Score Higher on AP Comp Sci A 2024: MCQ Tips from Students

Multiple Choice Questions

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 to determine required code to produce a target output, identify the output of given code, analyze code for errors, and describe the behavior of programs
• 50% of Exam Score
• 40 questions
• 90 min, or 2 min 15 sec per question
• Mostly individual questions, some sets of 2-3

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💭 General Advice

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

• Don’t spend too much time on a single question but especially for this exam there are certain questions (cough cough recursion) that will take much longer than others.
• Adding onto the above advice, go through the test twice (specifically with tests with questions that require A LOT of thinking, ex., Calculus AB/BC, AP CS A, etc.). On your first run, answer all the “easy” questions, i.e., don’t require you to think twice. If you need time to fully understand, mark it, move on, and return to it on your second run. This way, you can maximize the amount of questions you get right.
• Make sure you attempt EVERY question. There is no negative marking. Also, in case of questions you don’t have the time to complete, you can almost always easily eliminate 3 of the options.
• There is usually a set in the MCQ (containing 2-3 questions). Do not worry if you take time to understand the main question of that set. Remember that understanding the main question will help you answer all the questions. Also, read all the questions in the set before you start evaluating the code.
• In a question that involves code, first read the QUESTION and see what are they asking for. Based on that, go back to the code and evaluate it.
• When you solve for certain questions like looping to create a number array, you will see a pattern very early on. Circle the question that SEEMS to complete the pattern, circle the question, and move onto the next questions. If you have time remaining, go back to the circled questions and double-check if the assumed pattern is correct.
• When you learn a new thing during the test (which should be unlikely) make a note of it as it could be useful or might show up again.
• Try to understand basic algorithms before the test! You do NOT need to have the code memorized, but make sure you recognize the difference between the types of sorting algorithms for example. This will seriously help with questions involving # of line executions or completing the code.

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🤔 Before you Bubble

What should a student do in the first few minutes, before they start answering?

• It is recommended you bubble the answer as soon as you are done with the question. Some students have messed up circling the bubbles if they keep it at the very last moment.

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✏️ Choosing an answer

• In most of the code tracing questions, you do not have to trace through the entire code. As you keep tracing, you can start eliminating options.

  • For example, if the question is as follows: What is the output of the for loop code construct below?

  for(int i=1; i <= 10; i+=2) {
      if(i % 3 == 0) {
          System.out.print(i + " ");
      }
  }
  

  A) 3 6 9

  B) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

  C) 2 4 6 8 10

  D) 3 9

  E) 1 3 5 7 9

  • Now, as you trace through the code the very first value you see that will get printed will be 3. This eliminates choices B, C, and E. Now we just need to trace through the code one more time and see whether 6 will be printed or not.

• Be careful of the following words in the question or the options - “ALWAYS” or “NEVER”. You need to choose a choice that satisfies these constraints.

• In loop-based questions involving arrays, strings, and ArrayLists, be EXTREMELY careful of the conditions. Especially if the conditions are like below:

  • value < = 8 (Don’t get confused between < = and < )
  • length < arr.length - 1 (Again be careful between < and < =)

• Always read answer options very carefully! They often have very subtle differences that are easy to miss but essential to the question. Do NOT rush through choosing an answer, especially one written in plain english.

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🤓 Understanding the Quick Reference Sheet

• In your study sessions, practice using the items in the reference sheet. Practice it enough that when the test comes, you know what is in it, how it works, and what isn’t in it. This can help you maximize your time as you aren’t always going back to it and you won’t be searching for something that isn’t in the reference sheet.
• Do not depend on the reference sheet--it’s a reference sheet to help you here and there, not an answer key. Know that the reference sheet states things in a more technical manner than the concepts you will learn, so make sure you understand it.
• Take the time to understand how definitions are written there, because it may not be very obvious at first. Also, make sure you know which function calls return something. Lots of array functions do, and they will use it in the MCQ to return things, often to print!