Computing Science: Advanced Higher

The AH Computing Science course offers students the opportunity to explore Computing Science in greater depth. It prepares students with not only the technical knowledge to implement solutions but also the project management skills to see a project through to completion successfully.

The course is especially suited to students considering a career in Computing Science. It will also benefit any student who wishes to develop their skills in critical thinking, problems-solving and planning.

Entry to the course

This is at the discretion of the school but you would normally be expected to have attained Higher Computing at grade B or above.

 

Course Structure

The course consists of four units:

Computer Systems

• Binary Arithmetic
• Hexadecimal number system
• Processor pipelining, registers and flags
• Environmental Implications

Software Design and Development

• Consider Project Planning and Development processes in the context of creating software
• Advanced Data Structures – Parallel Arrays, Arrays of Records, Arrays of Objects, 2D Arrays
• Object-Oriented Programming
• Searching and Sorting Algorithms

Database Design and Development

• Consider Project Planning and Development processes in the context of creating databases
• Multi-table Relational Databases
• Server-hosted databases
• Database Definition Language (MySQL)
• Database Manipulation Language (MySQL)

Web Design and Development

• Consider Project Planning and Development processes in the context of creating websites
• Capturing data with HTML Forms
• CSS Styling
• Javascript – Client-side scripting
• PHP – Server-side scripting

Assessment

The course is assessed by an external exam set by SQA and a coursework ‘project’ issued by SQA.

Exam

• 2 hrs 30 mins
• 80 marks

Project

• Completed alongside course
• 80 marks