Computing Higher, Revision

Panic dot com

Right you have one week to go and some of you sat Biology today and have no exam till computing. You’re a bit panicked and want a plan. Here is what I would do with these few days

  1. I wouldn’t study outside – its hot and full of distractions
  2. I would start at 9 and do the following
    1. Past Paper
    2. Break
    3. Marking Past Paper
    4. Break down wrong answers into core and non core (using the list below – core is likely to come up the exam)
    5. Revise core
    6. Lunch
    7. Revise core
    8. Break (its about 2pm if the above tasks took you 2hr for the paper and 30 mins a task)
    9. Revise non core answers
    10. Look over the topics from the units by picking a half dozen topics each day.
  3. Download this document. and use this as the basis for some questions on the topics I found hard, as well as, using it to aid revision of the topics in the units (List of Topics at bottom)
  4. Use the blog, Scholar and other school’s notes to learn the core information I am not sure about.
  5. I would learn the two images below and be able to describe and compare each of the aditdem elements with each other – E.g. what is the difference between Procedural and Event Driven Languages?
  6. I would look over and memorise the standard algorithms
  7. I would buy a £1 calculator that does binary and learn how to use it.
  8. If I was tired, I would take a break and I would cut down on caffeine.
  9. I would give my mobile to my parents when I was studying and get it back at breaks (when I was your age this was not an option 🙂 )

The above is not a roadmap to success! However, it might help get you the marks you need to change a grade.

Good luck in the exam! Remember ask questions here or to my email account, I will be checking them over the coming week and will try and get a response out ASAP. If you are finding it too warm to study, the class room has air con and I’m sure I could squeeze you in at a desk.

Core – likely to come up in the exam

Computer Systems

  • Systems
  • application based tests
  • Bit map graphics
  • CCD
  • fetch execute cycle
  • file, print and web servers
  • FLOPS
  • hub, switch, router
  • Interface functions
  • MIPS
  • Network topologies
  • operating system functions
  • peer to peer Vs client server
  • RGB
  • software compatibility issues
  • standard file formats
  • Two’s complement
  • utility programs
  • Vector graphics
  • virus software detection techniques
  • Viruses – types, code actions

Software Development

  • by value and by reference
  • local and global variables
  • concatenation and substrings
  • design notations
  • Evaluation – robustness, reliability, portability, efficiency and maintainability
  • iterative
  • macros
  • maintenance
  • module library
  • one-dimensional arrays
  • personnel
  • procedural, declarative and event-driven
  • real, integer and boolean variables
  • Scope
  • scripting languages
  • software specification
  • stages
  • standard algorithms

Multimedia

  • Authoring software
  • Bluetooth
  • CLUT
  • codec and container file
  • dithering
  • MIDI
  • MPEG
  • PCM, ADPCM
  • RAW, RIFF
  • RLE, LZW
  • Sound file size
  • vector graphics
  • Video file size
  • anti-aliasing
  • re-sampling

Unit / Topic

Computer Systems
Data representation
Computer structure
Peripherals
Networking
Computer software
Software Development
Software development process
Software development languages and environments
High level programming language constructs
Standard algorithms
Multimedia Technology
Development process for multimedia applications
Bit-mapped graphic data
Digitised sound data
Video data
Vector graphics data
Synthesised sound data
Implications of the use of multimedia technology

Acronyms / mnemonics