Advising Information

Computer Science Placement Exam Details

Placement Exam Information

The Computer Science (CS) placement exam should be taken by students wishing to skip CSCI 1320 (CS1) and enter the CS sequence with CSCI 1321 (CS2), who do NOT have credit for CSCI 1320 through course equivalency, credit by examination, or transfer credit.

Students with no prior CS experience should begin in CSCI 1320, and students with experience demonstrated through credit for CSCI 1320 (e.g. with AP-CS-A or IB exams) should begin in CSCI 1321. Students with prior experience, but without a qualifying credit exam may choose to begin in CSCI 1320, recognizing that many topics may be a review; or these students may choose to take the placement exam. If the placement exam is passed, then these students may begin in CSCI 1321.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the first course in Computer Science that I should take?
   Students with no prior CS or programming experience should start in CSCI 1320 (Principles of Computer Science I). However, students with computer science AP (or IB) exam credit, or with extensive background may be able to skip CSCI 1320 and begin in CSCI 1321 (Principles of Computer Science II).
2. Who should take the CS placement exam?
   Students with a score of at least 4 on the Advanced Placement (AP) Exam - Computer Science A, or credit for the International Baccalaureate Computer Science Exam, will receive "credit by exam" for CSCI 1320 and automatically fulfill the pre-requisite for CSCI 1321. Other students (including those that took the AP Exam - Computer Science Principles) that wish to place directly into CSCI 1321 will need to take the CS placement exam for us to determine the most appropriate entry point into the curriculum.
3. What is covered by the CS placement exam?
   The CS placement exam is focused on "core" programming and problem solving concepts, including variables, functions, loops, conditionals, searching, and sorting. There are several coding questions of increasing difficulty in order to gauge a student's preparation level.
4. What programming language does the CS placement exam use?
   The CS placement exam is administered online using the HackerRank platform. Students are free to use any programming language supported by the platform (nearly all mainstream languages are supported). We are more interested in the problem solving and critical thinking skills involved in the exam, rather than specific language syntax.
5. What does it take to "pass" the CS placement exam?
   In order to place into CSCI 1321 and "pass" the placement exam, it may not be necessary to fully complete all assigned questions. Some placement exam questions are more challenging than others, and you may not complete them all within the allotted time. This is fine. Our goal is to determine whether you are comfortable with core programming and logic concepts.
6. When do I find out the results of my exam?
   Exams will be reviewed periodically throughout the summer (roughly every 2 weeks or so) and the results will be available on the course Canvas page in the "Grades" section on the left. Grades are provided purely as pass/fail.
7. What should I do if I have any problems?
   Contact me (Dr. Hibbs) by email (mhibbs[at]trinity.edu) and I'll get back to you when I can (which may not be for several days over the summer).