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Higher Computing

gibby13

Anybody else finding part 2 hard?

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Reply 1

CJN

No I find that higher computing has to be on of the easiest subjects ever, I got a very strong A in S4 doing crash higher computing with only half the class time.

But then a lot of people did find it very hard. It seemed 50/50 no one found it ok, either very hard or easy.

Part 2 was software development if I remember right?

Reply 2

gibby13

sorry i mean in the coursework task

Reply 3

CJN

You mean the thing where you research all the different computers, printers etc. or the programming coursework?

Reply 4

gibby13

aha
the research bit
they've made it kinda impossible

Reply 5

CJN

Oh yeah basically go on pc world or google shopping, search for stuff that you need and just compare the spec's. Dont do anything fancy just say pc a is better than pc b because pc a has 1gb ram when b only has 512mb etc. etc.

Make sure you get good marks for the coursework its much better going into the exam knowing you don't even need 70% to get an A. Like I lost about 3 marks in my programming and research combined dont remember exactly but only needed like 60% or maybe 65% for an A. Also you can spend as much time as you want on it.

Reply 6

C274

It was a bit of a struggle, especially finding another server OS other than Windows Home Server, but Google and a bit of patience will get you something useful. Just persevere.

Reply 7

CJN

Server os?
We didn't do that but surely you could just say Linux

Reply 8

C274

CJN

Server os?
We didn't do that but surely you could just say Linux

I had a look at their Ubuntu thingy but I went for Mac OS X Server in the end, purely because all of the required information was easier for me to find on the site.

Reply 9

CJN

C274

I had a look at their Ubuntu thingy but I went for Mac OS X Server in the end, purely because all of the required information was easier for me to find on the site.

Ok yeah makes sense. We definitely didn't do server OSes, last year I did:

Digital Video Camera
Microphone
Sound Card
Graphics Card
External Hard Disk

It was pretty easy to do IMO, just using google and things like PC World. Going to do AH next year, but kinda worried in the years gap I will have forgotten everything.

Reply 10

C274

CJN

I remember looking at a model answer to that one. It seemed so much simpler than this year's; we had to find and compare 2 laptops, 2 servers, 2 server OSs, 2 different sets software consisting of a email encrypter thing, an antivirus software package and something else, and recommend one from each pair of things. I'm sure there was other stuff we had to compare but my memory is failing me right now.

Reply 11

CJN

Ah ok I didn't know it changed each year. Your one sounds much harder :\

Reply 12

Sparuuto

We got it so easy last year. Good luck with your one that actually resembles a challenge :P

Reply 13

C274

That was only the second part of it too, part 1 was a bitch of a program. I assume you had to write a program last year too?

Reply 14

Sparuuto

I don't recall ever having to write one from scratch. I think I had to write a couple of procedures and write an evaluation, although my memory could well be fail. Again, it was probably easier. I imagine that because so many people passed last year they decided to up their game a bit? :P

Reply 15

C274

Possibly. We had to do a table showing the data flow, an algorithm, the program itself, and an evaluation of it. The program wasn't a 1-period thing either, I think it took me about 2-3 weeks. It was a while ago now though so I can't remember exactly...

Reply 16

CJN

I remember some sort of programming coursework - I had a look at old files, do any of these sound familiar:

Lottery System for employees of a company
Giving a grade to a mark

But I remember doing programming, but nothing like in AH just a small program.

Reply 17

C274

CJN

Giving a grade to a mark

I think I've done this in class. CASE function or something. For the coursework task the program had to assign a number of points (I think) and a star rating to some processors based on their clock speed, data bus width and...I'm sure there was something else too :| then select the processor with the highest number of points but that bit's simple enough. I wish I could find the task online somewhere so I could remember exactly what it was we were to do, but I can't find it on the SQA site.

Edit: I think it was cache size as well.