Obscure Facts About Mobile App Exam | Generated by AI
Question: What is some unpopular or lesser-known knowledge about the Chinese National Self-Study Higher Education Examination course “Mobile Application Development Technology” (Course Code: 14567)?
Answer:
Here are several pieces of unpopular/insider knowledge about this specific self-study exam course (14567) that most candidates (and even some tutors) overlook or discover only after failing once:
- The course is heavily outdated and still stuck in pre-2018 Android practices
Despite the 2020 textbook, the official exam blueprint and question bank have barely changed since ~2016–2017. Expect heavy emphasis on deprecated APIs:- AsyncTask (officially deprecated in API 30) is still the primary way to teach/handle background tasks.
- HttpURLConnection or raw Volley instead of Retrofit/OkHttp (Retrofit rarely appears).
- ListView + BaseAdapter instead of RecyclerView (RecyclerView questions exist but are minority).
- findViewById() without View Binding or ButterKnife (Data Binding is almost never tested).
Candidates who study modern Android (Kotlin, Jetpack, Coroutines) often over-engineer answers and lose points for “non-standard” solutions.
-
The practical exam is NOT done on your own computer
Unlike most people assume, the on-site practical portion (40% of score) uses a locked-down Windows XP/7 virtual machine with Android Studio 2.x or 3.x pre-installed. No internet, no Gradle sync, no external libraries except the few bundled ones. You must write everything from scratch (no copying your project templates). Many candidates fail because they rely on modern Gradle dependencies that simply don’t exist in the exam environment. -
Kotlin is virtually irrelevant for this exam
Even in 2025–2026 sessions, <3% of questions mention Kotlin. The textbook and all past papers are 100% Java-based. Writing answers in Kotlin can actually get marked down because examiners (often older teachers) literally can’t read it properly. - The “theory + practice” credit split is a trap in many provinces
Officially 4–6 credits, but in provinces like Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangsu it’s split into two separate course codes:- 14567 (theory only, 4 credits)
- 14568 or 14569 (practice only, 2 credits)
If you only register for 14567 you get zero practice credits and may not graduate on time. This is not written clearly anywhere on the national site and trips up thousands every year.
- The passing rate for first-time takers is abysmal (~18–25%)
Much lower than popular courses like “Java Language Programming” (~55%). Main reasons:- Practical exam questions are deliberately tricky (e.g., implement a custom ListView with checkbox + delete swipe + database persistence in 2.5 hours).
- Theory exam loves obscure details such as the exact order of Activity lifecycle callbacks when pressing Home vs Back vs screen rotation with configChanges.
-
There is a hidden “recommended question bank” that is 95% accurate
The book 《移动应用开发技术14567自考通》 (published by Peking University Press or China Machine Press, red cover) contains almost the exact practical questions rotated every 2–3 years. Buying and memorizing the 10 sample projects in that book virtually guarantees passing the practical part. -
Fragment questions are disproportionately difficult
Despite being only ~8% of teaching hours, Fragments (especially dynamic FragmentTransaction + BackStack management) account for ~25% of practical exam failures. The classic killer question: “Use only code (no XML) to replace Fragment A with B, add to back stack, and pop back to A when user presses a button in B.” - You can use the old course code 08132 instead (much easier)
In some provinces (e.g., Shandong, Hebei, Henan until 2026), the predecessor course “Android Mobile Application Development” (old code 08132) is still available as an alternative. Its content stops at Android 6.0, uses Eclipse (!), and has a passing rate above 60%. Many savvy candidates deliberately choose the obsolete one to graduate faster.
In short: treat 14567 as a 2016-era Java certification disguised as modern Android development. Study exactly what the old textbook and red question-bank book say, practice on an old Android Studio 3.6 installation without internet, and you’ll pass easily. Follow Google’s current best practices and you’ll probably fail.