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Misconception: Students believe that when they assign a = b, they are copying b into a rather than making a point to b.

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  • This misconception is a result of an incorrect mental model of how variable assignment works.

Tags

  • Content Misconceptions
  • CS 1
  • Intro Programming
External Source

"Exploring programming misconceptions: an analysis of student mistakes in visual program simulation exercises" by Teemu Sirkiä and Juha Sorva.

Other Tips By
Teemu Sirkiä
Juha Sorva

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Misconception: Students create a new instance variable when they only need a local variable.
Have students pay close attention to loop bounds when tracing through code to help them identify and avoid off-by-one errors caused this way.
Misconception: Students have trouble understanding that when the value of a variable is reassigned its previous value is irrelevant.
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