Computer Science(9618)

Aims

The aims of this course are to enable students to develop:

• computational thinking skills

• an understanding of the main principles of solving problems using computers

• an understanding of the component parts of computer systems and how they interrelate, including

software, data, hardware, communication and people

• an understanding of the different methods of communication and the functionality of networks and the

internet

• the skills necessary to apply this understanding to develop computer based solutions to problems.

Content overview

AS Level content

• 1 Information representation

  • 1.1 Data Representation

  • 1.2 Multimedia – Graphics, Sound

  • 1.3 Compression

• 2 Communication

  • 2.1 Networks including the internet

• 3 Hardware

  • 3.1 Computers and their components

  • 3.2 Logic Gates and Logic Circuits

• 4 Processor Fundamentals

  • 4.1 Central Processing Unit (CPU) Architecture

  • 4.2 Assembly Language

  • 4.3 Bit manipulation

• 5 System Software

  • 5.1 Operating Systems

  • 5.2 Language Translators

• 6 Security, privacy and data integrity

  • 6.1 Data Security

  • 6.2 Data Integrity

• 7 Ethics and Ownership

  • 7.1 Ethics and Ownership

• 8 Databases

  • 8.1 Database Concepts

  • 8.2 Database Management Systems (DBMS)

  • 8.3 Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML)

• 9 Algorithm Design and Problem-solving

  • 9.1 Computational Thinking Skills

  • 9.2 Algorithms

• 10 Data Types and Structures

  • 10.1 Data Types and Records

  • 10.2 Arrays

  • 10.3 Files

  • 10.4 Introduction to Abstract Data Types (ADT)

• 11 Programming

  • 11.1 Programming Basics

  • 11.2 Constructs

  • 11.3 Structured Programming

• 12 Software Development

  • 12.1 Program Development Life cycle

  • 12.2 Program Design

  • 12.3 Program Testing and Maintenance

A Level content

• 13 Data Representation

  • 13.1 User-defined data types

  • 13.2 File organisation and access

  • 13.3 Floating-point numbers, representation and manipulation

• 14 Communication and internet technologies

  • 14.1 Protocols

  • 14.2 Circuit switching, packet switching

• 15 Hardware and Virtual Machines

  • 15.1 Processors, Parallel Processing and Virtual Machines

  • 15.2 Boolean Algebra and Logic Circuits

• 16 System Software

  • 16.1 Purposes of an Operating System (OS)

  • 16.2 Translation Software

• 17 Security

  • 17.1 Encryption, Encryption Protocols and Digital certificates

• 18 Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • 18.1 Artificial Intelligence

• 19 Computational thinking and Problem-solving

  • 19.1 Algorithms

  • 19.2 Recursion

• 20 Further Programming

  • 20.1 Programming Paradigms

  • 20.2 File Processing and Exception Handling

Assessment overview

At AS Level candidates take papers 1 and 2. At A Level candidates take all four papers. Calculators must not be used in any paper.

P1 & P2

P3 & P4

Assessment objectives

The assessment objectives (AOs) are:

AO1

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation.

AO2

Apply knowledge and understanding of the principles and concepts of computer science, including to analyse problems in computational terms.

AO3

Design, program and evaluate computer systems to solve problems, making reasoned judgements about these.

Weighting for assessment objectives

The approximate weightings allocated to each of the assessment objectives (AOs) are summarised below.

Assessment objectives as a percentage of each qualification

Assessment objectives as a percentage of each component