The A level specification has 362 computer science terms that students need to be familiar with. These are often the basis of questions in exams that ask students to “state…”, “describe…”. and “explain”. Revising and understanding these terms can make a real difference to exam results and student confidence.

Provided as both a PowerPoint presentation and a Word document, we have poured over the specification and picked out all the key terms students need to know. There is a blank version with terms but no definitions you can give to students if you’d like them to complete it as you cover the course, and another version with all the definitions.

SOURCES

The examination board recommend using the British Computer Society (BCS) Glossary for definitions. Therefore we use this as our starting point. We then adapt the definitions based on past-paper mark schemes and what we know to be important points to mention when describing, comparing and contrasting. Some terms would require students to also know advantages and disadvantages of a concept so where relevant we include those too.

WALL DISPLAY

Some schools have printed all the slides of the key terminology resource to create a wall display of the terms.

LIVING DOCUMENT

We will be updating the key terminology resource to use more succinct definitions that will be easier for students to remember in the future. As a subscriber to our resources you would have access to the latest updates.