2012 higher computing

How I have done a question from 2010 is...

11010011

So..

1 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 16 + 0 + 64 + -128 = -45

well the best way is too look at the external assesors report thingy on computing where it tells you where people go wrong mostly. This is a favourite for the sqa, as they can target questions that people find most difficult or confusing, so its always good to have an idea of what type of questions people struggle with and become pro at them.

Umar, how do you do hexadecimal conversion?

Umar, how do you do hexadecimal conversion?

There is an algorithm for doing this. It's in the AH Maths syllabus, curiously enough. Unless you actually need to write code for this, though, by far the easiest way is to just break it into chunks (4 binary bits correspond to a single hexadecimal digit since $2^4 = 16$) and then convert to decimal, and then to hexadecimal (which is as easy as remembering 'A' = 10, 'B' = 11, ..., 'F' = 15). With practice, you might well find you recognize the bit patterns. Example:

235 in decimal is 1110 1011 in binary. (n.b. we normally write binary in four-bit chunks anyway.) 1110 is 8+4+2 = 14 = E, 1011 is 8+2+1 = 11 = B. So 235 in decimal is EB in hex.

I've no idea if this is in the course, but it's handy if you want to take programming further. (It's not of immense use outside of programming.)

Is my mind simply melting from the incessant memorisation of irrelevant, tenuously-linked facts, or have the SQA simply made some of this stuff up? I was suspicious of the existence of a software development process called simply "the software development process", so I looked up the pseudo-waterfall ADITDEM model, and couldn't find any reference to it anywhere but on Scottish Computing revision sites.

Some other mysteries:

* Is SCHOLAR completely useless? How much of the course does it actually contain? Why do our teachers evangelise it to us?
* Should the course, as of 2005 (our textbook is the second edition of this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Higher-Computing-Answers-John-Walsh/dp/0340906588 and not the most recent one... I'm doomed), have given all the "high-level programming language constructs" examples in COMAL?
* Should the 2011 past paper have been asking questions about WAP and WML as if they were current technologies?!

I could go on forever. I have half a mind to flunk this in protest. There are groups aimed at reforming kids' computer science curricula in England; would anyone have any interest in starting something like that north of the border? If so, I have most of my summer holiday free.

I looked up the pseudo-waterfall ADITDEM model

There are groups aimed at reforming kids' computer science curricula in England; would anyone have any interest in starting something like that north of the border?

It would. Windows calculator performs these conversions, if it's of interest. (You may need to set it to 'programmer' mode depending on your version.) What's your method?

I split it into 2 4 bit sections and wrote 8421 above the 1001, 8+1 = 9.
I then done the same for the other part 0110 which makes six and concatenated them together making 96, magic?

You may well struggle to find that initialism used elsewhere, because it serves absolutely no purpose.

This kind of thing is espoused heavily in management-type courses, and not so much elsewhere.

There are definitely problems with the courses and, after chatting with the RasPi guys down here, it is something I want to take a serious look at post-graduation. Until then, I just haven't the time to allocate to the issue, not even to examine it in more closely.

Great, so long as you remember to do the arithmetic in hex - in which case it's the same method I described above.

Wish we were doing computer networking or artificial intelligence, multimedia is hellish.

I don't see why people say that "English is the hardest higher". I am a mathy kind of person and English is easier than this.


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