comprehensive

[smeag]

OK, I just looked at the API, and there are approximately 4000 classes, and 200 packages, and I'm pretty sure that is not ALL on the computer science test, is there a way to narrow down my studying options?

[DentonKnight]

[smeag]

Well, don't worry DentonKnight, I won't pester you too much but thanks for all your help!
so, when I ask the question, do you want me to type it out, or something else?

[smeag]

ok, can dentonKnight please tell me all the kinds of packages you may see on a test? For example, util, io, lang....

[smeag]

OK can anybody tell me the packages I need to study for the computer science test?

[DentonKnight]

[smeag]

I think I saw a question with a long class in it, and isn't that in the java.lang? Can you specify ALL the packages I should study?

[DentonKnight]

[smeag]

I think I also need the math package also, but anyways, even if I memorize that how will it help me with:

String x = "$$$arrows&hearts&candies$$$";
String[] group = x.split("\\p{Punct}");

System.out.println( group[4] ); //1
System.out.println( group.length ); //2

//And so began smeag's quest of computer science
What is the output by the line //1?

[smeag]

can someone please help?

[DentonKnight]

[le cool cat]

i am going to assume you know regex. if you do not, go here.

the regex \\p{Punct}

is equivalent to the character class

[!"#$%&'()*+,\-./:;<=>?@[\\\]^_`{|}~]

or to escape this correctly in java...
[!\"#$%&'()*+,\\-./:;<=>?@[\\\\]^_`{|}~]

here's how i show my teammates how to handle splits.

highlight matches, or in the case at UIL circle them, or do something to distinguish them. in this case, i will separate consecutive matches with a space.

$ $ $arrows&hearts&candies$$$

for the split case, trailing matches do not matter. so we can ignore them.

$ $ $arrows&hearts&candies

if a string starts with a match, it will create an empty string for the first element. after that, each element is defined as what is between the matches. if two matches are right next to each other, it creates an empty string. so in this case (matches are in parenthesis)

("")$("")$("")$(arrows)&(hearts)&(candies)

our final array, if printed with the Arrays.toString() method would look like this

[ , , , arrows, hearts, candies]

the element at position 4 is hearts, and the length is 6

[smeag]

le cool cat, how did you learn all of your computer science UIL?

[le cool cat]

my first start was just taking UIL tests from the archive. on texas math and mike scott's website. (they're the same, but mike scott's is more complete, though texas math has a few that mike scott doesn't have.)

and eventually, i ended up finding that instead of learning that specific part of a topic, i should just learn the whole thing.

as a simple example, instead of just learning that Object x = new Scanner("asdfasfasdf"); is legal, i started to learn all of inheritance.

I also learned a lot from an AP CompSci AB book, as many topics on UIL were from AB. I learned most of my structures on there, with a few from youtube.

is a great playlist from UC Berkeley about data structures. some videos are simplistic, and you should already know them to their fullest extent if you're in UIL, but it provides great explanations of more advanced structures. His class is in java, so it just facilitates your learning experience.

for searching and sorting algorithms, i usually just look up the videos of the more abstract ones, and look at an implementation for quick recognition. for example, insertion sort is easily identified with a for loop and a while loop inside.

my recommendation is to look up tutorials on the topics of UIL cs that is listed in the topic list



also talk to your teammates about it. You can't have a good cs program if you only have one good written score. all of my teammates score around 200, plus you have to build team work with them for the fun part...programming :D

and don't neglect programming. programming can make or break a team score.

[smeag]

yeah, but I am doing computer science all by myself...

[le cool cat]

well start forming a team! it brings out leadership skills, and you'll learn a lot about working with people. It may be hard, but in the end, you'll have a lot of fun, leadership experience for college, and making new freinds!

[smeag]

wait, so do I have to memorize the packages and their contents?
and can someone please explain this type of question to me, I always get confused:

int value = 1205;
System.out.printf("%06d", value);

I don't understand the %06d part...
so can someone please give a website, or another way to learn this?

[smeag]

Sorry to bother you guys with an old topic. I've tried DentonKnights strategy about reviewing tests and taking new ones. My question is how should I review the problems I have no clue about?