Computer Science - Hands-On Element

Prepare with Quality Practice Materials for the UIL Computer Science Contest

UIL Computer Science Hands-On Element - The First Steps is intended to get contestants prepared to participate in the programming portion of the contest. Starting with proper equipment and software for set up, numerous programming practice examples are given, as well as strategies for scoring high in the contest.

(Already purchased this product? Download these solutions files to use with your book!)

There are two goals for the Hands-On Element guide. The first goal is to get teams prepared to participate. That is, how to show up at a contest with the proper equipment and software and to provide basic knowledge of how the contest will be run as well as what to expect and how to deal with it. The second goal is to provide teams with enough programming examples to successfully code the easier two or three problems in the problem set.

While it may not seem to be very competitive to solve only two or three problems in a twelve-problem set, consider the statistics presented in this table from 2015 UIL Computer Science district contests.

Given that one half of a team’s score comes from the top three individual scores on the written portion of the test and that each of those scores could be as high as 240 points, it becomes very clear that successfully completing just a few of the programs can lead to great success at the District level.

Of course, to be competitive at the Region and State level, teams will have to score many more than 270 points. We will leave that level of expertise for another guide. This guide is all about getting off to a good start.

Get all three Computer Science Concept books for less!

LOOKING FOR A BULK DISCOUNT? GET 5 or MORE for ONLY $55 each!