Overview

This blog shows some of the questions that I either got wrong or forced me to think about the answer for a little while before getting it right. It also goes into detail on questions I got wrong and what I can do better to not make that same mistake on a question like that for the future.

My Score

The final exam was 50 questions for a grand total of 50 points. I earned a score of 50/50 (100%), as shown below:

My score indicates that I have a very solid understanding of all the concepts on the exam; however, there were a few questions that forced me to think for a while before I arrived at the correct answer.

Questions to Review

Question 21

The first question to review is question 21, shown below:

The correct answer was C, which was that the test case was not sufficient to conclude the program is correct. While I did choose the right answer, I was initially tempted to choose A, which was that the conclusion was correct and that the program works as intended for all cases. However, I realized that choice A would be wrong, as the program would not work as intended if the first element of the list was a non-zero element. I could easily eliminate choices B and D, thus making C the correct answer. For a question like this, I need to imagine trying to run the program with other test cases, and I could do this by either doing it in my head or writing it down. This way, I will be less likely to make a silly mistake and will be more likely to choose the right answer.

Question 28

The next question to review is question 28, shown below:

This question had two correct answers, A and C, as shown above. Even though I chose both of the correct answers, this question took me some time to do as I had to keep track of what was going on with the strings, whether they were being concatenated or being broken into substrings. Had I lost track of what was going on, I could have chosen the wrong answer, which is why I believe that this question will be an especially important one to review when we being studying for the AP exams. One way I can improve my confidence with questions like these is to write down what is happening rather than just trying to do everything in my head, as if I do it in my head, I will be more likely to make a mistake.

Question 29

The next question to review is question 29, shown below:

The correct answer to this question was B, which was that a, b, and c would all be evaluated to false as boolean variables. While the concept behind this question was not particularly difficult, similar to the last question reviewed, I had to keep track of everything that was happening to each variable. Whether they were being changed to true or false, I needed to make sure that I noted down which variables were true (if any) and which were false (if any). As previously mentioned, one way I can improve my ability to answer these questions with more confidence is to perhaps write it down, as I know that we will be provided with some paper for the AP exam. While it may not be necessary, especially for a computer science class, I have sometimes found it helpful when I write stuff down, as I can clearly see what is happening and am more easily able to pick the correct answer.

Question 39

The last question to review is question 33, shown below:

The correct answer for this question was B, which was that the MISSING STATEMENT could be replaced with REPEAT 2 TIMES so that the code segment worked as intended. Similar to some of the questions that I have reviewed for this exam and other exams we have completed in the past, the tricky part of this question was that I had to keep track of everything that was going on. For this particular question, I had to imagine the robot (triangle) following the code segment and keep track of the number of times that the robot had to follow it in order to finally reach the gray square. While doing this is not challenging, if I had lost track of where the triangle was or made it move in a different direction than what it was supposed to, I would end up 1. losing valuable time and 2. risk getting the question wrong. It is important that I learn to familiarize myself with these kinds of questions by maybe finding some online or putting emphasis on these kinds of questions to review for the AP exam, as that will definitely put me on the path to doing well.

Final Reflection/Personal Takeaways

Overall, I am very happy with the score that I earned, as it shows that I have a good understanding of what we have studied in this class so far and shows me that I can answer multiple choice questions like these really well. The questions that I reviewed here were also a learning experience for me, as it made me realize how I can approach those kinds of questions in the future to ensure that I reduce the risk of getting them wrong. I like having these opportunities to test myself on what we have learned so far and seeing how well I do, as they almost always are a true learning experience for me. These kinds of tests show me what my strengths and weaknesses are and tell me how I can improve, and I really hope that I reflect great improvement in answering MCQ questions as we continue to do more of them in the future leading up to the AP exam.