Before the bell
You are responsible for all of this before the end of class.
- The discussion form in the I Do deck. All three sections. If you are here, this should be done.
- Your classwork. This form on the right. Section 1 before the exit ticket pops up; Section 2 past the floor.
- No Bench Basics today — this is a short or catch-up day.
- The exit ticket. It opens 15 minutes before the bell and lives on the last slide of this deck.
The classwork form is not linked yet. Use Station View and write your answers in your lab notebook with the item labels.
One Problem, Four Skills
This reading works one problem from start to finish using the four skills from this week's benches: storing a value, dividing with a remainder, checking true or false, and counting from 0.
The Steps
The problem has five steps, and each step stores a value in a named box. The table below shows each step, the value it stores and the skill from this week's benches that the step uses.
1step what it does stored skill 21 n ← 29 n is 29 store (B05) 32 q ← n ÷ 6 q is 4 divide (B06) 43 r ← n rem 6 r is 5 remainder (B06) 54 ok ← r ≥ 1 and r ≤ 5 ok is true true or false (B07) 65 n ← n - r n is 24 store (B05)
Step 1 stores the number 29 in the box named n. Step 2 divides 29 by 6 and keeps only the whole part, so q is 4. A decimal answer such as 4.83 would be incorrect, because whole-number division drops whatever is left over. Step 3 keeps exactly what is left over instead, so r is 5. The two steps check each other, because multiplying and then adding gives 6 × 4 + 5 = 29, the original number. Step 4 asks two questions joined by and, and an and check is true only when both questions are true. Both 5 ≥ 1 and 5 ≤ 5 are true, so ok is true. The sign ≤ includes the number 5 itself, which is why the range from 1 to 5 is called inclusive. Step 5 calculates 29 - 5 first and then stores the result, 24, in n. The old value of n is replaced, exactly as it was on Monday's bench, so any later step that uses n receives 24 instead of 29.
Counting the Letters
The last part of the problem uses the word MUSEUM. Each letter has a position, and the counting starts at 0 instead of 1.
1letter M U S E U M 2position 0 1 2 3 4 5
The letter at position r, which holds 5, is M. The word has six letters, so its last position is 5 rather than 6. The letters from position 1 up to but not including position q, which holds 4, are U, S and E. Position 4 is excluded, because a range of this kind stops one position short of the number that ends it.
The Mistakes Each Bench Catches
Each bench this week catches one common mistake, listed below.
store (B05) using an old value after it was replaced divide (B06) writing a decimal for a whole-number division true or false (B07) using < where a range is inclusive count from 0 (B08) starting the count at 1
Sources: Muggivan, Bench Basics B05 to B08 (2026).
The AP Exam, College Credit and Placement
This section explains what the AP Computer Science A exam is and what a college can do with a score on it.
From CS I to AP Computer Science A
This week the class followed Java from Sun Microsystems, where the first Java Virtual Machine was built, to the programs people use today. Java is compiled to bytecode, which runs on the Java Virtual Machine. AP Computer Science A is the course where students learn to read and write Java. The College Board calls it an introductory college-level computer science course. The course has four units: Using Objects and Methods; Selection and Iteration; Class Creation; and Data Collections. The Bench Basics benches this semester are the start of Unit 1.
What the AP Exam Is
An AP exam is a test that the College Board writes and scores, given in May and scored from 1 to 5. The next AP Computer Science A exam is scheduled for May 12, 2027. The score on an AP exam is separate from the grade in the course. A computer scores the multiple-choice answers, and college professors and experienced AP teachers score the free-response answers each June. For example, a student can earn an A from the teacher and a 3 on the exam from the College Board. The report card grade is not the AP exam score, because the school gives the grade and the College Board gives the score.
The AP Computer Science A exam is 3 hours long and has two sections, as Figure 1 shows. Section I has 42 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, and it counts for a little more than half of the score. Section II has 4 free-response questions in 90 minutes, where students write Java, and it counts for the rest. The exam is digital, so students answer both sections in the Bluebook testing app. Students have the Java Quick Reference, a list of Java library methods, during both sections.
College Credit and Placement
The course guide states that colleges and universities set their own credit and placement policies. College credit means a college counts an AP score as if the student had passed one of its courses, and the credit counts toward the hours a degree needs. The American Council on Education and the College Board recommend that colleges give credit for a score of 3 or higher. Placement means a college lets a student skip an introductory course and start in a higher one, without giving credit hours for it. Placement is not college credit, because credit adds hours toward a degree and placement only changes the first course a student takes. Placement is also not admission, because placement decides which course a student starts in, not whether the college accepts the student.
Colleges do not all make the same choice. Some give college credit, some give placement, some give both and some give neither. The College Board states that many colleges in the United States give credit or placement for scores of 3 and above, and that each college makes its own decisions. The score a college asks for also differs. For example, Louisiana State University Shreveport gives 3 credit hours for a 3 or 4 on AP Computer Science A and 6 credit hours for a 5. Tulane University's 2026 to 2027 catalog gives 3 credit hours for a 4 or 5, so a 3 earns no credit for this exam there. In Mr. Mugg's words, some AP credits may work here and may work there. Reading each college's own policy is the only way to know. The College Board's AP credit policy search tool collects these policies in one place.
Computer Science in the Louisiana Core
Louisiana law also counts computer science in the high school core. Act 502 was signed by the governor in June 2022. It lets students who graduate during or after the 2026 to 2027 school year earn two units of computer science instead of two units of the same foreign language. This choice applies to the core courses for TOPS, the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students. The units must be in computer science principles, coding or programming. AP Computer Science A is one of the courses the Act lists. In a 2023 letter, the state's two top education leaders wrote that the change also applies to high school graduation and to the Board of Regents core. Not every computer course is on the approved list, so each student confirms with a counselor which courses count. Next week, the benches start on real Java, the language of the AP exam.
Summary
An AP exam is scored by the College Board from 1 to 5, separately from the course grade. College credit counts toward a degree, placement lets a student start in a higher course, and each college sets its own policy. In Louisiana, two units of computer science can replace the foreign language units in the TOPS core.
Sources: College Board, AP Computer Science A: The Exam (n.d.); College Board, AP Computer Science A (n.d.); College Board, AP Computer Science A Course and Exam Description (2025); College Board, AP Credit-Granting Recommendations (n.d.); College Board, Setting Credit and Placement Policies (n.d.); College Board, Getting Credit and Placement (n.d.); College Board, Search AP Credit Policies (n.d.); College Board, About AP Scores (n.d.); Louisiana Legislature, Act 502 (SB 191) (2022); Reed and Brumley, Letter to Senator Fields on Act 502 (2023); LSU Shreveport, Advanced Placement Program Table (2026); Tulane University, Credit by Exam (2026); Oracle, Java Virtual Machine Specification, SE 21 (2023); Muggivan, classroom words (2026).
The classwork form is not linked yet. Use Station View and write your answers in your lab notebook with the item labels.
MC 1. Which statement describes an AP exam?
- A test the College Board writes and scores, given in May and scored from 1 to 5
- A final exam the teacher writes for an AP course, graded from A to F
- A test a college gives new students to decide which course they start in
- A score from 1 to 5 that the teacher puts on the report card in an AP course
MC 2. A college lets a student skip its first computer science course but adds no hours toward the student's degree. What is the college giving the student?
- College credit
- Placement
- Admission
- An AP exam score
MC 3. Which choice describes the two sections of the AP Computer Science A exam?
- 42 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, then 4 free-response questions in 90 minutes
- 42 free-response questions in 90 minutes, then 4 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes
- 42 multiple-choice questions in 45 minutes, then 4 free-response questions in 45 minutes
- One 3-hour section of multiple-choice questions, with no Java written by the student
MC 4. What does Act 502 let a Louisiana student do?
- Count two units of computer science instead of two units of one foreign language in the TOPS core
- Earn college credit at every Louisiana college for a 3 on the AP Computer Science A exam
- Skip the AP Computer Science A exam and still earn its college credit
- Count any one computer course toward the foreign language requirement
MC 5. After these three steps, what is stored in n and in m?
1n ← 15 2n ← n - 4 3m ← n + 2
- n is 11 and m is 13
- n is 15 and m is 17
- n is 11 and m is 17
- n is 15 and m is 13
MC 6. This step uses whole-number division. What is stored in q?
1q ← 41 ÷ 4
- 10
- 10.25
- 11
- 1
MC 7. What is stored in r?
1r ← 47 rem 5
- 2
- 9
- 0.4
- 7
MC 8. What is stored in ok after these two steps?
1a ← 12 2ok ← a > 10 and a < 12
- false, because 12 < 12 is false and an and check needs both sides true
- true, because 12 > 10 is true
- true, because 12 is between 10 and 12
- 12, because ok stores the value of a
MC 9. A rule says an AP score s must be from 3 to 5, inclusive. Which check matches the rule?
- s ≥ 3 and s ≤ 5
- s > 3 and s < 5
- s ≥ 3 or s ≤ 5
- s > 2 and s < 5
MC 10. The word CREDIT has its positions counted from 0. Which letter is at position 3?
- D
- E
- I
- CRE
CR 1. Work these four steps. Give the value stored after each step, and show the check for steps 2 and 3.
1n ← 50 2q ← n ÷ 7 3r ← n rem 7 4ok ← r ≥ 2 and r ≤ 6
Write your answer in your lab notebook, labeled CR 1.
CR 2. In two sentences, explain why the same AP score can earn credit at one college and only placement at another. Use one fact from the passage.
Write your answer in your lab notebook, labeled CR 2.
The classwork form is not linked yet. Use Station View and write your answers in your lab notebook with the item labels.
CR 3. Work these five steps and give every stored value. Then name the letters of the word PLACEMENT from position r up to but not including position q, counting from 0.
1n ← 26 2q ← n ÷ 4 3r ← n rem 4 4ok ← r < q 5q ← q + 1
Write your answer in your lab notebook, labeled CR 3.
CR 4. Name one college you might apply to. Describe how you would find out what it does with a score on the AP Computer Science A exam, and what you would look for once you found its policy.
Write your answer in your lab notebook, labeled CR 4.
No bench today
There is no bench on this day. Finish your classwork and move to the exit ticket.
No bench today — the bench pop-up is off for this day.
The classwork form is not linked yet. Use Station View and write your answers in your lab notebook with the item labels.
This opens during your class period.