Product Description: Once again, the Litvins bring you a textbook that expertly covers the subject, is fun to read, and works for students with different learning styles. In one volume, this edition covers both introductory Java/OOP A-level material and AB-level topics (data structures and algorithms). The book follows Java 5.0 and incorporates many other changes, big and small, to reflect the current priorities of the AP CS program. This edition offers an early focus on object-oriented programming and design and an expanded discussion of the Java collections framework. What has not changed is the authors' respect for students, clear explanation of concepts, common sense about practical software development issues, and realistic and fun case studies and labs. By choosing this book, you have joined the many thousands of students who have mastered computer science fundamentals and received high grades on AP CS exams using the Litvins’ C++ and Java books.
AP Student's experience This was an excellent book for going over the basics of the topics covered for the AP test and the questions' difficulty ranged from the fairly prosaic to challenging and the projects could be involving, however, it seemed to pall in comparison to Barron's AP review book when it came to depth and all the intricate technicalities/special-cases governing the Java language which the AP test partially dwells upon for its subset. This book seems to sugarcoat the topics of AB without going into much depth which I found somewhat dismaying when it came to effectively and efficiently studying for the AP test. Otherwise, it gives an effective overview of the individual topics and leaves a basic understanding of the concepts of introductory computer science: for depth and technicalities including java-level implementation(particularly hash tables), I'd look elsewhere.
(I Originally used this but found myself attracted to the more densely-packed information in Barron's AP after about 3 weeks of study in this. I was a student self-studying for the exam and needed a textbook to study the material as no instructor accessible to me taught it. Eventually, I earned a 5, though I credit that more towards Barron's than this.)
You won't find a better textbook You won't find a better texbook to teach high school computer science. Who uses "Foo Fighters" in an example or talks about throwing away extra coffee cups to explain an inefficiency of the immutability of strings?
This book has every quality I could possibly want to teach either Intro or AP Computer Science in high school. The authors have beautifully achieved a difficult task: to write with an accessible and fun style while keeping the content complete and rigorous enough to prepare students to earn a 5 on the AP exam. The book sets students up for success by exposing them to many concepts in early chapters on object-oriented programming, but not expecting mastery until the detailed chapters on the same topics that come later. The exposure is supported with skeleton code so that students can feel confident about completing projects. When re-visiting a topic later in the book, students are well-prepared to write complex programs from scratch.
There is an abundance of paper and pencil exercises so that students think through their process before jumping to the keyboard. These exercises are particularly prevalent in the chapter on algorithms. (Finally an author that gives this topic at the heart of computer science its deserving coverage!) The exercises and programs are divided into sections of the book making it easy to break down a chapter into teaching days. The code in the PowerPoint slides are laid out and explained so well that you could practically display them without explanation as your only source for lessons. The test questions are varied in style (multiple choice, true/false, and free response) and written in tried-and-true MS Word format. The programming projects are so much fun that I hurt with envy wanting to be a student myself again. A few notable project titles include Dance Studio, Chomp Game, and Instant Messenger.
Reward yourself and your students by purchasing this book.
A Great Textbook for Java! I use this textbook for my Java programming class. The explanations are quite readable, the exercises are interesting and relevant, and the book is overall one of the strongest offerings available. I highly recommend this book.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
