There are three units to complete in CS National 5 and an end of course written assessment. In the Software Design and Development unit, learners will develop their programming and computational thinking skills by implementing practical solutions and explaining how these programs work. In the Information System Design and Development, learners will apply computational thinking skills to implement practical solutions using a range of development tools and to develop an understanding of the technical, legal, and environmental issues related to one or more information systems. The third unit, the added value unit, requires the learner to apply skills and knowledge from the other units to analyse and solve a challenging computing science problem.

Certification 2022

Modifications for session 2021–22 remain the same as session 2020–21.

Optionality between database design and development (DDD), and web design and development (WDD) remains in both the assignment and the question paper.

Component marks and duration

Question paper: 80 marks . Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Assignment: 40 marks. Duration: 6 hours

The question paper and assignment components are modified to give the option of either DDD or WDD. This gives flexibility in how you deliver the course and reduces the volume of content assessed.

This approach reduces assessment by approximately 25%, while ensuring at least one of the database or web areas of study is assessed in each component.

Question paper

The marks for the question paper have changed from 110 to 80 marks.

There is no change to the style of questions, however, we have structured the question paper by area of study.

Section 1 is mandatory and is worth 55 marks covering software design and development (SDD) and computer systems (CS). Questions will be a combination of short-response questions and larger context-based questions with multiple parts.

Section 2 is optional and is worth 25 marks covering DDD. Questions will be a combination of short-response questions and larger context-based questions with multiple parts.

Section 3 is optional and is worth 25 marks covering WDD. Questions will be a combination of short-response questions and larger context-based questions with multiple parts.

Candidates can choose to answer section 2 or section 3.

The duration of the question paper has changed from 2 hours to 1 hour and 30 minutes