Questions about the AP Computer Science Principles Assessment

The assessment has two parts:

1. Through-course assessment (consisting of two performance tasks) that students complete during the school year
2. End-of-course AP Exam given in May.

Both of these will measure student achievement of the course learning objectives. For the through-course assessment, students will upload digital artifacts and written responses via a web-based digital portal. For more information about the through-course performance tasks, please see the Assessment Overview section of the AP CSP Course and Exam Description (.pdf/3.61MB).

The through-course assessment includes two AP Computer Science Principles performance tasks.

1. Explore Task - The students to identify a computing innovation, explore its impact, and create a computational artifact that represents the computing innovation.
2. Create task - Develop a computer program through the collaborative and iterative processes of programming.

The tasks can be administered to students in any order. Find out more on the assessment information page.

Sample student responses of the performance tasks and scoring information are available on the AP CSP Exam Information page.

It will be given each year in May.
Go to the AP Exam Schedule for the most current exam dates. (Friday May 5, 2017).
The portfolio assignments must be submitted by April 30, 2017

1. Review the AP CSP Course and Exam Description (.pdf/3.61MB) carefully to understand the curriculum framework as well as the exam design.
2. Provide opportunities throughout the year for your students to practice the learning objectives within the curriculum framework.
3. As an additional resource, access the full practice exam (available by logging in to your AP Course Audit account)
   -- used as a supplemental resource to help students understand the types of questions that may be asked in the AP CSP Exam.
4. Here are some sample test questions prepared by an APCSP teacher, posted on the AP Teacher Community
5. AP CSP List of Terms by Learning Objective / EK (Source Unknown)
6. Try this Book: FAST TRACK TO A 5 - Preparing for the AP CSP Examination (McLead, Graham)
7. To prepare students for the through-course performance tasks, ensure that they have sufficient learning experiences and practice on the concepts tested in the tasks prior to administering them. Sample responses to the performance tasks with scoring commentary are available.
   
8. Online resources like curriculum samples, programming tools, and free online courses (MOOCs) can supplement your AP CSP instruction. These resources have not been reviewed or endorsed by the College Board but are recommendations from your fellow teachers. Visit the AP CSP Classroom Resources page and join the AP CSP Teacher Community to access resources.

After a student uploads their final submission, teachers will be able to review the submission to ensure appropriate acknowledgements of image(s), video, music, written works, and code segment(s) created by someone else and used in the creation of the computational artifact or written responses. If there are attributions missing, teachers will be able to return the submission to the student to add the necessary acknowledgments before submitting to College Board for AP Scoring, rather than reporting this as plagiarism.

Yes.

Yes. Students can begin uploading their work now on the AP Digital Portfolio. Keep in mind that once students have received their AP number in March, students must return to the AP Digital Portfolio in order to complete their submission as final. All final submissions must be completed on or before April 30. Information about submitting can be found on the About the AP Digital Portfolio page. The Student User Guide is also a helpful resource.

Teachers can review student submissions for the following purposes ONLY:

1. Teachers can review the files that student are submitting to ensure the files are correct and not corrupted for each performance task (i.e., students upload correct files for the Explore performance task and correct files for the Create performance task).; and
2. Teachers can review students' submissions to ensure they have provided necessary attributions for work that is not originally created or written by the student. Students must attribute work that is not their own through inline citations and references. If a teacher notices student work that does not provide the necessary attributions through citations and references, teachers can inform the students where they believe missing attributions are needed and return the work to the student to add the necessary inline citations and references before submitting it to College Board.
3. Once students' submissions have been submitted to College Board through the AP Digital Portfolio, teachers can then provide feedback to students if they are being considered as part of a class grade. Note that classroom grades may differ from the AP score that a student may receive.

A designated AP Coordinator at your school can enroll these students on the AP Digital Portfolio. For more information, see the AP CSP Site for Coordinators and About the AP Digital Portfolio.