Preparing for the Create Task

College Board provides handouts for the students and teacher as well as videos for the students and teacher. This page will provide details about the two sections of the AP Exam, an overview of the resources available, and an outline to introduce them.

Exam Information and Important Dates:

Create Performance Task and Written Response
30% of score
• Create performance task program code, video, and Personalized Project Reference | 9 hours in-class
• 2 written response questions | 60-minute end-of-course exam

Wednesday, April 30, 2025 the Create Task must be uploaded to the digital portfolio by this date. It is suggested that you give a one or two week buffer for this due date. There are always technical issues, students are absent, or some of the documentation gets lost. Leave yourself enough time that all components are uploaded at least a week ahead of time. That also gives you enough time to verify that all the work has been submitted using the teacher guide.

End-of-Course Multiple-Choice Exam
70 multiple-choice questions | 120 minutes | 70% of score | 4 answer options
• 57 single-select multiple-choice
• 5 single-select with reading passage about a computing innovation
• 8 multiple-select multiple-choice: select 2 answers

Thursday, May 15, 2025 12:00pm EST is the schedule for the multiple choice part of the exam.

Helpful Links and Suggestions:

1. Before introducing the Create Task to your students, review the 2023-2024 Create Performance Task Updates found in teacher resources. The video is 53 minutes and provides an overview of the updates to the Create Performance Task, including changes to the submission components and the integration of the Personalized Project Reference Sheet.

2. We have compiled all the documents needed into one folder: 

a. Create Task Student Handouts
b. AP CSP Exam Reference Sheet (given to students on exam day)
c. Personalized Project Reference Tip Sheet (screen captures of students’ code, which is given back to the students on exam day)
d. Digital Portfolio Student User Guide (use when Create Task is finished)
e. Digital Portfolio Teacher User Guide (use when Create Task is finished)

You can find all of the resources above on the College Board site here.

3. This College Board page will tell the students about the Create Task. The following four videos are available in AP Classroom in the student resources section:
   • Create Performance Task: Overview
   • Create Performance Task: Guidelines
   • Create Performance Task: Pacing Your Project
   • Create Performance Task: Categories and Questions

4. One of the most helpful resources is viewing the Sample Responses and Scoring Guidelines from the 2024 Exam which is introduced on Day 4.

If you are short on time, you can have students watch the videos listed below as homework. Students can also score the sample student responses for homework instead of taking class time to complete it.

Day 1

Objectives:

• Identify and explain components A, B, and C of the Create Performance Task in AP Computer Science Principles.
• Analyze task requirements

1. Watch the Create Performance Task Overview video (6:39)

2. Distribute the Student Handouts and go over page 1.

3. Go over page 2 of the Student Handouts which describes the submission requirements. To highlight some key points:
   a. Students will develop a program that can solve a problem, enable innovation, explore personal interests, or express creativity.
   b. Students can collaborate with other students.
   c. Students can choose their programming language, but it is recommended that they do not try to learn something new at this time.

4. Go over page 3 of the Students Handouts which describes the requirements of the video submission.

5. Go over page 4 and 5 of the Student Handouts which describes the Personalized Project Reference Sheet. Students will receive this on exam day to answer four written response questions. Students will submit screenshots of their code that contain a procedure and a list. Both have specific requirements so read these two pages carefully with your students. The captured code cannot have any comments or the student receives a 0.

Day 2

Objectives:

• Understand and apply the guidelines for the Create Performance Task.
• Comprehend the Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policy, which includes how to incorporate ideas from other sources, and provide proper attribution to those sources.
• Develop effective strategies for preparation and ethical navigation of the Create Performance Task.

1. Watch the Create Performance Task Guidelines video (11:36). The video provides an explanation of the academic integrity and plagiarism policy and the guidelines for completing the performance task.

2. Go over page 8 and 9 of the Student Handbook which will help the student prepare for the performance task.

3. Watch the Create Performance Task: Categories and Questions video (4:53). Explain to the students that there is a lot of information covered here and they are not expected to understand all of it right now. Tomorrow, they will be given sample responses from students during last year’s exam. They will use a rubric to determine if the student successfully answered the question. They will have practice with this before they begin their Create Task.

Category 1: Program Design, Function, and Purpose

Students should be prepared to respond to prompts about their program that assess any of the following learning objectives:
• CRD-2.A: Describe the purpose of the computing innovation.
• CRD-2.B: Explain how a program or code segment functions.
• CRD-2.C: Identify input(s) to a program.
• CRD-2.D: Identify output(s) produced by a program.
• CRD-2.E: Develop a program using a development process.
• CRD-2.F: Design a program and its user interface.
• CRD-2.G: Describe the purpose of a code segment or program by writing documentation.

Example Prompt: Identify an expected user of your program. Describe one way your program’s design meets the needs of this user.

Category 2: Algorithm Development

Students should be prepared to respond to prompts about their program that assess any of the following learning objectives:
• CRD-2.B: Explain how a program or code segment functions.
• AAP-2.E.b: Evaluate expressions that use relational operators.
• AAP-2.F.b: Evaluate expressions that use logic operators.
• AAP-2.H.b: Determine the result of conditional statements.
• AAP-2.J: Express an algorithm that uses iteration without using a programming language.
• AAP-2.K.b: Determine the result or side effect of iteration statements.
• AAP-2.L: Compare multiple algorithms to determine if they yield the same side effect or result.
• AAP-2.M.a: Create algorithms.
• AAP-2.M.b: Combine and modify existing algorithms.

Example Prompt: Consider the first iteration statement included in the Procedure section of your Personalized Project Reference. Identify the number of times the body of your iteration statement will execute. Describe a condition or error that would cause your iteration statement to not terminate and cause an infinite loop. If no such condition or error exists, explain how the loop could be modified to cause an infinite loop.

Category 3: Errors and Testing

Students should be prepared to respond to prompts about their program that assess any of the following learning objectives:
• CRD-2.I.a: Identify the error.
• CRD-2.I.b: Correct the error.
• CRD-2.J: Identify inputs and corresponding expected outputs or behaviors that can be used to check the correctness of an algorithm or program.

Example Prompt: Consider the procedure included in part (i) of the Procedure section of your Personalized Project Reference. Describe a change to your procedure that will result in a run-time error. Explain why this change will result in a run-time error.

Category 4: Data and Procedural Abstraction

Students should be prepared to respond to prompts about their program that assess any of the following learning objectives:
• AAP-1.D.a: Develop data abstraction using lists to store multiple elements.
• AAP-1.D.b: Explain how the use of data abstraction manages complexity in program code.
• AAP-2.O.a: Write iteration statements to traverse a list.
• AAP-2.O.b: Determine the result of an algorithm that includes list traversals.
• AAP-3.B: Explain how the use of procedural abstraction manages complexity in a program.

Example Prompt: Suppose you are provided with a procedure called isEqual (value1, value2). The procedure returns true if the two parameters value1 and value2 are equal in value and returns false otherwise. Using the list you identified in the List section of your Personalized Project Reference, explain in detailed steps an algorithm that uses isEqual to count the number of times a certain value appears in your list. Your explanation must be detailed enough for someone else to write the program code.

For the 2024 exam, the College Board used two different sets of written response questions. You can view them below:

Written Response Prompts Set 1
Written Response Prompts Set 2

Day 3

Objectives:

• Students will understand the Scoring Guidelines Rubric.

1. Give students a copy of the Scoring Guidelines Rubric found on page 188-191 in the Course and Exam Description Booklet.

2. Watch the Create Performance Task: Scoring Guidelines and Sample Written Response Answers (19:46). The video provides a walkthrough of the Scoring Guidelines for the Written Response section of the Create Performance Task. Sample answers to the written response prompts provided in the AP CSP Course and Exam Description will be shown, and commentary on how these samples might be scored at the AP Reading will be given. The first six minutes and 18 seconds is a repeat of the Categories and Questions video from Day 2.

Here is a list of the verbs discussed in the video:

• Capture: Select a portion of program code that addresses the prompt(s).
• Demonstrate: Provide sufficient evidence for an answer or point being made.
• Describe: Provide the relevant features or characteristics of what the program code represents or is being used to accomplish.
• Design: Develop a plan for how to accomplish the program specification or requirements.
• Explain: Provide information about how or why a relationship, situation, or outcome occurs, listing detailed steps of the algorithm or using evidence and/ or reasoning.
• Identify: Provide a name for the specific topic, without elaboration or explanation.
• Implement/Write: Recognize and use proper syntax to execute the program design.

College Board offers two more videos on how to answer the written response questions.

3. Show the Practice Session 5: Create Performance Task video (12:14). This video will focus on the video, the Personalized Reference Sheet, and Written Response 1. You could assign this video and the next one as homework so the students are ready tomorrow to score a few sample projects.

4. Show the Practice Session 6: Create Performance Task video (14:37). This video will focus on sample written response prompts and sample responses. They are for demonstration only and not actual student responses.

Day 4

Objectives:

• Students will score student written responses from the previous year.

To plan for this day requires prep time. Visit the College Board Past Exam Questions and Student Samples page. You will find the following links on the page. Here we will discuss how to use them.

• Free Response Questions, Set 1 – you do not need to print this for the students. You can download this file and share with students in Drive or other shared drive. The students only need to see page 2 and 3 which contains the prompts. It contains the questions for Written Response 1 and Written Response 2a, 2b, and 2c.

• Scoring Guidelines, Set 1 – you will need to provide a copy of this document to the students. It is very similar to the scoring guidelines found in CED. However, this document is specific to the prompts in Set 1. The file can be electronic or paper. Electronic saves trees, but paper allows students to write notes or circle if they believe the student should or should not receive a point for the answer.

• Commentary and Samples, Question 1, Set 1 – Download this zipped folder. It contains six student sample videos, program code, and personalized project reference sheets. Students will need to see these files in order to score the samples. The first document in the folder is the scoring commentary. The first few pages contain the scoring guidelines which is the same document above. Students will need access to page 5-10 which is the student written response to question 1. DO NOT share pages 11-17 yet. This contains information on how the judges scored the sample. In general, sample A always receives full credit and sample F does not receive any credit. The six examples are listed from the most points to the least points. After students have scored the projects themselves, then you can share the commentary and go over the judges’ comments.

• Scoring Guidelines, Set 2 – you will need to provide a copy of this document to the students. It is very similar to the scoring guidelines found in CED. However, this document is specific to the prompts in Question 2. The file can be electronic or paper. Providing the documents electronically saves trees, but paper allows students to write notes or circle if they believe the student should or should not receive a point for the answer.

• Commentary and Samples, Question 2, Set 1 – Download this zipped folder. These examples do not follow the six examples from above. This zipped file contains six different videos, program code, and personalized project reference sheets. Students will need page 2-4 which is the scoring rubric and pages 6-15 which are the Written Response 2 answers for samples A-F. DO NOT share pages 17-22 yet. After students have scored the projects themselves, then you can share the commentary and go over the judges’ comments.

• Chief Reader Report Set 1, Questions 1 and 2 – This is a great resource for students and teachers. It tells how many students took the 2024 exam last year and the number who scored 1-5. The readers also share common student misconceptions or gaps in knowledge that were evident in the responses. You can go over this with the students so they do not make the same mistakes.

1.     You have now provided the Free Response Question 1, the Scoring Guidelines, and the six students samples A-F which includes a video, the program code, and the personalized reference sheet. Let students score the six samples.

Day 5

Objectives:

• Understand the judge’s commentary and scoring process.

1. Share the judge’s commentary and go over each project to discuss where points were not given.

2. Provide students with the scoring guidelines, videos, program code, and personalized project reference sheets for written response 2.

Students will be reading 18 responses (six projects with three questions each). This assignment can be started on Day 5, but students will probably not finish until the end of Day 6.

Day 6

Objectives:

• Continue scoring Set 1 Written Response 2.

1. Students continue scoring Set 1 Written Response 2.

Day 7

Objectives:

• Understand the judge’s commentary and scoring process for Set 2.

1. Share the judge’s commentary and go over each project to discuss where points were not given.

You have two options:

Option 1 – Provide the samples for Set 2 and go over the judge’s commentary. This would take one or two more days.

Option 2 – Students start brainstorming and planning their own project.

The following example for the lesson plan continues with Option 2.

Day 8 - 12

Objectives:

• Develop and complete the Create Task project.

1. Starting with Day 8, you will provide 9 hours of in-class time to create the project, record a video, and capture the code for the personalized reference project sheet. Students are allowed to work on the Create Task outside the classroom.

For simplicity, one day = one hour.

Day 13

Objectives:

• Review video requirements and continue working on the Create Task.

1. Some students will be finished with their Create Task and ready to record the video. Others will continue to work on the Create Task. Either way, all students should review the video requirements.

2. Review Component B on page 3 of the Student Handout.

3. Students begin recording or finish the Create Task.

Day 14

Objectives:

• Continue recording videos and completing the Create Task.

1. Continuation of Day 13.

Day 15

Objectives:

• Capture code for the Personalized Project Reference Tip Sheet.

1. Some students will be ready for the code captures.

2. Provide a copy of the Personalized Project Reference Tip Sheet to the students. Review examples of what good screen captures look like.

3. Review Component A on page 2 of the Student Handout and have students capture all of their program and save it as a pdf.

4. Review Component C on page 4 and 5 of the Student Handout and have students capture the procedure and list that they created and save it as a pdf.

Day 16

Objectives:

• Complete the Create Task.

1. All students finish the Create Task.

Day 17

Objectives:

• Submit the Create Task to the AP Digital Portfolio.

1. Review the AP Digital Portfolio: Teacher User Guide beforehand.

2. Provide a copy of the AP Digital Portfolio: Student User Guide for the students. Students will follow the directions to submit the video, the program code, and their personalized reference sheet to College Board.

Give yourself a day or two to log into College Board to ensure that each student has uploaded Components A-C following the submission guidelines.

Resources

• All documents are located in this folder. Individual documents are listed below.

• The above resources can be found on this College Board page.

• This College Board page introduces students to the Create Task.

• Sample Responses and Scoring Guidelines from the 2024 Exam.

• Student Handouts

• Written Response Prompts Set 1

• Written Response Prompts Set 2

• Course and exam Description Booklet

• Personalized Project Reference Tip Sheet

• AP Digital Portfolio Teacher User Guide

• AP Digital Portfolio Student User Guide