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The year in review: changes and lessons learned in the design and implementation of the AP CS exam in Java

Published: 23 February 2005 Publication History

Abstract

The 2004 school year marked significant changes in the Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science curriculum. Most visibly, Java replaced C++ as the exam-testable programming language. More fundamentally, however, the AP CS curriculum now places a greater emphasis on object-oriented design than in previous years. Students are expected to be able to implement interfaces, design and implement class hierarchies using inheritance, analyze the tradeoffs between alternative designs and their associated efficiencies, and make use of Java Collection classes where appropriate. This special session is intended to inform both high school and college teachers as to the extent of these changes and how they affected the development and grading of the 2004 AP CS exams. In addition, it will provide practical insights as to how the new curriculum can be taught in high schools, and how teachers can better prepare their students for the exams.The AP CS Development Committee's charge is not only to provide a comprehensive testing mechanism, but also to recommend a direction that high school teachers should take in preparing a foundation for more advanced student studies during college. This special session will bring together two college and two high school members of the AP CS Development Committee to share some of their insights into the AP program.AP teachers will learn valuable information to continue to support their shift to Java in the classroom and about the exam for which they are preparing their students. College teachers will learn more about the AP CS curriculum and test development process, which may aid them in similar course redesigns and in the placement of students with AP credit.Time will be provided to discuss participant's questions.

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  • (2025)Teacher Reviews of Block-Based Coding for K-12 ClassroomsProceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3641555.3705259(1379-1380)Online publication date: 18-Feb-2025
  • (2011)Criteria for writing exams which reflect the k12 CS foundations study materialProceedings of the 5th international conference on Informatics in Schools: situation, Evolution and Perspectives10.1007/978-3-642-24722-4_20(225-235)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2011
  • (2010)Re-imagining the first year of computingProceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1734263.1734377(329-330)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2010
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cover image ACM Conferences
SIGCSE '05: Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
February 2005
610 pages
ISBN:1581139977
DOI:10.1145/1047344
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 23 February 2005

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Author Tags

  1. AP
  2. AP CS
  3. AP CS development committee
  4. Java
  5. Java exam
  6. advanced placement computer science
  7. collection classes
  8. high school teachers
  9. inheritance
  10. interfaces
  11. marine biology simulation case study
  12. object-oriented design

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SIGCSE05
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SIGCSE05: Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
February 23 - 27, 2005
Missouri, St. Louis, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,787 of 5,146 submissions, 35%

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SIGCSE TS 2025
The 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
February 26 - March 1, 2025
Pittsburgh , PA , USA

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Cited By

View all
  • (2025)Teacher Reviews of Block-Based Coding for K-12 ClassroomsProceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3641555.3705259(1379-1380)Online publication date: 18-Feb-2025
  • (2011)Criteria for writing exams which reflect the k12 CS foundations study materialProceedings of the 5th international conference on Informatics in Schools: situation, Evolution and Perspectives10.1007/978-3-642-24722-4_20(225-235)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2011
  • (2010)Re-imagining the first year of computingProceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1734263.1734377(329-330)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2010
  • (2009)Advanced placement computer scienceACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/1539024.150900541:1(397-398)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2009
  • (2009)Advanced placement computer scienceProceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1508865.1509005(397-398)Online publication date: 4-Mar-2009

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