Study Guide

reflection + how 2 study for AP test

• 3 min read

Notes On Main Topics

Legal and Ethical Concerns

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Intellectual Property

  • Copyright: Protects artistic and literary works.
  • Patents: Safeguards inventions for ~20 years.
  • Trademarks: Covers branding and unique symbols.
  • Trade Secrets: Keeps business methods confidential.

Plagiarism

  • Copying code or algorithms without credit.
  • Risks: Legal action, academic penalties, loss of credibility.
  • Prevention: Cite sources, work independently, create original work.

Licensing

  • MIT: Permissive, allows reuse.
  • GPL: Requires derived work to also be open source.
  • Creative Commons: Non-software content (music, writing, images).
  • Apache 2.0: Open source + patent protection.

Beneficial and Harmful Effects of Computing

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Beneficial

  • Medical Advancements: Surgery, diagnosis, personalized care.
  • Business Efficiency: Automation and data analytics.
  • Artistic Innovation: New tools for music, visual art, etc.
  • Convenience: Faster delivery with drones, remote access tools.

Harmful

  • Cyberbullying: Psychological harm, social issues.
  • Privacy Loss: Data tracking and surveillance.
  • Tech Dependence: Reduced research and thinking skills.
  • Job Displacement: Automation replacing human workers.
  • Drone Risks: Safety and privacy violations.

Computing Bias

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Definition

  • Occurs when algorithms reflect the prejudices of their creators or data sets.

Examples

  • Facial recognition misidentifying people of color.
  • Biased hiring tools excluding certain demographics.

Solutions

  • Diverse training data
  • Inclusive development teams
  • Continuous testing and auditing

Crowdsourcing

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Definition

  • Solving problems or collecting data using a large group of people, often online.

Examples

  • Wikipedia content contributions.
  • Citizen science (e.g., Galaxy Zoo).
  • Fundraising on Kickstarter.

Benefits

  • Scales quickly, taps diverse perspectives.

Digital Divide

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Definition

  • The gap between those with access to modern computing and those without.

Causes

  • Lack of infrastructure, economic inequality, location.

Effects

  • Reduced educational and job opportunities.
  • Widening social and economic gaps.

Solutions

  • Public internet access points.
  • Subsidized technology for students.

Safe Computing

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Practices

  • Use strong, unique passwords.
  • Enable two-factor authentication.
  • Keep software updated.

Risks

  • Phishing, viruses, social engineering.
  • Data leaks from poor security practices.

Tips

  • Think before you click.
  • Use antivirus software.
  • Avoid public Wi-Fi for sensitive tasks.

Binary

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Basics

  • Only uses 0s and 1s.
  • Foundation of all computing data.

Uses

  • Arithmetic, circuits, decision making.

Operations

  • Binary addition and subtraction.
  • Conversion to and from decimal.

Color Codes

  • Hex (e.g., #FF0000 = red).
  • RGB/RGBA for design and media.

Lists and Filtering

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Lists

  • Ordered, changeable collections of elements.

Filtering

  • Extract items based on a condition (e.g., cost < 10).

Big O Notation

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Common Complexities

  • O(1) — Constant time (e.g., accessing an array index)
  • O(n) — Linear time (e.g., loop through a list)
  • O(log n) — Logarithmic (e.g., binary search)
  • O(n²) — Quadratic (e.g., nested loops)

Why It Matters

  • Helps analyze efficiency and scalability of algorithms.
  • Used to compare performance of solutions regardless of hardware.

TOP 5 Areas Of Focus

Skills

  1. Choosing the best method to meet a purpose

  2. Identify errors in code

  3. Discovery testing (to find errors)

  4. Result of code sections/find missing code

  5. Use abstractions (simplifying unnessesary details without messing with the function of the code)

Calendar

April–May Study Calendar

Week Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Apr 21–27     23 Review CPT requierments/practrice MCQs 24 - Legal & Ethics 25 - Beneficial/Harmful 26 Review CPT 27 Submit CPT
Apr 28–May 4 28 - Bias 29 - Crowdsourcing 30 MCQ Practice problems (mort sent on CB) May 1 - Digital Divide 2 - Safe Computing 3 MCQ questions review/notes 4 - MCQ Review struggled sections/redo struggled questions
May 5–11 5 - Binary 6 - Lists & Filtering 7 Practice quizlet on main topics/vocab 8 Review Sstruggled Lessons 9 Review Struggled Lessons 10 Review PPR (PT 1-2) 11 Review PPR (PT 3-4)
May 12–18 12 Final Review 13 Final Review 14 Final Review 15 AP Exam      

Study Resources

Study Quizlet

PPR breakdown

Ap CSP handbook

MCQ Reviews

1. MCQ1

2. MCQ2

3. MCQ3