I took AP Computer Science without any prior knowledge of programming or learning Java at all. That being said, this class was supposed to be more challenging than all of my other courses, and at times, it definitely was. What I favored the most about this class was its leisureliness in terms of deadlines and labs throughout the year. The first weeks were the most uncomfortable for me as I did not understand the purpose of the code and the syntax that went along with it. Interestingly enough, I found myself understanding more three weeks into the first semester. Once I got past the first roadblock, I was able to accumulate knowledge easier. I think learning about strings was the turning point for me because I had to use Codingbat.com to essentially learn by myself. I sometimes spent hours on those assignments, but I became much more familiar with boolean, while, and for loops as a result.
After that, learning about other concepts became that much easier as we learned about 2D arrays, references and parameters, etc. The thing that I found most helpful in the learning process was to not leave anything out. What happened during the second semester was that several questions/misunderstandings that were left unanswered came back to bite me, and at that point, it was almost too late to patch up any holes that had emerged from first semester. If I could go back to relearn everything, I would be less lenient with my learning of every concept, because everything in the course is cumulative and important to future topics.
As a result of these circumstances, the labs and assignments seemed all the more confusing to me during the second semester. I certainly could not catch up at this point because second semester was not as simple as first semester was. The tests and quizzes became progressively harder, but I ultimately did my best. The problem that I felt as we worked on labs in class was that I needed help a lot during these times, but so did other students on the other side of the room. I ended up not getting enough help and had to work on these assignments at home.
Another thing that disrupted my ability to bounce back was my lack of retention of information. To me, it seemed as though everyone else could understand certain topics such as sorting, which is one of the subjects I struggled with the most. Eventually I was able to understand the different types of sorting, but unfortunately it took me much longer to understand it and therefore, I fell behind. I reasoned with myself that learning Java wasn't exactly my forte, but I still tried my best. I'm honestly not regretting anything from this course because it definitely satisfied my curiosity of what computer science actually was. It was a challenge, but I enjoy challenges as long as they aren't too taxing. In the end, although I am not the best coder, I still have an interest in this field and will definitely take CS-related courses in college.
Overall, I think that this class was a good introduction to what Java is. I don't think my grades nor my understanding represent my capabilities or how hard I tried very well, but I learned much more than I thought I would about the basics such as how to use arrays, array lists, inheritance, composition, etc. The class in itself was a lot of fun, especially since my peers and I could bond over how stressful and confusing the labs were. I am certainly interested in learning about Python in the future because it has a much simpler syntax than Java does. Either way, I’m glad that I had to work to understand everything in this class because it gave me a perspective on what college courses might be like. While senior year might have not been the best time to take Computer Science since there were a lot of other responsibilities and jobs to be accomplished, I do think that my mind expanded a lot during this course. I hope that I can continue learning more about what computer science can do in college and possibly in future occupations. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who doesn’t know or has never experienced programming because it has impressed me more than I thought it would.
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