Score Higher on AP Comp Sci P 2024: FRQ Tips from Students

FRQ- Video, Program Requirements, and Written Response 1

This guide organizes advice from past students who got 4s and 5s on their exams. We hope it gives you some new ideas and tools for your study sessions. But remember, everyone's different—what works for one student might not work for you. If you've got a study method that's doing the trick, stick with it. Think of this as extra help, not a must-do overhaul.

📌 Overview

• Students are asked to write a response to a prompt about their in-class computer program project (known as the create performance project) of choice
• 35% of Exam Score
• 60 min to write for the prompt, 9 hours of in-class time for actual project

---

💭 General Advice

Tips on mindset, strategy, structure, time management, and any other high level things to know

• Know your strengths and weaknesses. Self evaluation can help you determine how well you understand each subtopic and how you are going to answer each question on the exam. Being able to identify questions you know you have a good understanding of is important when it comes to time management.
• Process of elimination is huge in the CSP exam. Problems that involve code tracing sometimes have very obvious incorrect answers so if you are able to spot those, the chances of answering a question you may not know the exact answer to increases significantly!
• Taking full length exams is truly the best way to practice your time management. Nothing besides this will help you get a good understanding of what it will be like in the real thing. Practice questions definitely help, but practicing with that time limit, or even a shorter time, helps decrease stress when you’re really taking the test.
• Verbally explaining your code and project to someone else can help reinforce understanding and identify areas of weakness.
• Exchange projects with your classmates or teachers for feedback on areas of improvement and different perspectives.
• Set your project to private for anyone without the correct link and don't include any personally identifying information, as asked.

---

🤔 Picking a Performance Task

• Pick something that is not overly complicated and that you are comfortable making. For example, someone can write over 1000 lines of code for their project which included working with an AI but still get a lower score than someone who writes 30 lines. More complex isn’t the key to a higher score in this situation.
• Make sure that the program you have in mind incorporates all of the required elements. It's better than trying to stick in iteration or a procedure once you're 90% done.
• Your project should have a clear function that you can explain. Even better, choose an algorithm that helps make a task easier and has a unique, holistic purpose. Creating a program that is super complicated but has a bland and unclear purpose won’t earn you the points you want to score.
• Pick something simple. The Create task can be done in less than 20 lines of code. Yes, it’s that simple. Of course, you can do more, but don’t pick something too challenging and waste a lot of time on it. To reinforce a previous point, complex =/= better score!
• Consult with your teacher for advice on selecting a suitable project and ensuring alignment with course objectives, as this key for the task!

---

🤳🏼 Video

• Double check the rubric and make sure your video is in the correct file type before you upload
• When making your video, go through your program at a moderate pace. If you’re going too fast, the person grading might get confused as to what’s happening and having to rewind too much will just annoy them.
• Your video doesn’t need to showcase your entire program. You can run through part of it as long as you show what the rubric requires of you: input, functionality, and output.
• Don't take an actual video and use a screen recording program. You can use FlexClip but there are others too such as Screencastify. As always, make sure all of your video aligns with the rubric given. You don’t want to miss out on easy points.

---

🧑🏽‍💻 Code

• It is highly important that you are familiar with the rubric (you can find it in the CED). Read through it before you start coding, look at it while you’re coding, and when you’re done coding, check to see if you have everything. Make sure what you’re doing is sensible too. You won’t meet a requirement if it serves no actual purpose in your code. It is the backbone of the Create PT, so if your code is lacking, so will your other responses. You don’t want to have to go back and redo your PDF and screenshots because you changed your code upon realizing you forgot something.
• You can use any coding program, but a recommendation is using Code.org especially if your class uses their curriculum and for making a PDF of your code. If you want, try using CodePrint which you can also take screenshots of. You shouldn’t spend a lot of time coding. Don’t focus too much on visual (screen) elements. You can make your program look better before you record your video. You can also create a “creative task time log” and, as silly as it may seem, it was actually helpful because it documents what you did everyday and set a goal for the next day.
• If your school uses CodeHS, it also has a whole AP CSP course and covers more than what’s required on the exam. Converting code to PDF is also super easy with a built-in function in CodeHS.
• You should add comments throughout your code. They are intended to help you understand what you even coded, and this will serve you when you write your written responses. However, it is crucial you also cite anything you didn’t create (lines of code, images, etc.) with comments. If you don’t, you automatically get a 0 for plagiarism, which you do not want to happen! And don’t include comments in your screenshots too, which will get you a 0 for the written responses!

---

✏️ Written Response 1

• This response focuses on the program's design, function, and purpose. Go through all the required learning objectives using the screenshots you uploaded, and write out your responses on a Google document. You can study this before your exam, so on the day of your exam, you are prepared and have a good idea of what to write even though you have your screenshots provided to you. You should also deeply familiarize yourself with your code and the possible terminology they could use.
• There are many guides and tools to aid you in preparing for your responses. They’re scattered all over the place, but you can find a lot on College Board’s website for AP CSP. For example, there are released sample responses with scoring guidelines from each year. Look through them, and see how other people wrote their responses. Analyze why a person did or didn’t score a point for each question. Since revisions were made to the Create PT this year, you may get different questions on the exam, but they will be at least similar in topic. You can ask your teacher to assign practice questions with AP Classroom. There is also an AP Daily video you can watch that focuses on the written responses.
• Know your code. Hopefully, you coded it so you understand everything about your code.
• College Board will never ask you questions about something that isn’t in the rubric. Understand the rubric thoroughly; It practically gives you everything you need to know to answer the FRQ. A common mistake in written responses is people not understanding what the question is asking, but the rubric tells you what the question means! Through all the fancy vocabulary, you’ll realize that the answer is quite simple.
• Comment your code! You can’t include your comments in the screenshots that are submitted to the College Board to be on the exam, but commenting your code and then removing the comments will help you understand your thought process more so that you can remember it for the AP. Commenting and looking through your thought process again can also help you catch any oversights in your code and fix them before submitting them. Because the format of the AP is different this year with the questions being on the test instead of in-class, it's important to do practice questions and understand the purpose of your code well to explain it on the AP exam.
• Start by understanding what your program is all about. Think about its main purpose and how it fits into the field of computing. What problem does it solve, and why did you make it the way you did? Imagine explaining it to someone who doesn't know anything about coding. Describe what your program does and why it matters. Focus on the problem it solves and how your design addresses that problem. Keep it clear and straightforward, so anyone can understand it easily.

---

📝 Written Response 2

• You will need to respond to questions regarding your program functions, for example algorithms or conditions that are tested by call. Provide a screenshot of the code where the function is called and describe it. Keep your response brief because there is a limit on how many characters you can type.
• Be sure to provide clear explanations of the algorithms used in your program. Break down complex processes into simple steps and use examples to illustrate their functionality.
• Pay special attention to iterations, logical operations, and conditional statements in your algorithms. These are key components that the examiners will be looking for in your response.
• Think about how your algorithms handle different scenarios or edge cases. Discuss any error-handling mechanisms you implemented to ensure the validity of your program.