Friday, September 26, 2014

AP Comp Sci: Java Fundamentals Exam Tentatively Scheduled for October 9, 2014

If you go on JupiterGrades.com, you will find a practice exam as well as a study guide for this upcoming exam.

We repeat the study guide, here, for your convenience:

Test 1: Study Guide - It is recommended that you print this study guide and place a copy in your notebook for reference.

The following topics will be covered on your first exam:

1. Data types - you must know how to create and use the following data types: int, boolean, double. Know the dangers of floating point operations and integer division. Understand that classes are capitalized whereas primitive data types are small letters.

2. Boolean Logic - you must know how to evaluate a boolean expression and tell if two boolean expressions are equal.

3. Compound operators - know how to use and evaluate all of these. Review a video on java compound operators if you are not sure.

4. If statements - evaluate them.

5. For loops - know how many times a for loop will run. Know how to create and use for loops.

6. Order of operations - I realize this can get nasty so I will only ask relatively simple questions on the test on this topic. At a minimum, you should know traditional PEMDAS and also the order of operations for java's conditional operators.

7. instanceof operator - know everything about this.

8. Inheritance - know how to define classes that inherit from other classes. Know what it means to inherit and override methods. Understand what you did on MonotoneBug to turn off the setColor() method.

9. Random - Know how to use Math.random(). What range of values does Math.random() return? Can it return 0.00? Can it return 1.00? Can it return something larger? Use Math.random() to pick an integer in a given range - for example, use it to pick an integer from 3 to 9 inclusive.

10. GridWorld - be familiar with how the various actors work and how to change their behavior. (Review what you did in the "Something Buggy" Lab);

Sunday, September 14, 2014

AP Computer Science: Identifier Exam On Wednesday (First Block)

This Wednesday, Septermber 17th, first block, we will have our first exam in AP Computer Science. You will be presented with a series of words. For each word, you will have to identify if the word is a valid identifier in java. Valid identifiers are those words which can be used as variables.

There are two possible reasons why a word may be disqualified from being used as an identifier. First, if it is one of java's 50 reserved words, it cannot be used as an identifier/variable name. An example of such a word is void.

Alternatively, a word may be disqualified because it contains an illegal sequence of characters. For example ab,cd is not a valid identifier because a comma is not permitted anywhere inside an identifier.

The test will count for 50 points, so it will only carry half the weight of the other tests you will take this year in AP Comp Sci. The test will likely not take you the entire period so bring some work for another class in case you finish early.