AP Computer Science Principles 2024 changes
The AP CSP Create Performance Task and Final Exam have changed in 2024 to allow students to clearly explain their code and program and to reduce the issue of inappropriate use of artificial intelligence.
Students will now have an additional hour part of the final exam to answer questions about their program from the create task.
2023
Create Task
- program code
- video
- written response
End of course Exam
- 2 hour exam
2024
Create Task
- program code
- video
- personalized project reference
End of course Exam
- 2 hour exam
- 1 hour written response
So the ‘written response’ has moved into the final end-of-course exam.
Students will be able to save their work with screen captures which they can then use to help answer questions in the new response during the final exam.
What is submitted for the create task in 2024?
Students are required to submit the program code, video and the personalized project reference to the AP Digital Portfolio by 11.59pm April 30th, 2024.
What is the personalized project reference?
This is the chance for students to submit screenshots of their program list and procedures.
It will be difficult for students to remember their program without looking at the code.
Therefore it is advisable to make screenshots of the code which can then be used to help answer the questions in the exam.
What is the new written response in the exam in 2024?
The new written response in 2024 will be based on four questions with one question from each prompt in the exam. The four prompts are as follows:
- program design, function, and purpose
- algorithm development
- errors and testing
- data and procedural abstraction
How can APCSP students prepare?
Here is some advice given to APCSP students to help prepare for these changes:
- “Make sure the code project meets all of the required learning objectives (LOs) in the four categories”
- “Practice answering the LOs with the personalized project reference before submitting it”
- “Practice answering the LOs with the personalized project reference as you near the exam date”
from 2024 Big AP CS Principles Performance Task Changes this year [1]
AP CSP Create Task Written Response Example
The written portion of the Create Task will be done during the AP exam after the multiple choice questions. You can only use the College Board provided exam reference sheet and your Personalized Project Reference sheet (Component C) during this portion of the exam.
You will get four questions, one in each of these areas:
- Your program’s design, function, and purpose—describing who it is for, what it does, how it works, how you made it, and/or what are the inputs and outputs
- Algorithm development—explaining your algorithms, how they work (including operators and/or conditionals), and/or describing what would happen if you changed them
- Errors and testing—knowing what would lead to an error and how you would test for that kind of error and/or fix it (go back to page 4, Testing, for helpful terms and techniques)
- Data and procedural abstraction—understanding how lists and/or procedures and manage complexity in your program, which may include questions about data abstraction and/or list traversal
source [3,4]
The exact four questions you have to answer will be different on the exam. Here are some sample prompts provided by the College Board to help you practice writing about your project. These four questions correspond to each of the areas above.
- Identify an expected user of your program. Describe one way your program’s design meets the needs of this user.
- Consider the first iteration statement included in the Procedure section of your Personalized Project Reference. Identify the number of times the body of your iteration statement will execute. Describe a condition or error that would cause your iteration statement to not terminate and cause an infinite loop. If no such condition or error exists, explain how the loop could be modified to cause an infinite loop.
- Consider the procedure included in part (i) of the Procedure section of your Personalized Project Reference. Describe a change to your procedure that will result in a run-time error. Explain why this change will result in a run-time error.
- Suppose you are provided with a procedure called
isEqual (value1, value2)
. The procedure returns
true
if the two parameters
value1
and
value2
are equal in value and returns
false
otherwise. Using the list you identified in the List section of your Personalized Project Reference, explain in detailed steps an algorithm that uses
isEqual
to count the number of times a certain value appears in your list. Your explanation must be detailed enough for someone else to write the program code.
source [3,4]
AP CSP Create Task Written Response Question Examples
- Describe the overall purpose of the program.
- Describe the functionality of your program that is demonstrated in your video.
- Describe the input and output of your program that is demonstrated in your video.
- Describe what the data contained in the list on your Personalized Project Reference represents in your program.
- Explain how the list on your Personalized Project Reference manages complexity in your program code by explaining why your program code could not be written, or how it would be written differently, if you did not use the list.
- Describe what the procedure on your Personalized Project Reference does and how it contributes to the overall functionality of your program.
- Explain in detail how the algorithm implemented in the procedure on your Personalized Project Reference works. Your explanation must be detailed enough for someone else to recreate it.
- Describe what condition is being tested when your procedure is called (by the code you included on your Personalized Project Reference). Identify the result of this call.
source [3]
For more information see:
- [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y09qu-sElUM
- [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IexEs6xWDBg
- [3] https://bjc.edc.org/bjc-r/cur/performance-tasks/create-task/7-writing.html?topic=nyc_bjc%2Fcreate-task.topic&course=bjc4nyc.html
- [4] https://codehs.com/tutorial/david/sample-a-csp-performance-task-1