Choosing Your Project

On this page, you will read over the Create Task guidelines and decide on a project that will help you meet them.

The most important thing you can do to get a high score on the Create Task is to follow the instructions from the College Board exactly. At school, your teacher may give you credit for an especially creative idea, working very well with your partner, spending extra hours on your project, making a very polished video, or writing a longer or better written paper; but in order to make the grading process as fair as possible for students across the country, the College Board graders will not give you credit for any of that. They will only grade your work against the rubric, and if you don't follow the rubric precisely, you will lose points. The Practice Create Task is a chance for you to try to meet the Create Task requirements and then discuss with your teacher and classmates how well you've succeeded. (On the official Create Task, you will not be able to talk to your teacher or classmates about your work.)
  1. Before you decide what kind of project you want to build, read over the AP CSP guidelines for the Create Task. You'll need to plan a project that will demonstrate all of the things that the graders will be looking for (input/output, using a list, etc.)
  2. Talk with Your PartnerWhat kind of project would you and your partner find interesting to code? Is the project realistic in the amount of time you have? (Remember that on the Create Task you get points for following the rubric, not for making something fancy or complex.) Is the project realistic for the programming skills you have right now? Most importantly, will it allow you to demonstrate everything required by the guidelines for the Create Task?
  3. Write Out Your ThoughtsOnce you have decided on a project, keep track of how you decided. What were you keeping in mind as you decided? What ideas did you discard and why? Who did you consult about your ideas, and what did they say? What made you pick the project you did?
  4. Also write a clear statement describing the purpose of your program. The purpose may be practical (such as storing items in a shopping list), educational (such as a quiz for practicing AP vocabulary), for entertainment (such as a game), etc.