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It was really good. I took it 6 years ago and even though I continued on to a non-CS degree, I still feel like I have a good grasp on basic CS topics (data structures, in particular).

This is a really terrible loss. I don't get it at all.

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You're thinking of the BC test - the AB test doesn't cover data structures - just basic OOP (Java flavor) and the general gist of Big-O notation.

I think you're confusing CompSci with Calculus. CompSci just has A and AB--see the list of courses at http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teacher....

It's a shame that they're discontinuing AB; it was actually pretty good when I took it.

I think I took the AB test. This was in 2002, and AB covered binary arithmetic, data structures, Big-O, and a bunch of other stuff. The CS A test (which is all that remains now) cut out almost all of the data structures, and was light on all the rest. It was designed to be a single semester course, where AB is a full-year course.

Did they switch to Java at that point or was it still C++?

I had some great memories in that class and definitely gave me the background I needed. Probably learned more in that class than in the early college Comp Sci classes.

Definitely a shame to lose it.

This was the last year of C++. It is entirely possible that the Java version of the class was less useful.

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