AP Computer Science A Flashcards: What to Study, What to Skip and What Changed in 2025-26
AP CSA deck review: the 4 new units and their weights, the core OOP cards, what to skip, and the 2025-26 changes: 42 MCQs, inheritance removed, text files added.
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The AP Computer Science A deck on Flip It (deck code WI7794, 99 cards) has a twist: only about 20 cards teach material that can come up on the exam. About 60 cover the course's history and score statistics, from Pascal to GridWorld. That makes it good for context and weak for score points, so use it selectively.
Study this deck: AP Computer Science A
1 / 10What is AP Computer Science A?
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
What the deck says, card by card
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| What programming language does the AP CSA exam currently test? | Java |
| What are the four units of the AP CSA exam? | Using Objects and Methods (15-25%), Selection and Iteration (25-35%), Class Creation (10-18%), Data Collections (30-40%) |
| What is encapsulation in OOP? | The bundling of data with the methods that operate on that data, restricting direct access to some of an object's components |
| What is a class in programming? | A blueprint or template for creating objects that defines a set of properties and methods |
| What is selection in programming? | Control flow that allows a program to choose different paths of execution based on conditions (e.g., if-else statements) |
| What is recursion in computer science? | A method where the solution to a problem depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem |
| What language did the AP CSA exam use before 1999? | Pascal |
| What do Bugs do in GridWorld? | They move directly ahead, unless blocked (then make a 45-degree turn); they drop flowers… |
Other cards in the deck: object-oriented programming, inheritance, algorithms, data structures, data abstraction, methods, iteration, dynamic allocation, binary trees, AP CS AB (discontinued after May 2009), the case studies (Large Integer, Marine Biology, GridWorld with Actor, Flower, Rock, Bug, Critter, BoxBug, ChameleonCritter, CrabCritter), the four labs, the College Board, TEALS, and participation figures from 14,674 students in 2003 to 94,438 in 2023.
Tag before you study
Make three tags and review only the first one before the exam:
- exam: cards 10-14 (unit weights) and 81-93 (concepts). These are your core.
- context: cards 1-9 and 41-48 (what the course is, languages, format).
- trivia: GridWorld, the AB exam and every score statistic (cards 15-40, 49-80, 94-95). No exam question asks for the 2009 AB mean score.
What changed in 2025-26
The unit weights on cards 10-14 already match the revised course (first tested May 2026), which merged ten units into four. The format cards are out of date, though. Card 46 still says 40 multiple-choice questions. The revised exam has 42 multiple-choice questions with 4 answer choices (55% of the score) and 4 shorter free-response questions (45%). The revision also removed the inheritance unit and added text files, data sets and AI, so card 83 (inheritance) now belongs under context. Rewrite card 46 and add a card for the new topics.
Fill the gap with code cards
The deck defines selection and iteration but never shows Java code, and the free-response section is all about writing code. Write 10-15 code-tracing cards of your own, for example:
7 / 2→3(integer division);7 % 2→1"apple".substring(1, 3)→"pp"list.remove(0)on anArrayListshifts every later index leftarr[r][c]: 2D arrays are traversed row-major with nested loops&&short-circuits:x != 0 && 10 / x > 1never divides by zero
Run them every day until you can trace them without hesitating. On this exam, tracing speed is worth more points than knowing the definitions.
Related
Find WI7794 in the library at flip-it.app. For the Java side of the course, continue with our Java core concepts and OOP study guide. For another redesigned AP exam, see AP Statistics: what changed for May 2027.
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