Computer Science

Course summary

There are three sections in this course, the Programming and System development component contains the majority of the content of the specification and is assessed in a written paper recalling knowledge and understanding. The second part is Computer Architecture, Data, Communication and Applications. The programming project component is a practical project based assessment with a task that is chosen by the teacher or learner and is produced in an appropriate programming language of the learner’s or teacher’s choice. The written examination paper in Computer Architecture, Data, Communication and Applications includes these topics: Characteristics of contemporary processors; Software and development; Exchanging data; Data types structures and algorithms; Legal, moral and ethical issues. The written examination paper in Programming and System development includes these topics: Elements of computational thinking; Problem solving and programming; Algorithms to solve problems and standard algorithms. The programming project includes the following: This is an extended piece of written work and coding which is aimed to create a full application for a specific client, it follows this pattern: Discussion, Investigation, Design of the solution, Developing the solution, Testing and Evaluation. The assessment is broken down into the following, the examination papers are taken at the end of the two year course. Component 1 Examination Paper 40% final mark Component 2 Examination Paper 40% final mark Component 3 Non-Examination Assessment 20% Lessons are a mixture of theory with practical lessons, the coding languages used are VB or C# as well as others which are included for specific topics.