Whenyou'recomfortablewiththelogicsideofthings,dothequestionsagain(allofthem)soyoucanpracticewritinginthecorrectsyntax.IalsodoneVisualBasicinyear12anditwasterriblesinceIhadneverdoneanyprogrammingbeforehand. OKFine,notmentioningthatlineinthenewspecistolerablebutwhatisnotishowOCRthinkit'soktojustwritealonglistofwordsandexpectstudentstoreadtheirmindsastowhattheiractualintentionswereinwritingthatvaguelist.

EvenafterdoingGCSEICTIhadnoideawhatanyofthismeantandI'mselfteaching!IhadtolookattheoldspectogetabetterideaofwhatIneededtoknow.Sonowlet'slookathowtheoldspecstateswhatcontentyouneedtoknowabouttheALU:Pythonhasamuchcleanersyntaxthat'ssimilartoOCR'soneandisveryeasytolearnifyouputtheeffortinwhichiswhatIdidinyear13whenIhadtoselfteachAlevelComputerScience. Nowifyou'resomeonewhohasn'tgotasingleclueaboutcomputersciencewhenyoufirststartthisAlevelthenyou'regoingtohaveabadtime. Iwasn'tgiventheopportunitytostudyGCSEComputerSciencebecausemy(extremelysocioeconomicallydeprived)schooldidn'tofferitsoIdoneGCSEICTinstead.

So,thefirsttimeroundyoushouldjustfocusonthelogicofthequestions,notthesyntax.Justuseyournotesoryoucoulduse thisresourcewhichbasicallygivesexamplesandnotesoneachconstructinOCR'ssyntax. Toconclude,IwilljustlinktheASandAlevelspecificationsandtheASandAlevelsubjectcontentclarificationguideswhichIhighlyrecommendyouusetoknowwhataspectsofthecontentmentionedinthespecyouneedtoknow.There are several resources that will help you have confidence in your application of the marking criteria for H446: Candidatesneedtohaveanunderstandingofthepurposeandfunctionofthecorecomponentsofaprocessor.CandidatesneedtounderstandtheroleandcomponentsoftheALU. Obviously,you'llneedsometechnicalskillsinwritingcodeinHTML,CSS,JavaScript,SQL,LMCandofcoursepseudocodeamongstotherthings.Forthis,youactuallyneedtopracticebydoinglotsandlotsofquestions,noamountofmemoryworkwillcutit.There'sloadsofquestionsintheoldspecpapersthataredefinitelyworthatry. Ineedto"describethe FUNCTIONand PURPOSE"oftheALU.Nowthatmake'ssense,acandidatewillclearlybeabletodistinguishtheknowledgethatisrelevanttohimregardingtheALUandwhatisnot,theysimplyneedtoknowit'sfunctionandpurpose.

Students are introduced to the internal workings of the (CPU), data exchange, software development, data types and legal and ethical issues. The resulting knowledge and understanding will underpin their work in component 03. Withthatsaid,bothtextbookshavesomegreataspectsbutthePGonlineoneedgesitforme.IamcurrentlywritingatextbookandIfindbothofthemtohavedesirablefeaturesthatIplantoincludeinmyown.Regarding that last point, the JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) have recently released guidance, which makes it clear that all NEA must be marked in the same way as before the pandemic disruption. This is really important, as it will help ensure that all students’ work is marked to the same standards. Students will be expected to analyse a problem (10 marks), and design (15 marks), develop and test (25 marks), and evaluate and document (20 marks) a program. The program must be to solve it written in a suitable programming language. Thanks,thereasonIstartedmakingtheseinthefirstplacewasduetotherebeingprettymuchnogoodresourcesavailableforthiscourse,atleastnotfreeones.Ithonestlyamazedmehowpoorthequalityofthetextbooksandotherresourceswere,especiallythesocalled"OCRendorsed"ones.

A free on-line marking course is available on OCR Train. This can be completed in your own time and includes a series of tests designed to ensure that you are correctly allocating levels to the AEP and practical performances. There'sglimpsesofclarityoftheoldspecinthenewonebuthonestly,Ithinkwhoeverwrotethiseitherdidn'tgetpaidenoughorisjustplainlazy.IcouldgoonandonbutIthinkyougetthepicture. Personally,IfeelthePGonlinetextbookismuchbetterthanthepurpleocrtextbookwhichhadmistakes.WhatareyouropinionsonthePGonlinetextbook?IamthinkingofbuyingthisbookasIuseditlastyearbutasanexternalcandidate,Icannotgetitfromthelibrary.Somesectionshadsomeextrapointlessinformationwhichisn'tlistedinthecomp.scispec(especiallytheinput,outputchapters)butotherthanthat,theBooleanalgebrachapterswereveryusefulandthedifferentalgorithmtopicsseemedverydetailed. Ialsofoundpaper2abitharderthanpaper1atfirstbut,ifyoudoeverysinglealgorithmquestionoftheoldspecpapersyou'llbefine.AndIdomean everysingleone.

Resource materials

Here at OCR we’ve had lots of queries from centres in recent weeks about marking coursework, or non-exam assessment (NEA). For A Level Computer Science (H446), this means the programming project.