Important Updates
Support 2020-21 Instruction with AP Classroom
Designed with AP educators, AP Classroom helps you give your students daily practice and personalized feedback throughout the year. Sign in to access AP unit guides with aligned resources, topic questions, personal progress checks, the progress dashboard, and your question bank.
College Board–Endorsed Curricula Available
AP Computer Science A teachers can now adopt innovative curricula delivered by educational organizations. All these curricula are endorsed by College Board, are aligned to the updated course and exam description, and come with syllabi, lesson plans, and other instructional supports for teachers. Teachers who adopt one of these curricula can still use all the instructional resources that are accessible on AP Classroom.
Updated Java Quick Reference
The AP Computer Science A Java Quick Reference has been corrected to match the version that appears both in the course and exam description (CED) and on the AP Exam. We encourage teachers to make sure that they have the updated version.
Course Overview
AP Computer Science A is an introductory college-level computer science course. Students cultivate their understanding of coding through analyzing, writing, and testing code as they explore concepts like modularity, variables, and control structures.
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AP Computer Science A Course at a Glance
Excerpted from the AP Computer Science A Course and Exam Description, the Course at a Glance document outlines the topics and skills covered in the AP Computer Science A course, along with suggestions for sequencing.
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AP Computer Science A Course and Exam Description
This is the core document for this course. It clearly lays out the course content and describes the exam and the AP Program in general. The CED was updated in the summer of 2020 to include scoring guidelines for the example questions.
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AP Computer Science A CED Errata Sheet
This document details the updates made to the course and exam description (CED) in September 2019. It includes printable copies of the updated pages, which can be used as replacement sheets in your CED binder. Note: It does not include the scoring guidelines, which were added to the online CED in the summer of 2020.
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AP Computer Science A CED Scoring Guidelines
This document details how each of the sample free-response questions in the course and exam description (CED) would be scored. This information is now in the online CED but was not included in the binders teachers received in 2019.
Course Content
Based on the Understanding by Design® (Wiggins and McTighe) model, this course framework provides a description of the course requirements necessary for student success, with a focus on big ideas that encompass core principles, theories, and processes of the discipline. The framework also encourages instruction that prepares students for advanced computer science coursework and its integration into a wide array of STEM-related fields.
The AP Computer Science A framework is organized into 10 commonly taught units of study that provide one possible sequence for the course. As always, you have the flexibility to organize the course content as you like.
Unit |
Exam Weighting (Multiple-Choice Section) |
| Unit 1: Primitive Types | 2.5%-5% |
| Unit 2: Using Objects | 5%-7.5% |
| Unit 3: Boolean Expressions and if Statements | 15%-17.5% |
| Unit 4: Iteration | 17.5%-22.5% |
| Unit 5: Writing Classes | 5%-7.5% |
| Unit 6: Array | 10%-15% |
| Unit 7: ArrayList | 2.5%-7.5% |
| Unit 8: 2D Array | 7.5%-10% |
| Unit 9: Inheritance | 5%-10% |
| Unit 10: Recursion | 5%-7.5% |
Computational Thinking Practices
The AP Computer Science A framework included in the course and exam description outlines distinct skills, called computational thinking practices, that students should practice throughout the year—skills that will help them learn to think and act like computer scientists.
Skill |
Description |
Exam Weighting (Multiple-Choice Section) |
| 1. Program Design and Algorithm Development | Determine required code segments to produce a given output. | 30%–35% |
| 2. Code Logic | Determine the output, value, or result of given program code given initial values. | 40%–45% |
| 3. Code Implementation | Write and implement program code. | Not assessed in the multiple-choice section |
| 4. Code Testing | Analyze program code for correctness, equivalence, and errors. | 12%–18% |
| 5. Documentation | Describe the behavior and conditions that produce identified results in a program. | 12%–18% |
Important Updates
Higher education professionals play a key role developing AP courses and exams, setting credit and placement policies, and scoring student work. The AP Higher Education site features information on recruitment and admission, advising and placement, and more.
This chart shows recommended scores for granting credit, and how much credit should be awarded, for each AP course. Your students can look up credit and placement policies for colleges and universities on the AP Credit Policy Search.
Meet the Development Committee for AP Computer Science A.