The Stacks
UNIT 3 · 10–18% OF THE EXAM · 9 TOPICS

Class Creation

Writing your own classes: instance variables, constructors, methods, static members, scope, and this. FRQ 2 (Class Design) asks you to write an entire class from a description — every topic here is a rubric point.

What the College Board expects you to walk away understanding

  • A class bundles data (private instance variables) with the methods that operate on it; encapsulation hides the data behind public methods.
  • Constructors initialize objects; methods take parameters, may return values, and can modify objects passed by reference.
  • Static members belong to the class rather than any object; scope determines which variables are visible where.
  • Program design choices have impact on people, including privacy and accessibility.

Topics in this Unit

Night-before review

Every key term and exam tip from this unit on one printable page.

□Unit 3 cheat sheetprint