Mock Exam December 2013

Mock exam will be spread over two lessons. Both classes will start on Thursday 12th December and finish in Fridays lesson on 13th December.

Topics covered will be:

Computer Theory F451

• 3.1.1 Computing Components (notes on intranet)
• 3.1.2 Software (only the software development/systems life cycle part a-l)
• 3.1.3 Data representation
• 3.1.4 Hardware

Programming and Logic F452

• Data types
• Basic logic problems
• dry run/trace tables of algorithms

You need to make sure you prepare for this mock and treat it seriously, this is the first set of questions you will have performed under exam conditions. Make sure you review your own notes and mine. We have not formerly covered all the work in the systems life cycle but we have touched on all aspects of this, you will need to review in order to be fully versed in this topic.

First batch of Systems development exam questions

These are the questions that we are working on first in our groups

• F451 Jan 09 q5 (not b), F451 May09 q4
• 2511 Jan 09 q4
• 2508 may09 q3
• 2508 may09 q1
• 2508 jan09 q2
• 2508 jan09q1
• 2508 jan08 q1 (not d)
• 2508 jan08 q2

Homework seven : Specification 3.1.4 Hardware glossary

This homework is due Friday 22nd November 2013

You need to work through the bullet points from the hardware section of the specification for the computer fundamental paper F451 creating boring and obvious definitions.

In order to do this you need to look back through exam mark schemes looking for the hardware questions.

The 3.1.4 hardware spec is available here

Homework six : CPU Question and homework 4 and 5 review

This homework is due on Monday 4th November 2013.

If you need to type up your answers make sure you reference each of the question parts appropriately (aii etc...)

A copy of the homework is available

The question can be found here


Be very careful answering these questions, you must be precise in your answers don't waffle.

Try the homework early then if you have any issues with this homework then you need to see me well before the hand in date to give you time to attempt the question again.

Review of homework 4

Exam Mark Scheme answers for both question here (Question 1 in both cases)


Review of homework 5

Exam mark scheme to be answers here


This is a very critical homework, knowledge is only part of the game at A level, you are expected to know things, but what they are actually focused on testing is can you apply that knowledge to specific contexts. It is the context that cannot be predicted, they can make these up till the cows come home. They will always stick to the topics we cover but they will come up with new questions to ask about those topics so exam technique is important. You need to go back through the exam question with the mark scheme. You need to look at each question individually, so organise a report in this way (question by question). When doing this task you need to be honest with yourself, there is no point kidding about why you scored what you scored.


For each question look at the following:

If you did well

• What specifically did you do/have you done to achieve this result?
• Look at the mark scheme why are the other answers given the correct ones? (look at the context of the question and  how they fit with it)

If you scored poorly or loosely

• Look at the mark scheme why are the answers given the correct ones? (look at the context of the question and  how they fit with it)
• Why did your answers not give you the marks? (were they off topic, did they not target the question asked, did you waffle, were you vague, did you start with a statement before explaining, did you state and not describe etc...)
• What mistakes did you make with your approach to the question? (did you read it before answering or did you assume you knew what the question was, did you read your answers back to check you were answering the question asked etc...)
• What will you do on future questions in order to ensure you don't make these same mistakes?

Once this task is complete I will ask you to enter a target into the Nilpit system under ILP (Individual learning plans) outlining what you need to do in future when tackling exam questions. You will also make an entry into your Learner Journal, stating an action you will take forward for the next homework.

Homework Five: Hardware Exam questions

This homework is due on Friday 18th November 2013.

If you need to type up your answers make sure you reference each of the question parts appropriately (aii etc...)

A copy of the homework is available

The first question can be found here
and the second question can be found here

Be very careful answering these questions, you must be precise in your answers don't waffle.

Try the homework early then if you have any issues with this homework then you need to see me well before the hand in date to give you time to attempt the question again.

HomeworkFour: Computer components exam questions

This homework is due on Friday 11th October 2013. 

If you need to type up your answers make sure you reference each of the question parts appropriately (aii etc...)

A copy of the homework is available

The first queston can be found here
and the second question can be found here

Be very careful answering these questions, you must be precise in your answers don't waffle.

Try the homework early then if you have any issues with this homework then you need to see me well before the hand in date to give you time to attempt the question again.

Homework Three: Review of exam question

Homework is due on Friday 4th October 2013.

This is a very critical homework, knowledge is only part of the game at A level, you are expected to know things, but what they are actually focused on testing is can you apply that knowledge to specific contexts. It is the context that cannot be predicted, they can make these up till the cows come home. They will always stick to the topics we cover but they will come up with new questions to ask about those topics so exam technique is important. You need to go back through the exam question with the mark scheme. You need to look at each question individually, so organise a report in this way (question by question). When doing this task you need to be honest with yourself, there is no point kidding about why you scored what you scored.

Exam Mark Scheme answer here (Question 6)

Binary question answers here

For each question look at the following:

If you did well

• What specifically did you do/have you done to achieve this result?
• Look at the mark scheme why are the other answers given the correct ones? (look at the context of the question and  how they fit with it)

If you scored poorly or loosely

• Look at the mark scheme why are the answers given the correct ones? (look at the context of the question and  how they fit with it)
• Why did your answers not give you the marks? (were they off topic, did they not target the question asked, did you waffle, were you vague, did you start with a statement before explaining, did you state and not describe etc...)
• What mistakes did you make with your approach to the question? (did you read it before answering or did you assume you knew what the question was, did you read your answers back to check you were answering the question asked etc...)
• What will you do on future questions in order to ensure you don't make these same mistakes?

Once this task is complete I will ask you to enter a target into the Nilpit system under ILP (Individual learning plans) outlining what you need to do in future when tackling exam questions. You will also make an entry into your Learner Journal, stating an action you will take forward for the next homework.

Programming Glossary Keywords/Terms

The following are the keywords and glossary items I think you should of come across in the python book. Make sure you at least have definitions/explanations for these. If you have extra ones that's ok.

I've organised this by chapters

Chapter One

• Depreciated
• Console Window
• Platform independant
• Function
• Argument
• Case-sensitive
• String
• Statement
• Comments

Chapter Two

• List of Arguments
• Escape Sequence
• Concatenating strings
• Line continuation character
• Numeric Types (specify Integer, Float, Decimal)
• Mathematical operators (state the main ones from the book on page 29 given their purpose)
• Variable
• Legal variable name
• Assignment statement
• Self documenting code
• Return value
• String methods (state the purpose of the following ones -upper, lower, replace, strip [also known as trim in other languages])
• Logical error
• operator overloading
• Augmented Assignment operator (use the table on page 44 - most languages use something similar)

Chapter Three

• Sequential flow (Sequence)
• Import
• Module
• dot notation
• Branching
• Cryptography
• Conditions
• Comparison operators (cover those in table on page 56)
• Block
• If statement
• Else clause
• Else If (Elif as python calls it)
• While Loop
• sentry variable
• Initialisation
• Infinite loop (what causes one and how to create an intentional one)
• Tracing
• compound conditions
• logical operators (not, and, or)
• Algorithm
• Pseudo code
• Stepwise refinement

Chapter Four

• For loop
• element
• sequence (in python)
• iterate
• len() function
• sequential access
• random access
• indexing
• index out of range
• mutable and immutable
• constant
• lower()  and upper() functions
• slicing

Homework Two: Data representation Exam Question and Number bases sheet

This homework is due on Friday 20th September 2013. 

If you need to type up your answers make sure you reference each of the question parts appropriately (aii etc...)

A copy of the homework is available
exam question here and
number bases sheet here

Try the homework early then if you have any issues with this homework then you need to see me well before the hand in date to give you time to attempt the question again.

Python coding hand in date

You need to hand in to me an example of the code you have produced that you are most proud of by:

Monday 16th September 2013

This task is important as you will be expected to develop your own programming skills with support from me and this is just a first step.

F451 and F452 mock exams after Easter

We will have two mock exams the week we come back after Easter, they will both happen in the same week (you're proper ones will be like this). The days will be different depending on which block you are taught in:

A block

F451 Theory paper will be on Monday afternoon 15th April
F452 programming and logic paper will be split over Wednesday 17th April and Thursday 18th April

E block

F452 programming and logic paper will be split over Monday 15th April and Wednesday 17th April
F451 Theory paper will be on Friday afternoon 19th April

This will then give me some time over the weekend to mark the papers so we can go through them the following week.

Please make sure you are working towards real revision for these papers, you will get little information about your progress if you say to yourself "I did bad because I didn't revise properly".

Homework Twelve : Review of exam question

Homework is due on Wednesday 20th March 2013.

This is a very critical homework, knowledge is only part of the game at A level, you are expected to know things, but what they are actually focused on testing is can you apply that knowledge to specific contexts. It is the context that cannot be predicted, they can make these up till the cows come home. They will always stick to the topics we cover but they will come up with new questions to ask about those topics so exam technique is important. You need to go back through the F452 Jan 2013 paper with the mark scheme answers. You need to look at each question individually, so organise a report in this way (question by question). When doing this task you need to be honest with yourself, there is no point kidding about why you scored what you scored.

You have the mark scheme but it is also available on the F452 page of the Intranet (Jan 2013)

For each question look at the following:

If you did well

• What specifically did you do/have you done to achieve this result?
• Look at the mark scheme why are the other answers given the correct ones? (look at the context of the question and  how they fit with it)

If you scored poorly or loosely

• Look at the mark scheme why are the answers given the correct ones? (look at the context of the question and  how they fit with it)
• Why did your answers not give you the marks? (were they off topic, did they not target the question asked, did you waffle, were you vague, did you start with a statement before explaining, did you state and not describe etc...)
• What mistakes did you make with your approach to the question? (did you read it before answering or did you assume you knew what the question was, did you read your answers back to check you were answering the question asked etc...)
• What will you do on future questions in order to ensure you don't make these same mistakes?

Conclude your report by highlighting one or two key things that you can target to make a difference next time you do a paper. Once this task is complete I will ask you to enter a target into the Nilpit system under ILP (Individual learning plans) outlining what you need to do in future when tackling exam questions.

Work to do Monday 4th March 2013

Unfortunately I will not be in on Monday.

A block need to make a start on the remaining topics for the Social implications, we have already done the environmental aspects from this section of the theory course. Get back into your groups and look at the 3.1.6 Social implications notes (under the F451 Computer fundamentals section) and tackle the remaining topics.

• Working patterns
• Privacy and confidentiality of data
• Legislation
• Access to Information and Communication technology

Make sure you split the work across members of the group so you don't duplicate each other. Add information to your blogs/tumbler sites.

You will be continuing this work on Tuesday.

E Block need to continue their work on their Social implications blogs.

Could you also all sign into workshop (click the Workshop Sign link in the Actions section of the Dashboard on the ICT intranet page).

Homework Eleven: Q3 and Q4 of Jan 2013 paper

This homework is due on Monday 25th February2013. 

If you need to type up your answers make sure you reference each of the question parts appropriately (aii etc...)

I will mark this homework and we will go through it that week.

There is no electronic version of this paper and we will not have an official mark scheme until the March results are out.

Homework Ten : Review of exam question

Homework is due on Wednesday 13th February 2013.

This is a very critical homework, knowledge is only part of the game at A level, you are expected to know things, but what they are actually focused on testing is can you apply that knowledge to specific contexts. It is the context that cannot be predicted, they can make these up till the cows come home. They will always stick to the topics we cover but they will come up with new questions to ask about those topics so exam technique is important. You need to go back through the User Interface homework questions (homework 6), with the mark scheme answers. You need to look at each question individually, so organise a report in this way (question by question). When doing this task you need to be honest with yourself, there is no point kidding about why you scored what you scored.

Highlighted mark scheme answers are here they are also on the F452 page of the Intranet (specimen paper mark scheme Q3)

For each question look at the following:

If you did well

• What specifically did you do/have you done to achieve this result?
• Look at the mark scheme why are the other answers given the correct ones? (look at the context of the question and  how they fit with it)

If you scored poorly or loosely

• Look at the mark scheme why are the answers given the correct ones? (look at the context of the question and  how they fit with it)
• Why did your answers not give you the marks? (were they off topic, did they not target the question asked, did you waffle, were you vague, did you start with a statement before explaining, did you state and not describe etc...)
• What mistakes did you make with your approach to the question? (did you read it before answering or did you assume you knew what the question was, did you read your answers back to check you were answering the question asked etc...)
• What will you do on future questions in order to ensure you don't make these same mistakes?

Once this task is complete I will ask you to enter a target into the Nilpit system under ILP (Individual learning plans) outlining what you need to do in future when tackling exam questions.

Homework Nine: Programming exam question

In order to complete this question you will need to do a little research into Rapid Application Development (RAD) technique. You can do this by going through the notes and also looking this up on the Web.

A copy of the the question can be found here

The question does have a mistake in it though.

part 3 (v) refers to a issue with line 10, but they actually mean line 12, make sure you make a note of this.

This homework is due next Monday 21st January 2013

Homework Ten, will be a review of this question using the marking scheme.