2022

AP Computer Science A
®

Sample Student Responses

and Scoring Commentary

Inside:

Free-Response Question 2
R Scoring Guidelines
R Student Samples
R Scoring Commentary

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AP® Computer Science A 2022 Scoring Guidelines

Applying the Scoring Criteria

Apply the question scoring criteria first, which always takes precedence. Penalty points can only be
deducted in a part of the question that has earned credit via the question rubric. No part of a question (a, b, c)
may have a negative point total. A given penalty can be assessed only once for a question, even if it occurs
multiple times or in multiple parts of that question. A maximum of 3 penalty points may be assessed per
question.

1‐Point Penalty
v) Array/collection access confusion ([] get)
w) Extraneous code that causes side‐effect (e.g., printing to output, incorrect precondition check)
x) Local variables used but none declared
y) Destruction of persistent data (e.g., changing value referenced by parameter)
z) Void method or constructor that returns a value

No Penalty
 Extraneous code with no side‐effect (e.g., valid precondition check, no‐op)
 Spelling/case discrepancies where there is no ambiguity*
 Local variable not declared provided other variables are declared in some part
 private or public qualifier on a local variable
 Missing public qualifier on class or constructor header
 Keyword used as an identifier
 Common mathematical symbols used for operators (× • ÷ ≤ ≥ <> ≠)
 [] vs. () vs. <>
 = instead of == and vice versa
 length/size confusion for array, String, List, or ArrayList; with or without ( )
 Extraneous [] when referencing entire array
 [i,j] instead of [i][j]
 Extraneous size in array declaration, e.g., int[size] nums = new int[size];
 Missing ; where structure clearly conveys intent
 Missing { } where indentation clearly conveys intent
 Missing ( ) on parameter‐less method or constructor invocations
 Missing ( ) around if or while conditions

*Spelling and case discrepancies for identifiers fall under the “No Penalty” category only if the correction can
be unambiguously inferred from context, for example, “ArayList” instead of “ArrayList”. As a counterexample,
note that if the code declares "int G=99, g=0;", then uses "while (G < 10)" instead of
"while (g < 10)", the context does not allow for the reader to assume the use of the lower case
variable.

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AP® Computer Science A 2022 Scoring Guidelines

Question 2: Class 9 points

Canonical solution

public class Textbook extends Book 9 points

{
private int edition;

public Textbook(String tbTitle, double tbPrice,

int tbEdition)
{
super(tbTitle, tbPrice);
edition = tbEdition;
}

public int getEdition()

{
return edition;
}

public boolean canSubstituteFor(Textbook other)

{
return other.getTitle().equals(getTitle()) &&
edition >= other.getEdition();
}

public String getBookInfo()

{
return super.getBookInfo() + "–" + edition;
}
}

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AP® Computer Science A 2022 Scoring Guidelines
Textbook

Scoring Criteria Decision Rules

1 Declares class header (must not be 1 point
private):
class Textbook extends Book
2 Declares constructor header: 1 point
public Textbook(String ___,
double ___, int ___)
3 Constructor calls super as the first line 1 point
with the appropriate parameters

4 Declares appropriate private instance Responses will not earn the point if they 1 point
variable and uses appropriate parameter to  omit the keyword private
initialize it  declare the variable outside the class, or
in the class within a method or
constructor
 redeclare and use the instance variables
of the superclass
5 Declares at least one required method and Responses will not earn the point if they 1 point
all declared headers are correct:  exclude public
public boolean
canSubstituteFor(Textbook ___)
public int getEdition()
public String getBookInfo()
6 getEdition returns value of instance Responses will not earn the point if they 1 point
variable  fail to create an instance variable for the
edition
7 canSubstituteFor determines Responses can still earn the point even if 1 point
whether true or false should be they
returned based on comparison of book  fail to return (return is not assessed for
titles and editions (algorithm) this method)
 access the edition without calling
getEdition
 redeclare and use the title variable
of the superclass instead of calling
getTitle

Responses will not earn the point if they

 fail to use equals
 call getTitle incorrectly in either
case
8 getBookInfo calls Responses can still earn the point even if 1 point
super.getBookInfo they
 redeclare and use the instance variables
of the superclass

Responses will not earn the point if they

 include parameters

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AP® Computer Science A 2022 Scoring Guidelines
9 Constructs information string Responses can still earn the point even if 1 point
they
 call super.getBookInfo
incorrectly
 fail to call super.getBookInfo
and access title and price
directly
 fail to return (return is not assessed for
this method)

Responses will not earn the point if they

 omit the literal hyphen(s) in the
constructed string
 omit the edition in the constructed
string
 concatenate strings incorrectly

Question‐specific penalties
None

Total for question 2 9 points

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AP® Computer Science A 2022 Scoring Commentary

Question 2

Note: Student samples are quoted verbatim and may contain spelling and grammatical errors.

Overview

This question tested the student’s ability to:

• Write program code to define a new type by creating a class.

• Write program code to call methods.
• Write program code to satisfy method specifications using expressions and conditional
statements.

Students were given a class, Book, and asked to design a subclass called Textbook. The Book
class contained the title and the price of the book and accessor methods for this information. In
implementing a solution, students were expected to demonstrate an understanding of class constructor
and method header syntax. Students were expected to properly declare and initialize a new private
instance variable to maintain the edition number. Further, students had to recognize that the title
and price variables in the Book class were private and could not be accessed directly by the
code. Students had to utilize the mechanisms of inheritance to initialize and access these variables by
way of a super constructor call from the Textbook class to the Book class.

The specification for the Textbook class required two new methods be added: getEdition to
return the edition of the textbook and canSubstituteFor to check if the textbook could be
substituted for a given textbook. In the canSubstituteFor method, students were expected to
compare the titles of two Textbook objects via the equals method of the String class. Students
were also expected to use arithmetic relational operators and combine the results of multiple
comparisons via Boolean logic or conditional statements.

Additionally, students were required to override the getBookInfo method by calling the superclass
method, and to demonstrate the ability to construct a String containing multiple pieces of
information.

Sample: 2A
Score: 8

Point 1 was earned for the correct class header, public class Textbook extends Book, which
satisfies the requirement that Textbook be a subclass of Book. Point 2 was earned because the
response contains a proper constructor header with three parameters of type String, double, and
int, in that order, conforming to the requirements of the sample code. Point 3 was earned because the
first line of the constructor is a call to the superclass constructor, and the arguments to that call are the
first and second parameters of the constructor, ti and pr. The design uses inheritance by utilizing
the constructor of the superclass to deal with book title and price information. Point 4 was earned
because there is a single private int instance variable (edition), used to store the edition
number and initialized with the value of an int parameter of the constructor (ed). Point 5 was
earned because the response properly declares headers for the listed methods canSubstituteFor,
getEdition, and getBookInfo, each with public access modifier and appropriate return type
and parameter list, conforming to the sample code and corresponding results in the prompt. Point 6

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AP® Computer Science A 2022 Scoring Commentary

Question 2 (continued)

was earned because the getEdition method returns the value of the instance variable edition.
Point 7 was not earned because the response only checks for equal edition numbers, not edition
numbers that are greater than or equal to those of the other book, as required in the specification. The
response does correctly compare the titles of the two Textbook objects using equals, and it does
use && to combine the title comparison and the edition number comparison, but the incorrect
comparison of editions caused this point to not be earned. Point 8 was earned because the overridden
getBookInfo method properly calls super.getBookInfo, utilizing the inheritance design to get
an appropriate String. Note that there is no accessor method for price information in the Book
class, so it is necessary to call the getBookInfo method in order to obtain the String that
contains title and price information, separated by a hyphen. Point 9 was earned because the response
concatenates the results of the super.getBookInfo method call with the edition number and
inserts a hyphen ("-") between them.

Sample: 2B
Score: 6

Point 1 was earned for the correct class header declaration, including the inheritance from class Book.
Point 2 was earned because the constructor header is properly declared, with three parameters of type
String, double, and int, in that order. Point 3 was earned because the first line of the constructor
is a call to the constructor of the superclass (super), and the arguments to that call are the first and
second parameters of the constructor (ti and pr). Even though additional variables named t and
p are declared and used for title and price information in other methods, point 3 only assesses the call
to the superclass constructor. Point 4 was not earned because there are instance variables created to
store the title and price, and those variables are used elsewhere in the class. This violates the class
inheritance aspect of the design. Although an instance variable is declared and initialized with the
parameter value for the edition, this point is about the declaration and initialization of only appropriate
instance variables that are needed in this subclass. Point 5 was earned because the response properly
declares headers for the listed methods canSubstituteFor, getEdition, and getBookInfo,
each with public access modifier and appropriate return type and parameter list. Point 6 was earned
because the getEdition method returns the value of the instance variable e. Point 7 was not
earned because the response calls an equals method on the int value returned by getEdition
to compare the editions. This is an error for two reasons: it is not valid to call equals (or any other
method) on an int, and the comparison required in the problem is for greater than or equal, not exact
equality. The response uses the instance variable t of the Textbook class, which it accesses as
this.t (equivalent in this situation to t by itself), instead of calling getTitle. Because there is
an accessible instance variable t, this is a valid access of a String that might hold a title. Even
though that variable does not hold the correct information (and violates the inheritance design), that
error was assessed elsewhere, and point 7 could have been earned if the method were otherwise
correct. Point 8 was not earned because the overridden getBookInfo method does not call
super.getBookInfo to get the title and price portion of the desired String. Point 9 was earned
because the response concatenates a String, a double, and an int, with hyphens separating
them. Although the variables t and p do not have values associated with them, t is a String
and p is a double, indicating which is intended to contain title information and which is intended
to contain price information. This point is about creating a String in a specified format out of
multiple pieces of information, independent of the method and class designs.
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AP® Computer Science A 2022 Scoring Commentary

Question 2 (continued)

Sample: 2C
Score: 2

Point 1 was earned for the correct class header declaration, including the inheritance from class Book.
Point 2 was not earned because there is no constructor and no constructor header. Point 3 was not
earned because there is no call to a superclass constructor. Point 4 was not earned because there is no
initialization of an instance variable to contain the edition number, which should be initialized with
information from the (missing) constructor. Part of any class design involves specifying how objects of
the class are to be constructed, and an entirely omitted constructor will, in general, lose all points
related to the constructor and initialization of instance variables. Point 5 was not earned because the
parameter type in the canSubstituteFor header is a String. The method is intended to compare
this object with another Textbook object, and not just a title String, so the method’s parameter
must be a Textbook. Even though the getBookInfo method has a proper header, all declared
headers must be correct in order to earn this point. Point 6 was not earned because there is no method
that returns the edition. Point 7 was not earned for multiple reasons. First, the comparisons are
incorrect, in both the extraction of substrings (which are not useful for this algorithm and may also
cause out-of-bounds errors due to the use of title.length() - 4) and in the use of == to
perform the String comparison. Second, the response directly accesses the private instance
variable title from the superclass without calling the getTitle method. If title had been
declared as an instance variable in the Textbook class, accessing title directly would not be
considered a problem for this point, and point 7 could have been earned if the method were otherwise
correct. Point 8 was not earned because the overridden getBookInfo method does not call
super.getBookInfo as required in an inheritance-based design. Point 9 was earned because the
response concatenates a String, a double, and an int, with separators between them. The
variables title and price are private in the superclass, so this method would not be able to
access them, but improper access is not assessed in this point. This point is about creating a String
in a specified format out of multiple pieces of information, independent of the method and class
designs.

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