I learnt many valuable skills while taking this College Board Practice MC Exam, including:

  • Time management during the test (to not get stuck on any problem for too long)
  • Analysis of logical proceedings as written in pseudocode or data tables

On this MC, I earned a 67/70. My analytics are as follows:

After viewing my score, I checked the topic breakdowns to determine which big ideas I need to work on the most. My performance in each of the Big Ideas improved from the last two MCs I took.

Finally, my topic breakdown includes which topics I need to work on the most. Last time, I needed to work on data compression and digital divide the most. This time, those sections improved significantly and the sections I need to work on the most are mathematical expressions, lists, and calling procedures.

Mistakes and Corrections

Question 7

Q: ```A game is played by moving a game piece left or right along a horizontal game board. The board consists of spaces of various colors, as shown. The circle represents the initial location of the game piece.

The following algorithm indicates how the game is played. The game continues until the game is either won by landing on the red space or lost when the piece moves off either end of the board.

Step 1: Place a game piece on a space that is not red and set a counter to 0. Step 2: If the game piece is on a yellow space, move the game piece 3 positions to the left and go to step 3. Otherwise, if the game piece is on a black space, move the game piece 1 position to the left and go to step 3. Otherwise, if the game piece is on a green space, move the game piece 2 positions to the right and go to step 3. Step 3: Increase the value of the counter by 1. Step 4: If game piece is on the red space or moved off the end of the game board, the game is complete. Otherwise, go back to step 2.

If a game is begun by placing the game piece on the rightmost black space for step 1, what will be the value of the counter at the end of the game?```

Selected: 3

Correct: 4

When I was taking the test, I did not have a piece of paper handy. I undercounted the number of steps in my head.

Learning: Write program proceedings out on paper in a step by step manner.

Question 14

Q: ```A list of numbers is considered increasing if each value after the first is greater than or equal to the preceding value. The following procedure is intended to return true if numberList is increasing and return false otherwise. Assume that numberList contains at least two elements.

Line 1: PROCEDURE isIncreasing(numberList)

Line 2: {

Line 3: count 2

Line 4: REPEAT UNTIL(count > LENGTH(numberList))

Line 5: {

Line 6: IF(numberList[count] < numberList[count - 1])

Line 7: {

Line 8: RETURN(true)

Line 9: }

Line 10: count count + 1

Line 11: }

Line 12: RETURN(false)

Line 13: }

Which of the following changes is needed for the program to work as intended?```

Selected: In line 6, < should be changed to ≥.

Correct: Lines 8 and 12 should be interchanged.

I did not realize that returning TRUE causes the function to exit. I now know that only RETURN(false) enables the function to continue looping.

Question 48

Q: Which of the following is an example of an attack using a rogue access point?

Selected: An unauthorized individual physically disconnects an exposed network router, making the network unavailable to some users. Correct: An unauthorized individual gains the ability to view network traffic by connecting to a network router that uses weak or no security measures.

I thought of a rogue access point as an unauthorized access point (which was correct). However, I overjustified “attack” in my mind; I did not associate gaining access to viewing network traffic as an attack. I will remember that CollegeBoard uses “attack” broadly.