Cracking the AP Computer Science A & AB Exams

by The Princeton Review, Mehran Habibi, Michael Fritz, et al.

Book Overview

This new handbook offers proven techniques for scoring higher on the AP Computer Science Exam from the world's best test-prep company. Includes a detailed outline of topics most likely to appear on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 037576528X
• ISBN13: 9780375765285
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Princeton Review
• Length: 488 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.9" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

Pretty good for a brush up

I'm a hobbyist computer programmer. I write 3D video games for the sheer fun of it all, and am intimately familiar with 99% of the content that would be tested on the exam. Problem is: I needed to learn to do it in Java (I'm a C++ programmer). So, a few nights before the exam, I found myself in deep trouble -- I had never written Java code. So, I wandered to the nearest book-store and purchased myself a copy of this book, and it really helped me. It went over the fundamentals of java such as data-types, classes, objects, methods, etc., you know, the basics of any programming language. Then it also covered topics like recursion (a function calling itself either directly or indirectly), various sorting/searching methods, and the Marine Biology case study (it's not on the current exam, so I skipped this portion). One thing I particularly liked about this book was the exercises. There was a heavy emphasis on tracing pieces of code, just like on the real AP exam, and there was a HEAVY (and I mean HEAVY) emphasis on recursion problems. Now, recursion isn't particularly tough, but you've really, really got to get used to managing your own stack (on paper or in your head, whatever), and doing a bunch of these problems eventually makes head-spinning problems pretty routine. Also, the questions, I found were of considerably greater difficulty than those on the actual AP exam, which is a very good thing. Also, the problems use a lot of polymorphism, so if you're shaky about how it works, then you'll get up to speed quickly. Anyway, I wouldn't reccomend this book to someone who is self-studying without a suitable companion text (get a textbook from your school or used off of this website), since there are inevitably details you'll miss or just simply not comprehend without a more in-depth tutorial. Also, programming a lot helps, which you're really not going to get to do in a prep-book. Since my only criticism is that this can't be used for pure self-study, I cannot deduct a star because this is a review book not a text book. So, 5 stars. If you're in AP computer science and you need a brush up for your exam, then I think this book would be suitable for your needs. Plus, it's pretty cheap -- you can't go wrong.

Indespensible

If you don't know a thing about java, and your like me who only knew C before, AND you need to cram some java concepts into your head real fast, THIS is THE book. I can't believe people are calling this a waste of paper, this book as a review covered what most books take many chapters to teach in about 10 pages (variable types, operators, structures, etc). Don't buy this to learn java, but if you dont want to spend a lot of money on another book just to learn java from the start because you know the concepts already, this book is the right thing for you. I reccomend (to those who know C or other languages) that you read this book, as it will not only give you a quick translation for other programming languages, but it will also help refresh what you've forgotten or never knew to begin with.

i love school

i wish there were more princeton review books as good as this one that i could read all day long. I love techology

Well worth the money!

I feel as though this book really helped me for the AP Comp Sci A test. It really does an excellent job of reviewing the basic fundamentals and all the other Java concepts that are covered in the curriculum. However I wouldn't count on this book to teach you anything new you haven't learned already. If you have already covered the concepts in class but need to review them one more time before taking the exam then this book is perfect for you. If you only want to get a 3 or 4 then this book can help you acheive that. However if your counting on a 5, I think you should at least check out the practice tests in some of the other tougher review books such as Barrons. I felt some of the AP test questions were a little bit tougher than the ones I encountered while using this book. But overall, this book really covers pretty much everything you need to know for the exam and nothing more. If that floats your boat then I think you should get this book