WJEC Computing CG3 June 23

Original post by bluenose

theteacher99 practically took me through CG1, can i do the same with CG3?

thanks

Pretty much. Also use the ZigZag guide thats specifically made for WJEC I think.

Am not sure where you could obtain a copy but contact your school and ask if they can get hold of one.

NOTE: ZigZag Revision Guide is not free

Reply 22

Original post by humphrey23

Pretty much. Also use the ZigZag guide thats specifically made for WJEC I think.

Am not sure where you could obtain a copy but contact your school and ask if they can get hold of one.

NOTE: ZigZag Revision Guide is not free

thanks! I hope CG1 went well and i do decent in CG3. I need a B in this minimum as with my other 2 a-levels i look set to hit my targets.

I had got 84/100 in CG2 and 75/100 in CG4. Hopefully things work out!

Reply 23

Original post by bluenose

thanks! I hope CG1 went well and i do decent in CG3. I need a B in this minimum as with my other 2 a-levels i look set to hit my targets.

I had got 84/100 in CG2 and 75/100 in CG4. Hopefully things work out!

I got CG2 - 91/100
CG4 - 100/100
CG1 - Just missed an A in UMS don't know raw mark.

CG3 - need above 80 for an A*. One can hope lol.

Reply 24

Original post by humphrey23

I got CG2 - 91/100
CG4 - 100/100
CG1 - Just missed an A in UMS don't know raw mark.

CG3 - need above 80 for an A*. One can hope lol.

wow! Haha well seeing as your CG4 was so high i'm sure its possible! How on earth did you get that?

Reply 25

Zuzuzu

12

Hmm... it appears I'm the only person who finds the exam better than the coursework, both on here and in school.

Reply 26

Original post by bluenose

wow! Haha well seeing as your CG4 was so high i'm sure its possible! How on earth did you get that?

190 pages of code for the program and about 330 pages overall.

A couple of all nighters but all in all not bad considering.

I am a bit of a coursework man though lol. Its the exams that confuzzle me lol.

You did better than most people in my class though and check the examinors report on CG4 and the average raw mark nationally was around 50-something. So yeah you did good yourself.

Reply 27

Original post by humphrey23

190 pages of code for the program and about 330 pages overall.

A couple of all nighters but all in all not bad considering.

I am a bit of a coursework man though lol. Its the exams that confuzzle me lol.

You did better than most people in my class though and check the examinors report on CG4 and the average raw mark nationally was around 50-something. So yeah you did good yourself.

Ah but my program was fairly simple. Was a ticketing system for a small cricket club lol. What scenario did you come up with?

My coursework came up to 160 pages around, and 40 to 50 being coding. I missed out installation as well, but that was only a mark :P

Reply 28

Original post by bluenose

Ah but my program was fairly simple. Was a ticketing system for a small cricket club lol. What scenario did you come up with?

My coursework came up to 160 pages around, and 40 to 50 being coding. I missed out installation as well, but that was only a mark :P

lol yeah it was. Erm mine was to make a ordering system for materials for four departments at my school. Calculated and did pretty much everything lol. In the end i just thought why didn't i pick an easier option

Reply 29

THIS THREAD IS SMALL

How is everyone getting on with revision? I seem to remember alot more about computing from in class than any other subject, has anyone else found this? Or have I just crossed the line between academic and nerdy :albertein:

. Anybody got any good revision tips, I'm planning on just going over and over the teacher and doing past paper questions.

Reply 30

Original post by DCRichards

THIS THREAD IS SMALL

How is everyone getting on with revision? I seem to remember alot more about computing from in class than any other subject, has anyone else found this? Or have I just crossed the line between academic and nerdy :albertein:

. Anybody got any good revision tips, I'm planning on just going over and over the teacher and doing past paper questions.

Exactly. Exam must have smallest number of candidates sitting it.

You must have a very good teacher. Literally all my revision takes place at home and any learning is usually not because of our teacher lol. Only good for marking coursework lol.

How are you revising the bit where you make an algorithm?

It says to use pseudocode or a language. I used VB6 (which got me 100 in CG4) but got me 1 mark out of howevermany in the actual exam in January.

Reply 31

Original post by humphrey23

Exactly. Exam must have smallest number of candidates sitting it.

You must have a very good teacher. Literally all my revision takes place at home and any learning is usually not because of our teacher lol. Only good for marking coursework lol.

How are you revising the bit where you make an algorithm?

It says to use pseudocode or a language. I used VB6 (which got me 100 in CG4) but got me 1 mark out of howevermany in the actual exam in January.

I've done the algorithms a bit in class, the lecturer just picked a few questions an let us all have a go, then we went through them as a class. I suppose past paper questions are the best way to revise them. I would advise using pseudocode as it's clearer, and although VB is fairly self documenting, pseudocode is better for that. The main points you need to think about are:

-Start and Stop at the beginning and end
-Initialise (declare/dim in vb terms) all variables, I like to use "SET Var = 1" or "Set Var equal to 1" (there's no reason not to use words, it might make things clearer in some cases)
-try and make it efficient. Use loops, if statements, case statements
-Arrays are a great way to save time if you're asked to read in x values for some kind of analysis (eg the highest and lowest value)
-try and use a structure, use indentation like you see in vb
-Make sure it works! Once you've written the code, go through it and make sure it does what is asked.

EG:

START
SET i = 0
SET Variable = 0
FOR i = 0 to 50 LOOP
{indent} Variable = Variable + i
END LOOP
OUTPUT Variable
STOP

This is a crap example, but it's kind of what I'm getting at. Does this help?

Edit: The indent didn't show up, so I used curly brackets :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 32

Cheers man. Its this, BNF, normalisation and syntax diagrams that can stop me getting an A*.

Reply 33

This computing exam is really annoying, It doesn't help that i've got a 2 hour Economics exam in the afternoon of the exam as well!

Hows everyone getting along, its a long shot but my teachers were absolute garbage with teaching and when i've been revising this stuff using the teacher99 and zig zag guide, i'm practically learning the stuff. do the teacher and zig zag guides go in to enough detail for me to walk out the exam with a B?

Reply 34

Original post by bluenose

This computing exam is really annoying, It doesn't help that i've got a 2 hour Economics exam in the afternoon of the exam as well!

Hows everyone getting along, its a long shot but my teachers were absolute garbage with teaching and when i've been revising this stuff using the teacher99 and zig zag guide, i'm practically learning the stuff. do the teacher and zig zag guides go in to enough detail for me to walk out the exam with a B?

They go into enough detail for you to walk out of the exam with an A! It would be worth doing questions and looking at mark schemes though, there are certain words and key phrases that you only tend to get in the mark schemes. The best example is the third normal form definition, which I kid you not is "dependent on the whole key, and nothing but the key" which is a stupid answer, but if it gets marks, go with it. The teacher is the best resource by far, the zig zag guide is okay, but it doesn't cover as much detail as the teacher. There are some powerpoints from my college that I posted on the previous page, they might help you too. Good luck! :smile:

Reply 35

Original post by DCRichards

They go into enough detail for you to walk out of the exam with an A! It would be worth doing questions and looking at mark schemes though, there are certain words and key phrases that you only tend to get in the mark schemes. The best example is the third normal form definition, which I kid you not is "dependent on the whole key, and nothing but the key" which is a stupid answer, but if it gets marks, go with it. The teacher is the best resource by far, the zig zag guide is okay, but it doesn't cover as much detail as the teacher. There are some powerpoints from my college that I posted on the previous page, they might help you too. Good luck! :smile:

Thanks a Million! I'm so dreading this exam! I hope i do well! Good luck to you too! that is if you're taking it :biggrin:

Reply 36

Original post by bluenose

Thanks a Million! I'm so dreading this exam! I hope i do well! Good luck to you too! that is if you're taking it :biggrin:

Thanks!

Yeah I am taking it. You'll be fine, 3 hours is longer than you need so just take your time and chill :cool:

. I was pretty much the only person in my class who used the whole 3 hours in CG1 and it paid off, I only dropped 2 UMS. Actually, do you have the mark schemes for any of the papers? If you don't I have PDF copies of ones from 2008 onwards. Let me know if you want me to put them up, and which ones, as it might take a while to do them all :smile:

Reply 37

Original post by DCRichards

Thanks!

Yeah I am taking it. You'll be fine, 3 hours is longer than you need so just take your time and chill :cool:

. I was pretty much the only person in my class who used the whole 3 hours in CG1 and it paid off, I only dropped 2 UMS. Actually, do you have the mark schemes for any of the papers? If you don't I have PDF copies of ones from 2008 onwards. Let me know if you want me to put them up, and which ones, as it might take a while to do them all :smile:

I've got them i think from googling around. thanks though!

haha wow! For some reason i can't find a technique in answering these questions. I think i know the answer but when the marks come back i didn't get what i thought i'd get.

Any guesses in what is more likely to come up? There seems to be loads to remember and this exam is stressing me out!

Reply 38

JontyC

Original post by bluenose

I've got them i think from googling around. thanks though!

haha wow! For some reason i can't find a technique in answering these questions. I think i know the answer but when the marks come back i didn't get what i thought i'd get.

Any guesses in what is more likely to come up? There seems to be loads to remember and this exam is stressing me out!

I'm the same, I always 'know' the stuff, but i can never put down how they're wanting it, so i end up dropping silly marks for not knowing how to answer it. I've learnt you just have to be very explicit with your answers.

Reply 39