AP CSA 1.14 FRQ Practice: Reading a Record

Unit 1: Using Objects and Methods · Lesson 1.14 · FRQ Practice

Reading a Record

A free response question in the shape the exam uses: a stated contract, four rubric parts, and no main method handed to you. Worth 4 points.

Back to the Lesson 1.14 pageAll Unit 1 lessons

Why this question is worth four points

An instance method is called ON an object and usually answers a question about that particular object. The exam grades whether you called it on the right one: two objects of the same type accept the same calls, and asking the wrong object is a mistake that compiles cleanly and gives a plausible wrong answer.

What you are given

Two String variables are declared and assigned for you: title and author.

The question

  1. (a) Print the first character of title.
  2. (b) Print the number of characters in author.
  3. (c) Print the last character of author.
  4. (d) Print title in lower case.

What the reader is looking for

  1. Write a code segment that prints four lines in rubric order.
  2. Watch which object each part asks. Parts (a) and (d) are about title; parts (b) and (c) are about author.
  3. The last character sits at index length() - 1, because indexes start at 0.

Worked examples

These show what a correct answer prints. There are more cases you cannot see, and they use different values, so an answer built around just these numbers will fail.

Example 1 is given
String title = "Dune";
String author = "Herbert";
Example 1 output
D
7
t
dune
Example 2 is given
String title = "It";
String author = "King";
Example 2 output
I
4
g
it

Your answer

Main.java

Input for the Run button

How this is scored: your answer runs against every test case, and the fraction it passes becomes your score out of 4. That is not how a human AP reader marks a rubric, so treat the score as a check on whether your code works, and the rubric above as the thing you are actually practising.


  

  
Stuck?

    
Hint 1
charAt(0) is the first character, not charAt(1). Indexes start at zero, so the last one is length() - 1.

    
Hint 2
Read each part again and check which variable it names. title.length() compiles perfectly and answers a question nobody asked.

    
Hint 3
toLowerCase returns a new String rather than changing title. Print what it returns.



  
Before you submit

  
2 mistake(s) that lose points on this question
    
Each of these is a real error the grader catches. Check your answer against them before you submit, not instead of trying.

    
    
      
  • part (a) treats the first character as index 1
    • 
      
  • part (b) asks the wrong object for its length
    • 
    

  


  
Where to go next

  

    Rework the Lesson 1.14 page
    Try the from-scratch exercise for this lesson
    Try the debugging exercise for this lesson
  


  
  






  

















  
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