Higher Computing Science 2015-2016

OP

I thought so too

rbh i dont mean to be boastful or anything but I think I'm pretty good at computing - the first few programming questions were easy but the for the first part of the one with the athletes - pretty much i think almost everyone in my school didn't understand it

I found the minimum though that was okay, but i didnt mention the variable in part (a),

also for the one where you had to search for both B's in the exam scores, did you just name the arrays by SDD and ISDD (the names of the columns in the results table given)

Yeah I found it hard, I'm aiming for an A but I think I might get a B, I got the theory questions and stuff ok, I actually got the subroutines and function stuff, but the coding part was difficult... Overall I don't think I did that well, probably just bang on 50%..

I don't even remember what I got for the coding for the grade program.. I knew I f'ed it up

Reply 181

freeze_

The problem with the athlete's question was that it was in record structure which is generally not taught as much as arrays. I know in our class we have certainly never once learned how to do record structure in pseudo-code - I felt like I did okay on it but that's solely because I'd taught myself a bit of it before on the offhand chance it came up (but even with that I'm sure I messed it up at least a little bit). Had the exact same question been about array structure I guarantee most people who have a basic understanding of computing would have dealt with it a lot better.

And yeah, I'm almost certain the names "SDD" and "ISDD" are completely fine array names. Anything giving you a basic understanding of what's in the array should constitute an "appropriate" name (in this particular context, anyway). I think I went with "SDDGrades" and "ISDDGrades" myself.

Reply 182

qasim-98

OP

3

How did everyone declare their athletes variable?? Get ready to laugh at mine

Record athleteData is { atheletes(7) }

I was panicking ok

Reply 183

Hamza33

2

Original post by qasim-98

How did everyone declare their athletes variable?? Get ready to laugh at mine

Record athleteData is { atheletes(7) }

I was panicking ok

Dim athletes(7) AS athleteData

Reply 184

Tayls102

9

i thought 15.b was very vague, didn't really understand what it was asking. I didn't like the question about how the online form was generated, but everything else i thought was ok. I agree it was pretty similar to last years in difficulty and when i first went through the paper it seemed pretty hard, but i had a second read once i had finished and most of the questions were basic. Think the grade boundaries will be lowered slightly though, especially for 15.b. most of the people in my class left after an hour before i had even finished it with still about 3 questions left, there was only me and someone else in the exam room.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 185

Tayls102

9

Original post by Hamza33

Dim athletes(7) AS athleteData

Thats what i put, what did you put for 15.b?

Reply 186

Hamza33

2

For counter = 0 to 7
athletes = inputbox("enter data for athlete")
End for

Original post by Tayls102

Thats what i put, what did you put for 15.b?

Reply 187

spring_roll

1

Original post by qasim-98

How did everyone declare their athletes variable?? Get ready to laugh at mine

Record athleteData is { atheletes(7) }

I was panicking ok

i used livecode (language our school teaches):

put 0 into athletes

I didn't actually understand it since it said it contains data about the athletes - but clearly 8 is the number of athletes

but that was 2 marks though, so I think you get 1 just for naming the parameter 'athletes'

Reply 188

spring_roll

1

Original post by freeze_

The problem with the athlete's question was that it was in record structure which is generally not taught as much as arrays. I know in our class we have certainly never once learned how to do record structure in pseudo-code - I felt like I did okay on it but that's solely because I'd taught myself a bit of it before on the offhand chance it came up (but even with that I'm sure I messed it up at least a little bit). Had the exact same question been about array structure I guarantee most people who have a basic understanding of computing would have dealt with it a lot better.

And yeah, I'm almost certain the names "SDD" and "ISDD" are completely fine array names. Anything giving you a basic understanding of what's in the array should constitute an "appropriate" name (in this particular context, anyway). I think I went with "SDDGrades" and "ISDDGrades" myself.

i think this is what i wrote

put 0 into counter_pupil (stores number of times both grades are B)
repeat with loop = 1 to 7 (no. of pupils i think)
if SDD[loop]="B" and ISDD[loop]="B" then add 1 to counter_pupil
end repeat
return counter_pupil

5 marks though just for that? jeezo

Reply 189

lewman99

11

Original post by Tayls102

Thats what i put, what did you put for 15.b?

For 15b, I put something like:

athletes(7) = {"Salma","Hussain",the other numbers I can't remember (in the order of the table, same as the record structure)}

Reply 190

Tayls102

9

Original post by spring_roll

i used livecode (language our school teaches):

put 0 into athletes

I didn't actually understand it since it said it contains data about the athletes - but clearly 8 is the number of athletes

but that was 2 marks though, so I think you get 1 just for naming the parameter 'athletes'

I've come across this type of question before, and the way it was marked was you'd get one mark for the size of the array, i.e. Athlete(7), and one mark for the array's data type, i.e. AthleteData.

i don't know how you'd write it in live code, but for visual basic it is this:
Dim Athlete(7) As AthleteData.

Reply 191

qasim-98

OP

3

Can anyone get a hold of the paper and post it on here?

Reply 192

username2548927

18

Original post by qasim-98

Can anyone get a hold of the paper and post it on here?

Nah I doubt it will be leaked online it's not really a popular subject, Nat 5 and higher wasn't leaked last year it will most likely be the same this year. There was only like 20 people out of 2 full years doing the higher in my school.

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Reply 193

Ethan100

15

Sorry to bother you.

Im doing my ISDD Website report.

What types of things do they want you to say for the hardware,software, connectivity and backing storage requirements ?
Also, what are the precautions that can be taking to tackle hacking as a security risk on the website ?

Thanks :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 194

PTS_99

10

Original post by Ethan100

Sorry to bother you.

Im doing my ISDD Website report.

What types of things do they want you to say for the hardware,software, connectivity and backing storage requirements ?
Also, what are the precautions that can be taking to tackle hacking as a security risk on the website ?

Thanks :smile:

Hardware:
- Talk about backing storage & that required by the website (very low). Same with RAM (although low, more is preferred to deal with many simultaneous requests)
- For CPU I just said that it had to be capable of dealing with hundreds or thousands of simultaneous requests without crashing
- Has to have a network interface card (and go onto bandwidth there as well)

Software:
- Database software if necessary
- Web hosting software (state any impact on hardware requirements this may have in that section as well)
- The operating system and you could mention any other services the server could provide if required (again mention impact on hardware requirements)

Also mention the needs of the end user - what hardware do they need to view the website, what software (up to date browser, any plugins). Could also mention mobile devices.

For security there's one keyword you need to have in there: firewall.

Reply 195

nanosirena

i know that this may be an old thread but ill tell you about my experience with Higher computing. I basically crashed higher in 5th year. Bad mistake. There were only 7 people doing it throughout 5th and 6th year despite our school having around 1300 pupils. Our teacher was a good human but a really bad teacher. Especially me, where i was crashing, she made things seem really complicated and even sometimes she couldn't answer some questions. We then did the coursework which was out of 60. Only got 29. Thats because my program was flawless but she did not even half teach us databases correctly. I failed the higher exam. I then moved house and i had to change school and i re-took higher computing again. I got 84% in the prelim and i just finished my coursework with 60/60. People argue that its because ive already done it, but its actually my new teacher that is very, very good. There are 4 crash highers and they also got A's and B's in the prelim. SO whats my point? The Higher course can be achieved if you put enough work and you generally have a passion. Good luck y'all

Reply 196

DemBoiPaigon

2

Original post by nanosirena

i know that this may be an old thread but ill tell you about my experience with Higher computing. I basically crashed higher in 5th year. Bad mistake. There were only 7 people doing it throughout 5th and 6th year despite our school having around 1300 pupils. Our teacher was a good human but a really bad teacher. Especially me, where i was crashing, she made things seem really complicated and even sometimes she couldn't answer some questions. We then did the coursework which was out of 60. Only got 29. Thats because my program was flawless but she did not even half teach us databases correctly. I failed the higher exam. I then moved house and i had to change school and i re-took higher computing again. I got 84% in the prelim and i just finished my coursework with 60/60. People argue that its because ive already done it, but its actually my new teacher that is very, very good. There are 4 crash highers and they also got A's and B's in the prelim. SO whats my point? The Higher course can be achieved if you put enough work and you generally have a passion. Good luck y'all

Same bro

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Reply 197

Elixis

8

Original post by nanosirena

i know that this may be an old thread but ill tell you about my experience with Higher computing. I basically crashed higher in 5th year. Bad mistake. There were only 7 people doing it throughout 5th and 6th year despite our school having around 1300 pupils. Our teacher was a good human but a really bad teacher. Especially me, where i was crashing, she made things seem really complicated and even sometimes she couldn't answer some questions. We then did the coursework which was out of 60. Only got 29. Thats because my program was flawless but she did not even half teach us databases correctly. I failed the higher exam. I then moved house and i had to change school and i re-took higher computing again. I got 84% in the prelim and i just finished my coursework with 60/60. People argue that its because ive already done it, but its actually my new teacher that is very, very good. There are 4 crash highers and they also got A's and B's in the prelim. SO whats my point? The Higher course can be achieved if you put enough work and you generally have a passion. Good luck y'all

This gives me hope.

Reply 198

DemBoiPaigon

2

Original post by Elixis

This gives me hope.

Lol I crashed higher and bunked 70% of the whole year and still got an A. It's only as hard as you make it. My course work mark was normal it wasn't as high as anyone's else either.

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