Have students complete CodeLab’s practice exercises to improve their skills in Python, Java, C++, or other programming languages.
Have students label a string’s index values to help them understand how to use Java’s substring method.
Misconception: When students trace through recursive code, they have trouble figuring out if operations are done before or after the recursive call.
Compare objects in Java to cloud-hosted documents, such as Google Docs, for a relatable analogy to explain object references with.
Teach students how to find built-in Java methods in the Javadocs documentation so they can are prepared to use this skill on the AP CS exam.
Have students practice looping through an array in as many ways as possible, such as forwards and backwards, to increase their comfort with array looping.
Discuss and explore the difference between additive (sequential) and multiplicative (nested) loop structures to give students practice reasoning about loops.
Encourage students to replace variables with values when tracing through code to reduce the necessary cognitive load.
Misconception: Students get confused with object-oriented programming in Python because function declarations explicitly take self as an argument, but function calls don’t use self as argument.