The school I'm at made the shift and hasn't looked back(well, aside from the technophobe teachers who grumble about learning something new a few years after they started to grasp the old system).
I've been teaching AP Comp Sci for the last few years so I though I'd toss out some info that seems to be lacking around here:
First off, the entire aim of the test is to measure how well a student would do in an introductory college course in the subject(1 semester course for the A exam, 1 year for the AB exam). The validity of the scores are tested by giving the exams to college students at selected universities and comparing the score with their grades. Comparing Java scores with C++ scores with Pascal scores is not really an issue, in each case, its simply "Here is how qualified we think you are to be considered having passed 1 term of this subject 5 most qualified to 1 not qualified." Because college Computer Science departments have not been static for the last 10 years(duh!), neither has the AP exam in its effort to reflect that. In 1999, the exam switched to C++ to reflect that C++ was the most often used language for introductory courses - for the 90s it was Pascal, and back in the 80s the exam was in BASIC - this year it changed to Java to reflect the changes in college courses.
The test is hand written, so there are no compile time issues(and no issues of unfairness to schools that don't have newish computers.
As a teacher, it rather sucks that they only release multiple choice questions after 5 years. Every other subject has books out of 5 years of old exams. And despite a few minor tweaks, Calculus really hasn't changed in... oh... 100 years(note: introductory level). For Comp Sci, that means this year they finally released the first year of the C++ multiple choice questions. Great, that helps my students prepare loads for the exam in Java. Free response questions get released 48 hours after the exam.
Btw, my students thought the exam was easy. I have one special ed kid who gets extended time on tests. He finished the free response(supposed to take 1 hour 45 minutes) in under an hour - and that sat laughing with me downstairs at the other kids who were forced to sit in the exam room for the entire duration, twiddling their thumbs. If you are looking to take the AP in the future, definitely take the AB, the A material doesn't have that much too it and really, a fair number of kids should be able to pass that exam just picking up a Barrons book and working on their own.
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Moodle
The school I'm at made the shift and hasn't looked back(well, aside from the technophobe teachers who grumble about learning something new a few years after they started to grasp the old system).
I've been teaching AP Comp Sci for the last few years so I though I'd toss out some info that seems to be lacking around here: First off, the entire aim of the test is to measure how well a student would do in an introductory college course in the subject(1 semester course for the A exam, 1 year for the AB exam). The validity of the scores are tested by giving the exams to college students at selected universities and comparing the score with their grades. Comparing Java scores with C++ scores with Pascal scores is not really an issue, in each case, its simply "Here is how qualified we think you are to be considered having passed 1 term of this subject 5 most qualified to 1 not qualified." Because college Computer Science departments have not been static for the last 10 years(duh!), neither has the AP exam in its effort to reflect that. In 1999, the exam switched to C++ to reflect that C++ was the most often used language for introductory courses - for the 90s it was Pascal, and back in the 80s the exam was in BASIC - this year it changed to Java to reflect the changes in college courses. The test is hand written, so there are no compile time issues(and no issues of unfairness to schools that don't have newish computers. As a teacher, it rather sucks that they only release multiple choice questions after 5 years. Every other subject has books out of 5 years of old exams. And despite a few minor tweaks, Calculus really hasn't changed in... oh... 100 years(note: introductory level). For Comp Sci, that means this year they finally released the first year of the C++ multiple choice questions. Great, that helps my students prepare loads for the exam in Java. Free response questions get released 48 hours after the exam. Btw, my students thought the exam was easy. I have one special ed kid who gets extended time on tests. He finished the free response(supposed to take 1 hour 45 minutes) in under an hour - and that sat laughing with me downstairs at the other kids who were forced to sit in the exam room for the entire duration, twiddling their thumbs. If you are looking to take the AP in the future, definitely take the AB, the A material doesn't have that much too it and really, a fair number of kids should be able to pass that exam just picking up a Barrons book and working on their own.