ITL - Concept Review (Lesson)

Conceptual Review: What Will the AP Exam Multiple Choice Be On?

Rather than creative computational artifacts, the multiple choice portion of the AP exam is all multiple choice, but not in the form of Alice questions or any specific programming language. The generic programming language is defined in the Student Reference Sheet. The questions are generic, in other words, programming language independent. The generic programming language is defined in the Student Reference Sheet. This information that is needed to answer the questions is an open-mind, a mind willing to analyze, evaluate, and select the best answer.  

In the last lesson, a variety of questions were used to show the generic thinking needed to answer the questions.  

A review should commence with the following information. Look through your modules, and review major terms.  

  1. Binary and decimal.  Know how to convert from one to the other.  Understand the pattern of use if asked to move to another base besides base 2 and base 10.
  2. ASCII conversion if given a set of letters convert based on the table provided.
  3. The difference between abstraction and algorithm. Abstracted code is placed away from the main code and called as needed. The abstracted code is moved to not clutter up the main logic of the program, making the program easier to read.  Abstracted code reduces complexity.  An Array and it's usage is also an abstraction. 
  4. Algorithms, how to solve problems with code or inserting parts of code into a section provided.  Understanding of the AP Student Reference Sheet provided to you by College Board in your student handout -- See IDT Resources. This is essential to working the AP test. This is the sheet that you will be allowed to use on the AP Exam and in this section for testing as well.  
  5. Understanding data in a generic way for relationships and the concept of Big Data, data that is large enough to require technology to assist with gathering answers.
  6. Internet concepts and how they relate to people and their use.
  7. Cybersecurity concepts and their use.
  8. Programming concepts that relate to what we have learned, but the College Board Language provided in the student handout.