AQA A2 Computing - COMP3 11/06/13

LogicGoat

This is the thread dedicated to the AQA COMP3 exam this june :biggrin:

Much easier than working on the project imo :colondollar:

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Reply 1

LogicGoat

Spoiler

Saw you guys in the COMP4 thread so I figured quoting you here :smile:

Reply 2

pixelfrag

Am I the only one who likes working on the project? Aha

Reply 3

A Wise Ninja

How far are you guys with your projects? I'm kind of worried about mine to be honest, i've completed analysis, about halfway through design and tech. solution and that's about it. I'm at a low B from first year and need to get a B to hit my offer.

Reply 4

Damask-

Original post by A Wise Ninja

Finished mine the other day, initially had some issues with complexity but now my teacher confusingly says that because my write-up was pretty extensive, it'll either be the top of adequately complex or the top of fully complex (which makes no sense, but fine.)

I found the best thing to do to stay motivated is to look at some of the high-scoring exemplars and any examples your school/college may have from previous years and try and make sure you have every possible diagram, table, chart and justification you need to complete in a big checklist. Then simply enjoy crossing them off! ~~And when you finish, burn it.~~ :tongue:

Reply 5

Damask-

Apparently the exam isn't supposed to be too difficult. Not going to comment on that until we've been taught it all though! Watching my class try to understand big O notation was hilarious, you could really see the divide between the mathematicians and the ones who probably should have taken IT.

Reply 6

D-Box

Original post by Damask-

How much have you got left to cover for the exam? We've only got the network section left, but I've done a networking course (CCNA) already so it shouldn't be that hard. Normalisation is just evil though...

Reply 7

Damask-

Original post by D-Box

We haven't done much, our teachers kind of went full throttle with project stuff up until now. We've covered normalisation, algorithm complexity, paradigms, I can't even remember what else but not much!

Agreed, normalisation can burn.

Reply 8

A Wise Ninja

Original post by Damask-

Managed to get the core of my program completed in a 6 hour programming sesh this afternoon, so a bit more of that tomorrow and then rattle out some theory every week night this week.

Are there any exemplar models online anywhere? Our college has a couple, but they're really not that great.. the parts I need some help to get to grips with are System Testing & Maintenance. :confused:

Reply 9

LogicGoat

Wow, just realised that AQA is the only computing board that covers FSMs and Turing Machines :eek:

Reply 10

scillage

What is it about normalisation that you guys find difficult? My teacher says AQA have been pretty explicit that you don't need to be able to go from unnormalised to 3NF, just recognise whether a DB is in 3NF or not, and I can't remember if he said we have to be able to see where you could go from 2NF to 3NF?

Reply 11

username606686

Original post by LogicGoat

Saw you guys in the COMP4 thread so I figured quoting you here :smile:

Thanks dude! :smile:

Reply 12

LogicGoat

Does anyone know where we could get extra (exam style) questions on FSMs and Turing machines, etc? :smile:

Reply 13

A Wise Ninja

What is the page count of your projects guys? I know quality not quantity and all that, but just curious.. :rolleyes:

Reply 14

JASApplications

I'm doing this exam! We've done about 2/3 of the syllabus so far, the Communications & Networking section seems pretty difficult imo!

Reply 15

Damask-

Just had a look on the AQA site and it seems there are three past papers, which is some kind of sick joke. Does anyone know how closely the old unit 4 maps onto comp 3?

Reply 16

CodeJack

Original post by LogicGoat

Does anyone know where we could get extra (exam style) questions on FSMs and Turing machines, etc? :smile:

I personally hate them :P doesnt your college have some form of ftp with them on?

Reply 17

sagederby

Original post by Damask-

Just had a look on the AQA site and it seems there are three past papers, which is some kind of sick joke. Does anyone know how closely the old unit 4 maps onto comp 3?

There are some topics in common between Comp3 and the old unit 4 - e.g. data structures and OOP - but there are some in common with the old unit 5 as well - e.g. databases and networks.

Incidentally, at least you have 3 papers to look at - think of the poor students a couple of 3 years ago that didn't have any!

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 18

Damask-

Original post by sagederby

I've downloaded all the old unit 4/5 ones, sigh. :frown:

Facing much the same problem with FP2 and 3. I hate sitting exams a few years after specification changes, can't imagine how much more irritating it must have been for those students a few years ago.

Reply 19

D-Box

I'm not sure if you lot know, but there's also a file called 'Exam Style Questions' on the AQA website that has some from past papers as well as ones you won't have seen before. Although there is no mark scheme, it's good for practice.