Official AQA New Spec AS Level Computer Science Thread - 6th of June

Original post by 83457

So after doing all of the tests, did you have 2 misses and 1 hit on the screen?

No, in total there should be 3 misses and 1 hit

Reply 22

Original post by vanguardsean

I wasn't sure about the function of the algorithm - I think it was something to do with ordering the data in a certain way

I think the words "sorting algorithm" or some kind of explanation ("puts each unique number in ascending order") would have sufficed.

The Finite State Machine "language" question seemed a bit weird to me - I put something like "any number of '1's followed by '0x' or 'x' will be accepted". I was expecting it to only accept five letter words or binary numbers greater than 10 or something - I couldn't find any useful pattern in the FSM.

I think the answers to question 3 (sqrt(x)) were "Acceptable", "Boundary" and "Erroneous" in that order.

Were the logic questions at the very beginning 'B' and 'C'?

Reply 23

Original post by ShatnersBassoon

I think the words "sorting algorithm" or some kind of explanation ("puts each unique number in ascending order" :wink:

would have sufficed.

The Finite State Machine "language" question seemed a bit weird to me - I put something like "any number of '1's followed by '0x' or 'x' will be accepted". I was expecting it to only accept five letter words or binary numbers greater than 10 or something - I couldn't find any useful pattern in the FSM.

I think the answers to question 3 (sqrt(x)) were "Acceptable", "Boundary" and "Erroneous" in that order.

Were the logic questions at the very beginning 'B' and 'C'?

Yes, i also got B and C for the first two questions.
For question 3, I got Normal, Boundary, Erroneous (in that order) - I would think that either answer would suffice

How did you find the programming questions in Section C?

Reply 24

83457

Original post by vanguardsean

No, in total there should be 3 misses and 1 hit

Hmm, everything happened so quickly so I can't remember if had an extra miss. How many inputs were there in total? Three? Was thi third miss far away from the other misses? (That might explain why I didn't see it)

Reply 25

swingrx

Original post by ShatnersBassoon

I think the words "sorting algorithm" or some kind of explanation ("puts each unique number in ascending order" :wink:

would have sufficed.

The Finite State Machine "language" question seemed a bit weird to me - I put something like "any number of '1's followed by '0x' or 'x' will be accepted". I was expecting it to only accept five letter words or binary numbers greater than 10 or something - I couldn't find any useful pattern in the FSM.

I think the answers to question 3 (sqrt(x)) were "Acceptable", "Boundary" and "Erroneous" in that order.

Were the logic questions at the very beginning 'B' and 'C'?

I put 'C' and 'A' for the logic questions....
Can you remember what the questions were?

Reply 26

Original post by 83457

Hmm, everything happened so quickly so I can't remember if had an extra miss. How many inputs were there in total? Three? Was thi third miss far away from the other misses? (That might explain why I didn't see it)

Yes, the third miss was up and to the right of the other misses

Reply 27

Original post by vanguardsean

How did you find the programming questions in Section C?

Out of the four or five people I've spoken to, I'm the only one who completed them all in time. In all honesty, I wouldn't call them easy but I'd be surprised if I lost more than a couple of marks in Section C. Everything I wrote worked as I expected, although I might possible have missed out a subtle requirement in the last question - I only realised a few minutes before the end that it asked for a message to be outputted when the torpedo was destroyed.

Reply 28

Original post by swingrx

I put 'C' and 'A' for the logic questions....
Can you remember what the questions were?

Something like:

1. All computer scientists work at night
No-one who works at night gets paid well

[A] All computer scientists get paid well
Some night workers are computer scientists

2. Some aardvarks are computing professors
All computing professors love Java

[A] All aardvarks love Java
can't remember - something I thought was untrue

I thought 1 was true, but I was a bit apprehensive, because if there are 0 computer scientists then B is untrue. I hope I was overthinking it.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 29

83457

Original post by vanguardsean

Yes, the third miss was up and to the right of the other misses

Ah ok, that probably explains it then.

Reply 30

Original post by ShatnersBassoon

Out of the four or five people I've spoken to, I'm the only one who completed them all in time. In all honesty, I wouldn't call them easy but I'd be surprised if I lost more than a couple of marks in Section C. Everything I wrote worked as I expected, although I might possible have missed out a subtle requirement in the last question - I only realised a few minutes before the end that it asked for a message to be outputted when the torpedo was destroyed.

I agree it was a lot to do in 90 minutes, the last question was quite tricky - the first two parts of Section C (error catching in GetRowColumn and determining when the ship was destroyed) were quite straightforward in comparison with the last question

I found the trace table one of the hardest questions - I think I spent ~10 minutes on that question alone :frown:

Reply 31

83457

Did anyone else use Python for the trace table :biggrin:

? I tried doing it manually, but keeping track of all those variables and not slipping up - plus the time pressure- was a nightmare. I estimate an A to be between 50-60 this year.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 32

Original post by 83457

Did anyone else use Python for the trace table :biggrin:

? I tried doing it manually, but keeping track of all those variables and not slipping up - plus the time pressure- was a nightmare. I estimate an A to be between 50-60 this year.

That was a good idea!! I cant believe that, I spent ages on that question manually working though it :frown:

Last year an A was 70%, I dont think it would be lower than that this year

Reply 33

Internets

5

Original post by ShatnersBassoon

Out of the four or five people I've spoken to, I'm the only one who completed them all in time. In all honesty, I wouldn't call them easy but I'd be surprised if I lost more than a couple of marks in Section C. Everything I wrote worked as I expected, although I might possible have missed out a subtle requirement in the last question - I only realised a few minutes before the end that it asked for a message to be outputted when the torpedo was destroyed.

What language did you do the code in? I don't think anyone in my year managed to complete the paper fully :/.

Reply 34

TwixKix

Did anyone else find that god damn awful?

Reply 35

User1452521

I found it hard, i got most of it except half that god damn trace table. That algorithm was so hard to keept track of and wasted a lot of time on it. I got almost half the last question but was a bit stumped. No way i could program all last Q in 10 mins.

Everyone in my class didn't fully finish, and needed more time generally.
Personally, too much theory and not enough programming.
30 marks coding, 45 marks theory... really? It's Computer Science...

Reply 36

Original post by TwixKix

Did anyone else find that god damn awful?

I didn't find it too bad, which parts did you find difficult?

Reply 37

User1452521

Original post by vanguardsean

I didn't find it too bad, which parts did you find difficult?

Did everyone get the same questions even tho if you were in another language?

Reply 38

Original post by Internets

What language did you do the code in? I don't think anyone in my year managed to complete the paper fully :/.

C#
I can also program in Python, probably a bit faster (no need to declare variable types), so I don't think language had anything to do with timing.

Original post by 83457

Did anyone else use Python for the trace table :biggrin:

? I tried doing it manually, but keeping track of all those variables and not slipping up - plus the time pressure- was a nightmare.

I meant to do that (well, with C#) to check but didn't have enough time. It was a horrible question, especially given that I didn't have a pen to scribble all over the paper with. If you could work out what the algorithm did then you probably wouldn't go too far wrong with the values of NewItems[] but those loops were horrific.

Reply 39