Dean R. Johnson - 5 Steps to a 5: AP Computer Science A 2021

Copyright 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 by McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-26-046715-4
MHID: 1-26-046715-5

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-1-26-046714-7, MHID: 1-26-046714-7.

eBook conversion by codeMantra
Version 1.0

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

McGraw-Hill Education eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative, please visit the Contact Us page at www.mhprofessional.com.

McGraw Hill, the McGraw Hill logo, 5 Steps to a 5, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of McGraw Hill and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. McGraw Hill is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

AP, Advanced Placement Program, and College Board are registered trademarks of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.

TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill Educations prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

THE WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS. McGRAW-HILL EDUCATION AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill Education nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill Education has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill Education and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.

Way to go! By taking the AP Computer Science A Exam, youve decided to gain a deeper knowledge of the world around you. This knowledge will give you an advantage no matter what field you study in the future.

Computer science, ironically, is a much misunderstood subject. Even in this digital age, where people are dependent on their smartphones, they see their phone as a mysterious black box. They receive messages and notifications on a daily basis, but, for some reason, they dont understand that someone had to write the software that makes their life richer. Software developers write the computer programs that people use every day.

The purpose of this book is to help you score a 5 on the AP Computer Science A Exam. Along the way, your Java programming skills and your ability to problem-solve should dramatically improve.

Here are some pieces of advice for you:

Be persistent. Software developers hate it when they cant figure out how to make a program work and even when they succeed, they always try to think of better ways to solve the problem.

Try to see the big picture. This is good advice not only when studying for this exam, but for life in general. The more you see problems from multiple perspectives, the more likely it is that you will understand how to solve them. Complex program designs require you to step back and view from a distance.

Be patient with yourself and others. Everyone learns at a different rate. Some of the topics in AP Computer Science A are quite challenging, so you may have to reread concepts in this book until you understand them. If you are learning this with other students, help each other out. As a programmer, you should live by the mantra that we are all in this together.

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Software developers need to strike a balance between structure and creativity. That is, a good developer must understand how to do the technical things (structure) or else their program wont run. But programmers also need to be creative in order to solve problems in a clever way. Work on improving both of these two skills simultaneously so you can become the best programmer you can be.

Above all else, work toward original thought. You are going to need to learn how to think for yourself in order to become a good programmer. Be curious and learn how things work so that you can apply skills and techniques to new situations. Also, learn how to explain things to other people, as this will develop you as a programmer and leader.

This book was made possible by the contributions of many people. First, Id like to thank Grace Freedson and McGraw Hill for giving me the opportunity to write this book. Thank you to my editors, Del Franz and Patricia Wallenburg, for their help in preparing the book for publication.

A huge thank you goes to my partner, Carol Paymer. This book would not have been possible without her tireless efforts of writing questions and explanations and proofreading. Carols meticulous explanations of the solutions provide the student with the type of guided practice they need as they strive toward their goal of reaching a 5 on the AP Computer Science A Exam. Her superior editing skills make me look a lot better than I deserve; I couldnt have finished this project without her. Also, a big thank you to Aaron Chamberlain of Fort Atkinson High School for his contribution of many of the questions in this book.

A special thank you goes to Fort Atkinson High School computer science student Megan Charland, whose contributions in editing helped it to be seen from the students point of view.