Higher Computing 2019/2020
Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
Since SQA exams are finished and it’s being marked simultaneously checked correctly, I wanted to start a thread for Higher Computing.
So how you guys feel towards higher computing?, will it be easy or hard?.
Update: Welp, I found out that I will have the same teacher who doesn’t teach yet again!. Time to go through hell again by revising from textbooks😡.
Since SQA exams are finished and it’s being marked simultaneously checked correctly, I wanted to start a thread for Higher Computing.
So how you guys feel towards higher computing?, will it be easy or hard?.
Update: Welp, I found out that I will have the same teacher who doesn’t teach yet again!. Time to go through hell again by revising from textbooks😡.
(edited 4 years ago)
Scroll to see replies
Afternoon 
Just thought I'd drop some links to websites that really helped me revise for Higher Comp Sci this year:
- Great revision notes: https://sites.google.com/rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/rgc-highercomputing/home?authuser=0
- All the prelim papers (bar 2019): https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/braidhurstbuscom/computing-science/higher-computing-science/
Of course, the course content may change (again) this year - who knows - but the basis of it should be the same. For example, the majority of the content in all the past papers (2015-2018) was actually not included in the course for 2019, but a good few questions were still absolutely relevant.
My advice to those taking it this year is to focus mainly on the specimen paper (usually released in September) and also on the course specification. I really do stress reading and understanding the content in the course spec, because for numerous questions in the exam this year - they could be answered by just memorizing parts of the course spec (eg F/E cycle or intelligent systems). It's all about memorizing the theory and understanding the harder parts such as programming/web dev.
comp sci is hands down the best subject (not up for debate...) and higher, while it is naturally more difficult, is so much more fun than nat 5. enjoyyy
Just thought I'd drop some links to websites that really helped me revise for Higher Comp Sci this year:
- Great revision notes: https://sites.google.com/rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/rgc-highercomputing/home?authuser=0
- All the prelim papers (bar 2019): https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/braidhurstbuscom/computing-science/higher-computing-science/
Of course, the course content may change (again) this year - who knows - but the basis of it should be the same. For example, the majority of the content in all the past papers (2015-2018) was actually not included in the course for 2019, but a good few questions were still absolutely relevant.
My advice to those taking it this year is to focus mainly on the specimen paper (usually released in September) and also on the course specification. I really do stress reading and understanding the content in the course spec, because for numerous questions in the exam this year - they could be answered by just memorizing parts of the course spec (eg F/E cycle or intelligent systems). It's all about memorizing the theory and understanding the harder parts such as programming/web dev.
comp sci is hands down the best subject (not up for debate...) and higher, while it is naturally more difficult, is so much more fun than nat 5. enjoyyy
(edited 4 years ago)
Thank you!, it will be useful when I will have study
Original post by nat5dawg
Afternoon
Just thought I'd drop some links to websites that really helped me revise for Higher Comp Sci this year:
- Great revision notes: https://sites.google.com/rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/rgc-highercomputing/home?authuser=0
- All the prelim papers (bar 2019): https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/braidhurstbuscom/computing-science/higher-computing-science/
Of course, the course content may change (again) this year - who knows - but the basis of it should be the same. For example, the majority of the content in all the past papers (2015-2018) was actually not included in the course for 2019, but a good few questions were still absolutely relevant.
My advice to those taking it this year is to focus mainly on the specimen paper (usually released in September) and also on the course specification. I really do stress reading and understanding the content in the course spec, because for numerous questions in the exam this year - they could be answered by just memorizing parts of the course spec (eg F/E cycle or intelligent systems). It's all about memorizing the theory and understanding the harder parts such as programming/web dev.
comp sci is hands down the best subject (not up for debate...) and higher, while it is naturally more difficult, is so much more fun than nat 5. enjoyyy
Just thought I'd drop some links to websites that really helped me revise for Higher Comp Sci this year:
- Great revision notes: https://sites.google.com/rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/rgc-highercomputing/home?authuser=0
- All the prelim papers (bar 2019): https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/braidhurstbuscom/computing-science/higher-computing-science/
Of course, the course content may change (again) this year - who knows - but the basis of it should be the same. For example, the majority of the content in all the past papers (2015-2018) was actually not included in the course for 2019, but a good few questions were still absolutely relevant.
My advice to those taking it this year is to focus mainly on the specimen paper (usually released in September) and also on the course specification. I really do stress reading and understanding the content in the course spec, because for numerous questions in the exam this year - they could be answered by just memorizing parts of the course spec (eg F/E cycle or intelligent systems). It's all about memorizing the theory and understanding the harder parts such as programming/web dev.
comp sci is hands down the best subject (not up for debate...) and higher, while it is naturally more difficult, is so much more fun than nat 5. enjoyyy
Higher Computing is going to be great; we have completed SUB Routines and Paramater passing for software development and so far it's been very easy. The thing that is weird is that our class consists of National 4, National 5 and Higher students lol. The main focus is obviously that of the Higher student's interests, but it just seems insane that there are 3 different levels of qualifications that are being sat to be achieved inside the one class.
Oh lol, I do not know how my class will be because I will have tomorrow but one of my friends talked to the teacher and he said that there will be 2-3 highers (me and my friend I’m presuming) and the rest will be national 5 which is really funny. But I really hope that I pass nat 5 and do higher to do a year of hell again ahaha. But I’m glad that you’re enjoying already
Original post by Strelzo
Higher Computing is going to be great; we have completed SUB Routines and Paramater passing for software development and so far it's been very easy. The thing that is weird is that our class consists of National 4, National 5 and Higher students lol. The main focus is obviously that of the Higher student's interests, but it just seems insane that there are 3 different levels of qualifications that are being sat to be achieved inside the one class.
Hello guys, does anybody know websites, links etc that provide programming tasks appropriate for higher computing?. I was searching through websites when I had computing and I couldnt find any. I have ordered bright red’s higher computing book but Im afraid that they might not have programming tasks to do. I would be really, really greatful if anybody knows if there is anything with those tasks.
Original post by Kubsyy
Hello guys, does anybody know websites, links etc that provide programming tasks appropriate for higher computing?. I was searching through websites when I had computing and I couldnt find any. I have ordered bright red’s higher computing book but Im afraid that they might not have programming tasks to do. I would be really, really greatful if anybody knows if there is anything with those tasks.
Unfortunately this was something I never really managed to find. Your best bet is to have a look at past coursework papers (my phone is being annoying so I can't link them but google should find them) and do what you can with them. Hope that helps a bit
Original post by Kubsyy
Hello guys, does anybody know websites, links etc that provide programming tasks appropriate for higher computing?. I was searching through websites when I had computing and I couldnt find any. I have ordered bright red’s higher computing book but Im afraid that they might not have programming tasks to do. I would be really, really greatful if anybody knows if there is anything with those tasks.
I could give you problems from the ones we were doing in class if you want?
Original post by Strelzo
I could give you problems from the ones we were doing in class if you want?
That would be really good if you can.
Original post by nat5dawg
Unfortunately this was something I never really managed to find. Your best bet is to have a look at past coursework papers (my phone is being annoying so I can't link them but google should find them) and do what you can with them. Hope that helps a bit
Yeah I’m aware of that, which is stupid but oh well. I would do a coursework practice but that would be complex for me because I don’t understand programming constructs and algorithms for higher yet, so I just want easy tasks that gets me started. But thanks.
Original post by Kubsyy
Hello guys, does anybody know websites, links etc that provide programming tasks appropriate for higher computing?. I was searching through websites when I had computing and I couldnt find any. I have ordered bright red’s higher computing book but Im afraid that they might not have programming tasks to do. I would be really, really greatful if anybody knows if there is anything with those tasks.
Different exam board, but there's a good list of programming challenges to try to practise with here:
https://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/260930-coding-challenges-booklet.pdf
Project Euler has some good practise problems too: https://projecteuler.net/archives
Hackerrank also has some good tasks for programming practise: https://www.hackerrank.com/dashboard
Hello guys, I want to ask, how would I solve this and convert any denary to binary to 16 bit twos complement?
Original post by Kubsyy
Hello guys, I want to ask, how would I solve this and convert any denary to binary to 16 bit twos complement?
Sadly I'm unable to help you at the moment because we are still doing software development.
Original post by Strelzo
Sadly I'm unable to help you at the moment because we are still doing software development.
That’s fine, I have the higher book but it didn’t really tell how to do this only with 8 bits (I guess it’s the same with 16 bit and two complement?) but I’ll look at it later. Enjoy your summer holidays and I wish you luck with exam results 😁
Original post by Kubsyy
Hello guys, I want to ask, how would I solve this and convert any denary to binary to 16 bit twos complement?
You'll need a calculator!
It's practically the same as solving 8 bit twos complement. First invert the 0s and 1s, add one, then just add the numbers where there is a one
When you get the 9th number from the left, all you do there is see what 2^8 is. Eg the first number was 2^0 which = 1, then 2^1 = 2 and so on.
I'm kinda bad at explaining so apologies - but it's basically just 8 bit twos with that 2^8 added on in this case.
Original post by Kubsyy
That’s fine, I have the higher book but it didn’t really tell how to do this only with 8 bits (I guess it’s the same with 16 bit and two complement?) but I’ll look at it later. Enjoy your summer holidays and I wish you luck with exam results 😁
Same to you
Original post by Kubsyy
Hello guys, I want to ask, how would I solve this and convert any denary to binary to 16 bit twos complement?
You start off with the following 16 bit two's complement number:
1111 1110 1110 1011
Then you perform two's complement on this number, the steps are as follows:
1. Flip the bits (1 becomes 0, 0 becomes 1)
2. Add 1 to the number
Here is this in action:
Starting Number: 1111 1110 1110 1011
Flipped Number: 0000 0001 0001 0100
Add 1 to flipped: 0000 0001 0001 0101
You then have the number: 0000 0001 0001 0101
You can make it easier by stripping all of the zeros on the left before the one so you have: 1 0001 0101
If you put this under the following headings then you can get the value:
256 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1
You add it up:
256 + 16 + 4 + 1 = 277
and because the sign bit of the binary number is a 1 (indicating the number is negative), the answer is -277
This may help: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zsnbr82/revision/3
Hello. I know it’s early to ask a question from a past paper but I checked my higher computing book but it barely talks about floating point stuff and also I could make a note of it.
The question is from 2019:
The question is from 2019:
Original post by Kubsyy
Hello. I know it’s early to ask a question from a past paper but I checked my higher computing book but it barely talks about floating point stuff and also I could make a note of it.
The question is from 2019:
The question is from 2019:
Hi,
Essentially there are three steps:
1. Is the number positive or negative? Positive, then the sign bit = 0. Negative and the sign bit is 1.
2. What is the mantissa? We find this by moving the decimal point to a position where the binary number starts with 0. - In this case we find out mantissa by moving the decimal 3 places to the left to then get 0.110001, so from that our mantissa is just 110001. However, you wouldn't write it like this in this example. Note how is asks for 16 bits to be allocated to the mantissa? This means we must add trailing 0's to the number we just found above (110001) to get a final answer. Please note the sign bit is included in the mantissa bit count! So basically, the final mantissa is just 110001 000000000 (without the sign bit).
3. Finally - lets find the exponent. Now, remember you noted that number earlier (3)? This is when we use that. As we moved the decimal 3 places to the left, the 3 is positive (if it happened to move X amount to the right, X would be negative and you would simply use two's complement).
Lastly, as it asked for 8 bits to be allocated to the exponent - all you do is use your Nat5 skills to convert 3 into 8 bit binary. You should get something like 00000011.
Hope that helped a bit, not done this since May but this is what I remember.
Original post by nat5dawg
Afternoon
Just thought I'd drop some links to websites that really helped me revise for Higher Comp Sci this year:
- Great revision notes: https://sites.google.com/rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/rgc-highercomputing/home?authuser=0
- All the prelim papers (bar 2019): https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/braidhurstbuscom/computing-science/higher-computing-science/
Of course, the course content may change (again) this year - who knows - but the basis of it should be the same. For example, the majority of the content in all the past papers (2015-2018) was actually not included in the course for 2019, but a good few questions were still absolutely relevant.
My advice to those taking it this year is to focus mainly on the specimen paper (usually released in September) and also on the course specification. I really do stress reading and understanding the content in the course spec, because for numerous questions in the exam this year - they could be answered by just memorizing parts of the course spec (eg F/E cycle or intelligent systems). It's all about memorizing the theory and understanding the harder parts such as programming/web dev.
comp sci is hands down the best subject (not up for debate...) and higher, while it is naturally more difficult, is so much more fun than nat 5. enjoyyy
Just thought I'd drop some links to websites that really helped me revise for Higher Comp Sci this year:
- Great revision notes: https://sites.google.com/rgc.aberdeen.sch.uk/rgc-highercomputing/home?authuser=0
- All the prelim papers (bar 2019): https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/braidhurstbuscom/computing-science/higher-computing-science/
Of course, the course content may change (again) this year - who knows - but the basis of it should be the same. For example, the majority of the content in all the past papers (2015-2018) was actually not included in the course for 2019, but a good few questions were still absolutely relevant.
My advice to those taking it this year is to focus mainly on the specimen paper (usually released in September) and also on the course specification. I really do stress reading and understanding the content in the course spec, because for numerous questions in the exam this year - they could be answered by just memorizing parts of the course spec (eg F/E cycle or intelligent systems). It's all about memorizing the theory and understanding the harder parts such as programming/web dev.
comp sci is hands down the best subject (not up for debate...) and higher, while it is naturally more difficult, is so much more fun than nat 5. enjoyyy
Genuinely Thank you so much for this. I agree Computing is my favourite subject and I really want to get an A this year and get accepted of computing in uni
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- Computer Science
- Will A-Level grade boundaries be at 2019 levels?
- i need help
- I chose Computer Science GCSE OCR - help
- Data science bsc at LSE? (experience, advice)
- Gcse past papers
- Do worse advanced higher results overwrite good higher results in the same subject
- A-Level Further Maths 2023 Grade boundaries
- How likely will Lancaster give unconditional offer?
- grade boundaries this year
- What will A-level, GCSE and Vocational Qualifcations look like in 2023
- Stuck in a rut in life.
- Grade boundaries 2023 GCSE
- BSc Computer Science by Goldsmiths (University of London) via Coursera?
- Predict the 2023 Edexcel Maths grade boundaries and win an Amazon voucher!
- Back From My 4 Year Hiatus & Today Is My 10th TSRVersary! #AMA
- a level grade boundaries 2023
- a level arabic paper 1
- Changing Courses at Warwick from Economics to Discrete Maths
- Which two out of Edinburgh, UCL and Bath should I apply to for computer science?
Latest
Last reply 2 minutes ago
BAE systems degree apprenticeships September 2024Last reply 24 minutes ago
What is the difference between ejusdem generis and noscitur a sociis?Last reply 25 minutes ago
Official London School of Economics and Political Science 2024 Applicant ThreadLast reply 26 minutes ago
Risus eget quam volutpat nisl in. Posuere mauris quam quis interdum vestibulum. Sed pLast reply 30 minutes ago
Durham vs Exeter Finance/AccountingLast reply 35 minutes ago
British Airways Apprenticeships 2024Last reply 35 minutes ago
LSE politics and Economics 2023/2024Trending
Last reply 1 hour ago
SQA Higher Physics - Paper 2 - 25th April 2024 [Exam Chat]Last reply 1 day ago
SQA Higher Mathematics - Paper 1 Non-calculator - 13th May 2024 [Exam Chat]Last reply 3 days ago
SQA Nat 5 English - Critical Reading - 7th May 2024 [Exam Chat]Last reply 1 week ago
SQA Higher English - Critical Reading - 9th May 2024 [Exam Chat]Trending
Last reply 1 hour ago
SQA Higher Physics - Paper 2 - 25th April 2024 [Exam Chat]Last reply 1 day ago
SQA Higher Mathematics - Paper 1 Non-calculator - 13th May 2024 [Exam Chat]Last reply 3 days ago
SQA Nat 5 English - Critical Reading - 7th May 2024 [Exam Chat]Last reply 1 week ago
SQA Higher English - Critical Reading - 9th May 2024 [Exam Chat]
