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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Which computer science courses did your high school student take (or is planning to take), and did they skip any in the sequence?

MCPS main CS course tree looks like this
(Academy of IT, P-Tech, and Mobile App add more classes are a few schools.)
(AP is Advanced Placement, AL is Advanced Level, both have +1 GPA weighting)

https://coursebulletin.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/publications/HSCourseBulletin2024.pdf

Intro sequence:
1. Foundations of CS (available in 8th grade)
2. AP CS Principles (lower level AP class OK for 9th graders)

Advanced Level programming sequence
3. AL Programming 1 (C++
4. AP CS A (Java)
5. AL Programming 3 (Data Structures)

There is also a parallel 5-course track in technology/engineering/design (hardware and robots) which has AL courses but not AP credit classes. One might do half of each, or more, using electives.[/quote]

C++ was a way to graft OO on C, a 50+ year old programming language. The fact that it's still so widely used is a testament to its significance but it does seem really dated by today's standards. Maybe they could try something more modern like Rust.[/quote]

Considering the amount of legacy code they're likely to run into at a job, I don't think it's a bad thing. [/quote]

That's right. Facts first. According to a TIOBE Index for October 2023, C++ is right behind Python and C. I can’t stand Python, that’s that. IMO teaching C++ in High School makes little sense, the complexity of this language takes one’s lifetime to master. But C is a different story, “if you think like a computer there is no other language that’s even close” L.Torvalds. And C is simple. I’ll be introducing it to my second grader very soon :-) Good Luck.[/quote]

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