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This week was the first of two AP testing weeks at Santa Su. Both of my AP tests were this week so I actually finished my tests this week. I took the AP Computer Science A test on Tuesday morning, and AP Calculus AB test yesterday morning. I can't talk about any specific test questions because of the test policies. I can, however, talk about the free response of the Comp Sci test because they released them already, they should release the Calculus free responses tomorrow. I don't really want to get technical on here so I'm not going to talk about the specific questions.

AP Computer Science A

The Computer Science test was actually pretty easy, having been getting better and better at Java since my freshman year. The test involved some recursion, and going through parts of loops and sorting algorithms. It's pretty strange because the Comp Sci test is more like a math test rather than a programming test. A programming test should use mostly industry standard code, practices, and tools, but being able to do a lot of what they want you to be able to do on the test is abstracted by most development tools. Like being able to figure out what a recursive method does mathematically, is pointless because you can just run a test that only takes a few seconds, not wasting anyone's actual time. Also being able to step through loops is also not very useful because of being able to use debug tools built into most IDE's with breakpoints. One thing I can say is that for those who did not program prior to the test, the Computer Science teacher at Santa Su did not properly prepare them for the test, like he was supposed to do. All in all, the test was pretty easy, I think I got a 4 or a 5 on the test. 

AP Calculus AB

Calculus is always the biggest test given at Santa Su, They do both AB and BC at the same time, because that is what the College Board wants for some reason. At Santa Su, there's two AB classes and a BC classes and most people in all those classes take the exam. There were easily over 120 kids in the testing room yesterday. The test would've been excruciatingly hard if it weren't for my amazing Calculus teacher. He's great at teaching, and making his students feel like they can succeed and do well. He gave several hour long review sessions on Sundays, without pay, for his students. Not to mention he also did BC and AP Economics review sessions as well. He cares so much for all his students, and I am so grateful for having him, and I am looking forward to having him again in BC. The test itself was not too bad if you really understand the concepts in Calculus. I think I got a 4 at best. I'll see what I got on both my tests in July

If you're thinking of taking an AP Exam, your best resource is AP Central. AP Central is were the College Board releases exam resources and guides. It is were you can find all the previous free response questions to practice with. So go check it out at http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/home. 

-José Rodriguez-Rivas