Will taking the APCS exam help with the learning process of 108 syllabus? How to prepare? -AI4kids

What is APCS? This is the "Advanced Placement Computer Science" that has emerged in recent years. It mainly provides a credible testing model. Some people also call it the programming version of the National English Test. The name also represents its importance. It allows students who are good at programming to use it as a diverse reflection of their learning experience when applying for universities. It can also be included in the review materials, which is helpful for applying for human resources and salary management departments. So if it is so important, how do you prepare for APCS?

What is the APCS exam content, duration, number of questions, and how is it scored?

APCS is an online test that mainly tests programming "concept questions" and programming "practical questions", and the questions are written in Chinese. All concept questions are multiple-choice questions. The two sections are scored together, with a total of 100 points. Each section is 60 minutes long, with a total of 40 questions. However, the practical test lasts for a total of 2.5 hours and is scored by writing a complete program or sub-program, with a full score of 400 points.

suject	Section	Admission Time	Detection start	Early submission start time	Early submission deadline	End of test
Concept Questions	Section 1	09:30	09:40	10:10	10:30	10:40
	Section 2	11:00	11:10	11:40	12:00	12:10
Practice Questions	Section 3	13:30	13:40	14:10	16:00	16:10

《Source: APCS College Programming Pre-Placement Test》

APCS is divided into five levels in the calculation of scores. The following is the score range and description of each subject:

Fraction	Programming Practice Questions	Programming concept questions
	Score range	Score range	Capability Description
five	90~100	350~400	Ability to use common data structures and basic calculation programs
Four	70~89	250~349	Possess programming and basic data structure application capabilities
three	50~69	150~249	Possess basic programming and basic data structure application capabilities
two	30~49	50~149	Possess basic programming skills
one	0~29	0~49	Do not have basic programming skills yet

《Source: APCS College Programming Pre-Placement Test》

APCS will hold three tests a year, usually in January, June and October. It is currently being promoted comprehensively, so every student can register online [for free]. The registration time is usually 2 months before the exam, around March-April, July-August, and October-November. Candidates can choose any session to participate in and can participate repeatedly as many times as they want.

Registration method is as follows:

(1) First go to the APCS official website and enter the "Test Taker Zone" to learn about the " Important Schedule " for the year. (ii) Online registration is open approximately 2 months before the test date. Please click " Register for Test " to register. (III) After registration, please go to " Test Site Query " to find relevant information about the testing location.

What programming languages ​​are required for APCS?

When it comes to programming practical questions, APCS will have 4 sets of questions in one test paper, and there are 4 languages ​​​​that can be used: Python, C, Java, and C++. The main test content is whether you can implement the required results on the test paper. You don’t need to know every programming language, just choose the one that you are most familiar with!

How to prepare for APCS concept questions? Three ways to practice

Read more programs written by others

The programming style that will appear in APCS concept questions is definitely not what you are used to. If you are not well prepared before the test, you will most likely find the test very painful. Therefore, you must practice past exam questions, or watch other people write programs to get used to understanding different writing styles. You can also share your writing style with friends who are preparing for the exam so that you can understand each other and grow together. Understanding more different ways of writing programs can also broaden your familiarity with programming!

Be familiar with and understand the basic syntax of C language

The conceptual questions of APCS are all written in C language. If you have focused on other languages ​​such as Java, Python, C++, etc. in the past, you will be very slow in answering conceptual questions. Therefore, understanding all the basic syntax and characteristics of C language before the exam will definitely make you more comfortable and smooth in this level of conceptual questions. If you are not familiar with C language, you will easily be confused and make mistakes. Therefore, it is recommended that friends who want to prepare for APCS should lay a solid foundation in C language!

Must be familiar with the concept of functions/recursion

There will be many functions and difficult-to-handle recursion in the APCS concept questions, so if you are not used to dividing your program into individual functions, you must practice more before the exam. Questions often contain grammar that you don’t usually notice. When practicing programming, you can also try and study different ways of writing to understand the differences in the results!

If it is not for further study, is it useful to take the APCS exam?

It is mentioned above that taking the APCS is used to enrich one’s learning experience, but is it necessary to take the exam for the purpose of further studies? Actually, not necessarily! Many people have different motivations, such as wanting to learn new skills, wanting to switch jobs to have better prospects in the future, wanting to achieve their own little dreams through programming, or simply exploring whether they are interested.

Before studying and taking the APCS exam, you can ask yourself these questions: Am I suitable for programming? How long will it take to write it, and do I have the time? Which program should I learn? What do you want to use it for, writing web pages or developing games?

However, given the difficulty of APCS, we believe that one must at least pass the practical level 3 exam to have a chance of developing into the field of programming. One can write rigorous logical judgments but is not yet familiar with algorithms. It is expected that at this level one can study the application side, such as web development or game development.

How long does it take to prepare for self-study of APCS from scratch?

Basically, the time it takes for everyone to learn programming is different, so we use the time it takes you to take the APCS certification exam as a definition. If you still have one or two years before the APCS certification, and you have good and self-disciplined self-study ability, then we recommend that you start with PythApcs123 taught by Professor Wu Bangyi of National Chung Cheng University. This is a series of courses for Python beginners with no basic knowledge. The course is designed with the short-term goal of passing the three-level APCS practical test. The course content includes basic concepts of programming, commonly used Python commands and functions, and explanations and demonstrations of multiple APCS past exam questions. For advanced levels, there is PythApcs45 , which focuses on Python solutions to past APCS level 4 and 5 exams. The collected questions include 28 questions from the third and fourth questions of previous exams on ZeroJudge and AP325 at present (end of 2021).

In addition to online courses, are there other online learning resources for self-study of APCS from scratch? How long does it take to prepare?

Python Programming Basics Online Course

Just learn online and master the basic programming skills step by step! In the Python Programming Basics online course, you can learn Python basic syntax, iteration and loop control, function introduction, data processing and data analysis, etc. The certification obtained after completing the course can be uploaded to the Ministry of Education’s learning history platform!

APCS officially provides learning resources

The APCS organizer provides a number of online learning resources from home and abroad for candidates to study, including: basic download and installation, testing environment, basic grammar teaching, etc.

Programming Problem Solving System for High School Students

The high school student problem-solving system has various types of question banks for practice, and provides discussion areas and rankings so that students can have a group of study partners to support each other in the learning process!

Programming self-learning platform

All question banks in the self-study programming platform are sourced from the information released by the National College Computer Software Design Competition (NCPC) and established with the participation of teachers from various schools. Currently, there are Chinese and English question banks. After submitting the online exercises, it will immediately show whether the code is correct or not. What is more special is that teachers can also log in to the website to check the progress of students’ coding.

Summarize

Obtaining the APCS programming certificate is probably one of the certificates that every high school student must take. In addition to being able to explore whether you are interested in the programming field in the future, it can also be incorporated into your learning history. If you are applying for the Department of Computer Science or the Department of Information Management, as long as you describe the journey of obtaining the APCS exam as a story of enriching yourself and finding your life direction, we believe that this will definitely be a big plus for your interview! In addition, schools across the country will begin to pay attention to programming skills, so even if you are a liberal arts student, it will be helpful as long as you have the APCS certificate; just like English skills, it is one of the tools you must have in the future!

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