamental learning skills that students come up with after taking ap computer science principles.  The student will develop the following skills;

  • Algorithms and programming development.
  • Creative development of computation solution design.
  • Data Structure Analysis.
  • Abstraction in Program Development.
  • Impact of Computing on innovation.
  • Code Analysis and responsible computing.

If you are not sure about your level of interest in computer science, the AP computer science principle is the right choice. With the best available online AP CS principle courses, you can explore all the necessary knowledge to clear the exam and performance task to gain a high score for the high chances of your dream college or university.

AP Computer Science Principle Evaluation

For gaining the college credit and preference placement in your desired colleges or universities, you need to submit a create performance task and an exam of about two hours. At least of 3 or higher score will brighten your chances to get accepted into your dream college.

  1. AP CS Principle Crete Performance Task

AP computer science principle Create task holds great importance in the final assessment and scoring. The creative task requires at least 12 hours of dedicated class time by the student to complete in any programming language since the AP CSP lets you choose your preferred programming language so you can choose any for your creative performance task. As a student of this course, you are needed to provide a recorded video of the program you have created. In this task, students are required to respond to written reflection questions via the AP Digital Portfolio. They create performance task hold about 30% weightage of the final credit score. You can explore more about the course overview and create a performance task.

  1. AP CS Principle Exam

The final evaluation is performed by conducting exam at the end of course. This AP computer science principle exam is about 2 hours in length and consists of 70 multiple-choice questions. All the questions are related to the course learning objectives. The MCQs type exam consists of three types of sections based on the question patterns. This includes single–select questions, single-select questions linked with reading paragraphs about computing innovation, and multi-select questions. Exam holds 70% of the final scoring grade. Students can get all the AP computer science principles exam descriptions beforehand to achieve a high score.

  • How to Prepare for AP Computer Science Principle Exam? We bring you some insider tips to prepare for the exam from the experience of different AP CSP taker students. Along with the help of the best AP computer science course, you will get a good score if you follow our summarized tips.
  • Research: Explore current news technology daily to grab knowledge that you can find attractive according to your exam.
  • Understand Fundamentals: Understand and identify all the critical points for each topic you have covered.
  • Collaborate: By collaborating and sharing your knowledge, you can learn more rapidly with a broader spectrum.
  • Write Clearly: It is important to write your response clearly and creatively so that the AP reader could read it easily.
  • Don’t Hesitate: While learning and struggling on an assignment of AP CSP, don't hesitate to ask a question.
  • Think Simple: Don’t make any complexities while responding to your AP CSP exam; always remember that you will get a high score if your project meets the requirement.

What is AP Computer Science A?

AP Computer Science A is another course of Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS). It is an college-level introductory course in computer science. High School students who hold a keen interest in coding and computer technology mostly go for the AP computer science A course for achieving a high placement in their desired college or university. If you love coding and programming and want to dive deeper into the exciting computer technology study, then the AP CS A course is the right choice for you.

AP Computer Science A course is designed aligned with the college introductory first-year course in object-oriented program design in Java. This course lets students enhance their skills of coding by analyzing and exploring different concepts, including modularity, variable, and control structures. AP computer science A requires that the students hold prior knowledge and are already done with a high-school algebra course. A compact understanding of essential linear functions, program solving strategies collaborative efforts are the keen requirement of this course. Students could do best in the AP CS A course without any knowledge that's only possible if they undergo several prior knowledge available courses

The prominent feature of this course is that the student should have a 20-hours hand on programming requirement. This requirement is met chiefly by lab prepared by College Board. All the content of this course is about Java programming courses for high school students. Students enjoy the hands-on producing software solutions by declaring variables for controlling the program flow using branching and looping.

Types of Skills AP CS A would develop in Students.

AP Computer Science A is a top-rated course of AP CS courses. The course provides a high ensuring of an upfront carrier in computer science technology. Students tend to develop skills in the following areas.

  • Code Logic.
  • Code Implementation.
  • Code testing and debugging.
  • Code documentation.
  • Program designing.
  • Algorithm Development.

AP computer science A content
  • AP Computer Science A Course

AP computer science A is designed to introduce students to programming. Several online AP computer science courses are available that put more focus on the AP CS A. The course focused on the object oriented programming. The course is designed using the Java programming language. You can learn more about AP Computer Science A courses to understand your knowledge and understanding before going for it.

  • AP Computer Science A Exam

The AP CS A exam is conducted at the end of the course and about 3 hours long. The exam consists of 40 multiple-choice questions. This exam holds about 50% of weightage to the final scoring by MCQ section while the other 50% account for the 4 free-response questions. These questions are multi-part with the handwritten solution using Java language.

What is AP Computer Science A equivalent to?

The AP CS A course is aligned to cover one-semester equivalent college first year course. The major focus of AP CS A course is on computing skills linked to programming in Java.

How to prepare for AP Computer Science A exam?

The AP CS A exam holds tremendous importance in final credit scoring to achieve acceptance in your preferred college or university. We bring you some insider tips derived from the experience of AP CS A exam passing students.

  • Keep coding practices to gain confidence in computing.
  • Refresh your computing knowledge by reviewing concepts weekly.
  • Most of the time, questions themselves give a hint of coding, so read closely.
  • The exam consists of loops in a comprehensive portion, so focus on how loops run.
  • Review Java coding technologies to avoid understanding mistakes.

Which AP Computer Science Course is best?

Most of the time, students have been confused about a particular question that which AP computer course is the best. We believe by navigating all of our above-researched text, you can now easily choose the best AP CS course for you. People most often thought that AP computer science principles were rated as the easiest, and you can take the class with an average score of about 2.6 / 10.  Although the easiest Aps tend to be the least time-consuming AP classes to study.

what is the difference between ap csp a and ap csp principles

Both of these AP CS courses are also different on the basis of exam formats. AP Computer Science A course has an end of course exam that is based on multiple choice questions and free response question. AP CS Principles have a create performance test and a multiple choice based exam.

AP Computer Science Tutoring

To achieve a high output score, tutoring for your AP computer science courses is significant. Choosing the proper AP computer science tutorial and tutoring holds a significant impact on your overall performance. Having difficulties in understanding in your AP computer course? It is best to seek an AP computer science tutor to help you in all the areas you need expert mediated guidance. If you are taking any AP CS courses or have a plan for the future, we recommend you to take help from the best AP computer science online classes. It is wise to take help instead of getting frustrated and end up leaving it undone.

How To Choose A Best AP Computer Science Classes?

AP computer science classes tutoring is important to get more familiar with the final exam appearance. As there are different very reliable online tutors are available to provide you all the important learning tools for doing best in the exam. Access to content and curriculum and a mental piece for learning will definitely make a positive tool for your achievement. Explore the courses of different reputable online AP tutors and courses to decide more before making a final choice of selecting a tutor. 

Reputable AP Computer Science Online Courses 

If the time you are planning for a future AP computer science course, we recommend taking online courses based on the development of skills and not solely based on the content. Instead of teaching only subject-specific content, these courses develop core skills that are very helpful in achieving their following academic goals. These skills ranged from research analysis, evidence-based arguments, collaboration, and presenting. The student who completes these courses can earn one of two different AP Capstone awards that hold high values among the colleges or universities of the United States and worldwide. 

Some Free Available Practice Tests

We develop some excellent recommendations of the free practice tests that are available online for the students to assess their understanding and knowledge about the AP Computer Sciences courses. Some of these sites also provide some online AP computer science 2021 sample exams. These sites are summarized below. 

Stay Connected

To get the latest updates in the AP computer science course and all the updates, we recommend joining some interest forums to remain connected and up to date about everything linked with your academic future.

Geek Team

Geekedu is an expert in Coding and Math learning. Our goal is to inspire and empower youth to use their knowledge of technology to become the influencers, inventors and innovators of the future.

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