◀ 11.311.4a11.4b ▶

11.4a — MC Strategy + Practice Set 1

70 questions, 120 minutes — about 100 seconds each, no penalty for guessing. Today is not about learning new content; it is about a STRATEGY for a 2-hour sprint, plus your first full-conditions practice set. Read the strategy guide first.

Strategy ~15 min

The three-pass method:

Pass 1 (about 80 min): answer every question you know instantly. Flag the rest — NO lingering. A skipped question costs ~100 seconds; a lingered one costs 300 and steals the same points from later questions
Pass 2 (about 30 min): the flagged ones you can eliminate on. Wrong answers have TELLS — read them before solving
Pass 3 (about 10 min): what remains. Answer EVERYTHING. No penalty = guessing is free points; an empty bubble is the only wrong choice

Wrong-answer tells you already know from this class:

Off-by-one options (loop runs n vs n-1 times — the exam builds distractors from off-by-one mistakes)
"Always/never" absolutes (rarely true — the world runs on tradeoffs, 9.3)
Right answer with wrong REASON (two options say "10"; only one says why) — the "why" options test whether you traced the code or guessed the number
Binary/hex conversion options with transposed digits (9.2's 0x1F vs 0xF1 — they KNEW that was your error)

Socratic

The MC section includes some questions about "innovations' impacts" (IOC-1) with no code in them. Where does the time you save by bubbling fast on tracing questions go — and why is a 100-second average a LIE (some questions need 30s, some need 180)?

Your answer

Practice Set 115 questions, 15 min

15 questions in 15 minutes. Mixed across the ten CED families. Answer every question — there is no penalty for guessing, and a blank scores like a wrong one. When the timer stops, press Grade this set for your scorecard and the family error table.

1. A newspaper reports that "62% of Americans support the new policy," based on a survey of 1,000 people recruited through one website's opt-in poll. What is the most significant limitation of this conclusion?DAT-2

AThe sample of 1,000 is too small to compute a percentageBThe respondents were self-selected from one site's audience, so they may not represent the country — the sample is not representativeCPercentages require a sample of at least 10,000DThe survey should have asked more questions

2. What is displayed after this code runs?AAP-1

a ← 5
b ← 2
result ← a / b
DISPLAY(result)

A2B2.5C3D"2 remainder 1"

3. What is the value of result?AAP-2

result ← MOD(17, 5)

A2B3C3.4D12

4. Two procedures are written. Which statement best explains why double is preferred over doubleFive?AAP-3

PROCEDURE doubleFive()
{
    RETURN 5 * 2
}

PROCEDURE double(n)
{
    RETURN n * 2
}

Adouble runs faster because it has fewer linesBdouble can be reused for any number, so the doubling logic exists in only one placeCdoubleFive is invalid syntax because it has no parametersDdouble uses more memory because it must store n

5. How many times does the body of the loop run?AAP-2

count ← 0
REPEAT UNTIL (count = 6)
{
    count ← count + 2
}

A2B3C6DAn infinite number of times

6. A list holds the values shown. What does the code display?AAP-2

aList ← [10, 20, 30]
REMOVE(aList, 1)
DISPLAY(aList)

A[20, 30]B[10, 20]C[20, 30, 10]D[30]

7. A user complains that a video call stutters and freezes even though their internet plan advertises very high download speed. Their speed test confirms the high number. Which explanation best fits?CSN-1

AThe plan's advertised bandwidth is false advertisingBHigh bandwidth per second does not guarantee low latency, and a video call needs packets to arrive promptlyCVideo calls are downloaded, not streamed, so bandwidth is irrelevantDThe router needs to be replaced because bandwidth degrades over time

8. A large website stores identical copies of every page on servers in three different regions, and DNS can return any of them. What does this design primarily provide?CSN-1

AEncryption of the pages in transitBFault tolerance — if one region fails, requests can be served elsewhereCFaster compression of the page contentsDProtection against phishing attacks

9. A program must assign a unique ID to each of 40 students. What is the minimum number of bits required per ID?DAT-1

A5B6C40D7

10. A photographer must choose a format for a portfolio that will be printed at full size. Which statement about the two formats is accurate?DAT-1

AJPEG is lossless; PNG is lossyBJPEG is lossy and discards some detail permanently; PNG is lossless and restores the original exactlyCBoth are lossless; they differ only in file extensionDBoth are lossy, but PNG loses less detail

11. A photo taken on a phone includes the date, time, GPS coordinates, and camera model even though none of that is visible in the image. What is this information called?DAT-2

AMetadataBA lossy artifactCA bit patternDAn abstraction

12. A neighborhood association uses a mapping tool to record potholes. Residents submit photos with location data. A researcher then uses the map to report which neighborhoods receive the slowest repairs. Which concern is most directly raised?IOC-1

AThe pothole photos may be compressed lossilyBThe submitted data may under-represent neighborhoods where residents lack smartphones or time to reportCThe mapping tool may use more bandwidth than the network can supportDThe photos may contain personally identifiable information about the potholes

13. Which of the following is the clearest example of personally identifiable information (PII)?IOC-1

AThe average temperature recorded by a weather stationBA student's full name together with their home addressCThe number of users who visited a website yesterdayDA list of the most common first names in a country

14. A message claims to be from a bank and asks the recipient to click a link and "confirm your account password because of a security update." A second message spreads itself to every contact in a victim's address book without the victim's knowledge. Which terms best describe the two?IOC-1

ABoth are phishingBThe first is phishing (social engineering); the second is malware (a virus or worm)CThe first is a DDoS attack; the second is phishingDBoth are DDoS attacks

15. A student finds a JavaScript function on a public code-sharing site and uses it in a school project, changing variable names. What is the correct approach under the College Board's collaboration and citation rules?CRD-1

ANo action is needed because the code was publicBNo action is needed because the variable names were changedCThe student must cite the source, because reusing code without attribution is plagiarism regardless of whether it was publicly availableDThe student must rewrite the function from scratch, because using any outside code is prohibited

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Error Table & Debrief ~15 min

The scorecard matters more than the score. Grading gives you the raw numbers automatically; the work is what you do with them. Copy the scorecard's family table into your error table and add the two columns the machine cannot see — your time (instant / eliminator / guess) and the misconception sentence for every miss. Which FAMILY bleeds points decides your homework, and the next two classes target it (11.4b data and networks, 11.4c algorithms and systems).

Checkpoint — before moving on, you must be able to:

Explain the three-pass method and the 100-second average's lie
Name three wrong-answer tells and spot them in Set 1
Show your error table with families and times
Have a study plan targeting your weakest family

Reference Docs

Need a deeper explanation? These pages cover the same concepts:

MC Strategy — the full guide
Exam Reference Sheet — keep it beside every set
CED Coverage Map — where your weak family lives in this course

Next: 11.4b — MC Practice 2: Data & Networks

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