Category: Advanced Higher

AH – Cheat sheets for a range of applications

I found these cheat sheets  on this site and here. A cheat sheet is a condensed (normally 2 A4 sides) set of notes for an aplication or programming language. They are not designed to be notes in themselves, they are more an aide-mémoire to help you recall how to do something.

There are a lot of languages here but I thought it was worth keeping the list intact. There is a lot in here that is in the course so make sure that you read the entire list.

Command Line

Databases

Programming

Unix/Linux

Web Development

Miscellaneous Topics

AH – Objects and Classes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtzVNCmysFs

Object-oriented programming (OOP) was discussed in Higher but we didn’t spend a lot of time on it. It is the first “difficult” topic to get your head round in AH. The video above gives a quick introduction to OOP in Python. Python is a OOP language, a topic we don’t dwell on before advanced higher but it was one of the reasons we picked Python for use in the school.

The Scholar notes use Standard Reference Language in their examples, it would be very good practice if you were to code them in Python.

OOP

If you are still having problems with Methods, Classes and Objects then you might want a look at the next couple of lessons from Learn Python the Hard Way.

AH – LAMP Server Configuration

So the mini notebooks only have windows XP on them, this OS is no longer supported by Microsoft so the first order of business for you is to install a new secure OS. I chose to install Linux Mint on my machine.

The project will more than likely require a web and database server and server side scripting language. I chose to configure the laptop as a LAMP server, a quick web search brought up this site.

You can update your HTML, CSS, MySQL, and PHP skills using codecademy or W3Schools.

Advanced Higher – Project Ideas

Suitable projects could include, but are not limited to, the following: Designing and developing a:

  • program/information system that processes, stores and allows updating of sporting or other results
  • 2–dimensional game with ability to pause and store state of the game and restart, such as Connect 4, Battleships, Minesweeper, Noughts & Crosses, Chess, Draughts, Sudoku, etc
  • small social media website, that allows registered users to blog and share information
  • database-driven website, that allows users to search content and display, edit and update it appropriately
  • multi-player card game such as ‘Top Trumps’ or a card-matching game
  • question-based quiz, that randomises questions, processes and stores results, for example ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’, ‘Mastermind’, ‘Pointless’
  • simulation of the operation of a queue, a stack or a sort algorithm, or other similar computing science concept/process
  • interactive computer assisted learning tool that gathers and stores information
  • or any other projects offering similar challenge and complexity to the candidate