OCR AS-Level Computer Science - 14/06/16 - Paper 2 [Exam Discussion]

This is the official thread for OCR AS-level Computer Science paper 2. The exam is Algorithms and Problem Solving. It's a one and a half hour paper worth 70 marks and half of your AS level in this subject. Its hard. There's no pretending.
Please post useful resources that you've found inc. notes/questions
If you need help please post your questions too! :smile:

Also Please leave Component 01 out of this thread. That paper is over and done with. Let's try and focus on the second paper :smile:

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Reply 1

jlevy00

How are people revising for this one?

Reply 2

mir123

Can you draw flowcharts for algorithm questions?

Reply 3

Wezbo123x

Original post by mir123

Can you draw flowcharts for algorithm questions?

Posted from TSR Mobile
Are you kidding me NOOOOOOO!
This was acceptable at GCSE but at a level it has to be written in pseudo code

Reply 4

Someboady

Dat awkward moment when you realise, the second paper on "Algorithms and Problem Solving" will probably have fewer algorithms than the first paper on Computing principles.

Reply 5

life.of.pablo

Original post by AlexTheGreat!

Any predictions for the 9 marker?? I think methodologies it too obvious, maybe comparing sort algorithms or is that more A2 been as we haven't done big O yet?

Perhaps a Software development 9 marker, I mean the waterfall cycle can easily made into a 9 marker

Reply 6

blankboi

are there any other papers that can help with revision?
ive looked at the as specimen paper and thats it really

+ is heuristics part of the AS spec?

Reply 7

smackitintheair

Original post by blankboi

are there any other papers that can help with revision?
ive looked at the as specimen paper and thats it really

+ is heuristics part of the AS spec?

The papers from the old spec might help, they had similar topics for the programming paper

Reply 8

WalkingPete

Hey, I find that just doing coding can help a lot.
Also the new spec puts emphasis on applications, e.g. abstraction. I would look through that.

Reply 9

neon_reaper

I'm just mainly learning all of the definitions that I can (abstraction, computational thinking etc.) as well as all of the development and testing things. I'm generally good at algorithms IF I have enough time, but after the first paper it looks like thats gonna be a problem tbh. Just work fast from the start i suppose

Reply 10

edexcelruinedme

Do we need to know the pseudocode for the sorting/searching algorithms?

Reply 11

neon_reaper

Original post by edexcelruinedme

Do we need to know the pseudocode for the sorting/searching algorithms?

Yeah. Obviously you'd be able to work it out anyway but it would save you a lot of time if you knew it off by heart

Reply 12

MLBBoy123

Make sure you learn Karnaugh Map, Matrix Table and Trace Table. Plus Sorting and Searching is definetly coming up, remember the pseudo codes!

Reply 13

edexcelruinedme

Original post by MLBBoy123

Make sure you learn Karnaugh Map, Matrix Table and Trace Table. Plus Sorting and Searching is definetly coming up, remember the pseudo codes!

you realise Karnaugh Maps are paper 1 and Matrix Table and Trace Table aren't even in the spec.

Reply 14

life.of.pablo

Original post by edexcelruinedme

you realise Karnaugh Maps are paper 1 and Matrix Table and Trace Table aren't even in the spec.

You're right, I was suprised karnaugh maps didn't come up in paper 1

Reply 15

SelfishWeiner

Original post by Someboady

Dat awkward moment when you realise, the second paper on "Algorithms and Problem Solving" will probably have fewer algorithms than the first paper on Computing principles.

That really annoyed me. I much prefer the theoretical stuff.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 16

danigr

Original post by Someboady

Also Please leave Component 01 out of this thread. That paper is over and done with. Let's try and focus on the second paper :smile:

Is "Software development" part of this exam? I mean, the section about the spiral and waterfall lifecycle, black and white box texting, extreme programming...

It appears in the AS specification from OCR's webpage in 2.2.2, but according to my teacher this Is from the second year. In my textbook (Cambridge elevate) it also appears as "A level only", and also I haven't seen anything from this section in the specimen paper.

Have you studied anything about this section? Thanks

Reply 17

danigr

Original post by MLBBoy123

Make sure you learn Karnaugh Map, Matrix Table and Trace Table. Plus Sorting and Searching is definetly coming up, remember the pseudo codes!

Reply 18

0-8-4

Original post by danigr

Yes this is part of the second paper.

Reply 19

neon_reaper

Does anyone know if we're alright to write algorithms and pseudocode in pencil? And yeah all of the software development is mentioned on the spec but theres no questions on it in our spec paper (but there is one in the A2 paper) and i think it came up very rarely in past papers