UMGC CMIS 242: Intermediate Programming
CMIS 242 is UMGC's object-oriented Java course: classes, inheritance, polymorphism, exceptions, generics, and graphical interfaces, assessed through weekly programming projects. It follows the introductory Java course and is where programs stop being scripts and start being designed.
Fennie is independent and not affiliated with University of Maryland Global Campus. This is an unofficial study guide.
What makes it hard
The conceptual jump from writing procedural code to designing class hierarchies is the wall: inheritance and polymorphism demand a different way of thinking, and the projects grade design and documentation, not just output. Falling one project behind in an 8-week session means learning two abstractions at once.
What you'll cover
- • Classes and objects
- • Inheritance and polymorphism
- • Exception handling
- • Generics and collections
- • GUI programming
- • File I/O
The CMIS 242 study guide
How to study for UMGC CMIS 242, step by step.
- 1
Re-warm your Java before the session starts
CMIS 242 assumes the introductory course's material is fluent, not familiar. A weekend rewriting a few old programs pays for itself in week 1, especially if your last Java course was sessions ago.
- 2
Diagram the classes before coding each project
Sketch what each class knows and does, and how they relate, before opening the IDE. Most intermediate-Java struggles are design problems that no amount of syntax fixes.
- 3
Give inheritance and polymorphism the heavy week
These are the concepts with no procedural equivalent and the hinge of every later project. Work extra examples the week they arrive; confusion here compounds through the rest of the session.
- 4
Start each project the day it opens
Weekly projects with GUIs and file I/O always surface surprises. An early start turns a Sunday crisis into a Tuesday question you can actually get answered.
Today
Today's CMIS 242 plan
What a Fennie Daily Plan looks like for CMIS 242. Yours is built from your own syllabus and adapts every day to your deadlines and progress.
First plan free, no card required. Fennie is independent and unaffiliated with your school.
FAQ
Is UMGC CMIS 242 hard?
It's a real step up from introductory programming. Object-oriented design is a new way of thinking, not just new syntax. Students who diagram before coding and keep pace with the weekly projects manage it well.
What do you build in CMIS 242?
Weekly Java programming projects of increasing complexity: class hierarchies with inheritance, exception handling, generics, file I/O, and graphical interfaces. Design quality and documentation are graded alongside correctness.
What comes after CMIS 242?
It's the prerequisite for UMGC's upper-level programming and data-structures work and for much of the software development track. The OOP foundation here is assumed cold in everything that follows.
More UMGC courses
CMIS 102: Introduction to Problem Solving and Algorithm Design
CMIS 102 is UMGC's entry point to programming, teaching problem decomposition, algorithm design, and basic coding in Python. It's the prerequisite gateway for the computer science and software development paths, and weekly work centers on small programming exercises that build from sequential logic to functions and loops.
CMIS 111: Social Networking and Cybersecurity Best Practices
CMIS 111 is a hands-on survey of social networking platforms and personal cybersecurity: how to use professional and personal networks while protecting yourself from common attacks. It's a popular general-education technology elective with projects built around real accounts and security tools rather than exams.
CMSC 115: Introductory Programming
CMSC 115 is the first programming course in UMGC's computer science major, teaching Java fundamentals (variables, control flow, methods, and arrays) through hands-on projects with professional tools. It's the gateway to the CMSC sequence and moves at a brisker, more engineering-minded pace than the CMIS introductory track.
CMIS 320: Relational Database Concepts
CMIS 320 covers relational database theory and practice: the relational model, entity-relationship modeling, normalization, and SQL. Projects walk you from a business scenario to a normalized design to an implemented, queried database, the full design-to-SQL arc in one 8-week session.