Declaring variables or constants at the start of a class

Question

Hi, I have a question. I am in an introductory java course and my instructor says that anything that is declared outside of a method (ie. very beginning of a class) must be a final constant.
She says that I must use
public static final int EXAMPLE_CONSTANT;
and that it can not be changed (I know this, it is declared as a constant)
What I do not understand, is she says that I could not do say
int ExampleVariable;
in any way outside of a method because the methods would not be able to access it.
Is this true? I have made programs before with declarations like that just at the beginning of a class, and they have worked fine and I have been able to change the variable and access it inside my methods. Why does she say that will not work and that it can only be a constant? Can someone explain to me, is it maybe bad practice?

Answer 1

I will make an example of what we are doing and and what she says I can not do.
This is what we start with:public class OddCount{
     public static final int MAX_ODD=21;
     public static void main(String[] args){
          outputOdds();
          MAX_ODD=11; // I realize this does not work
          outputOdds();
     public static void outputOdds(){
          for(int i=1;i<=MAX_ODD;i+=2){
               System.out.print(i+" ");
}Obviously we can not assign the value of 11 to MAX_ODD because it is a constant and already initialized. This is what she wanted us to realize. That's all fine and I understand that.
My question is obviously "Why don't we just make a variable instead of a constant and use that in the same place? Replace 'public static final int' with just 'public static int'. "
Her answer is that it is not possible because we would not be able to use the variable within the method, she said because it would be "outside of the scope of the variable."
She has me very confused haha, mainly because I tried what I proposed and it works but she says it will not.