4.13. ASSESSMENT: Exam 1 - Midterm¶
4.13.1. 1. Complete the Student Activities¶
Review the information on the midterm exam.
4.13.2. 2. Review the Lesson Plan¶
This is about halfway through the Mobile CSP curriculum and an ideal time for a midterm exam (or final exam if you are teaching a half year course).
Members of the Teaching Mobile CSP Google group/forum (Sign up in Unit 1) have access to the Mobile CSP Assessments folder on Google Drive.
Please note that if you are participating in the Mobile CSP research project, the exam will be set up electronically for your students and graded automatically. Please coordinate with the Mobile CSP Team staff by sending an email to research@mobile-csp.org.
Note: Teachers in the Mobile CSP PD do not complete the midterm exam.
Exam Details
- The exam contains all multiple- choice questions. Some single select and some multiple-select (select 2 answers).
- Students should review concepts in Units 1-4. You may want to take one or two class periods for review of the materials suggested to students. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Read through and/or update their portfolio entries, asking questions where they are were unsure of concepts.
- Review the self-check exercises at the end of each lesson - ask questions if they're unsure of the correct answer.
- Review the apps they've created so far in the course.
- Review the AP CSP Reference Sheet. The AP CS Principles Exam does not have a designated programming language associated with it. Therefore, the Mobile CSP exams will use generic blocks. A reference sheet is provided to give instructions and explanations to help you understand the format and the meaning of the questions on the exam. The sheet includes two programming formats: text-based and block-based. (Note: The Mobile CSP midterm exam contains the App Inventor and generic blocks side-by-side for questions related to reading code.)
- The exam can be taken, on average, in 40-45 minutes.
- Students should not be allowed any outside materials such as a calculator, textbook, access to App Inventor, or to the Internet in general.
- Students are allowed to have a copy of the AP CSP Reference Sheet open or printed during the exam.
- There are no direct Blown to Bits questions on the Mobile CSP midterm exam. If teachers wish, they may give use a Google form to have students answer open ended questions after they complete the multiple choice exam.
- While not required, you may decide to issue the multiple choice exam as Part 1 of the midterm exam and create your own Part 2 that includes a coding exercise for students to complete in a set amount of time to test their live coding skills and knowledge. You could also use one of the Google form "quizzes" in the Assessments folder to collect answers to questions on the Blown to Bits readings (there is a form that can be used specifically for part 2 to exam 1).
Once students have completed the exam and you have reviewed the data, review any questions that several students may have struggled on. It's important to correct any misconceptions before continuing with new material.