PAPER 2 EXAM PRACTICE

Most students tend to struggle with the programming side of assessment in the exam. Therefore all the dedicated programming lessons in year 11 on our scheme of learning are revision for the paper 2 on screen exam.

Students have learnt how to program independently using our resources and activities in year 10. In year 11 we change the focus to honing these computational thinking and programming skills by preparing them for the on screen exam.

All our activities are designed to tackle one of the four “question focus” areas from the specification: Design, Program, Evaluate and Refine.

Examples of activities include:

• Identifying appropriate data types
• Designing solutions to problems
• Refining algorithms written in Python, flowcharts and natural English
• Using trace tables
• Identifying appropriate test data
• Writing algorithms from scratch based on scenarios in Python.

NEW ASSESSMENT MODEL

As a student’s ability to program is now entirely assessed through an on screen practical exam in Python there is a much greater emphasis on accurate coding than in the previous specification.

Notice should be paid to the following three extracts from the specification:

Learning to program is a core is a core component of a computer science course. Students should be competent at designing, reading, writing and debugging programs. They must be able to apply their skills to solve real problems and produce readable, robust programs.

We have adopted Python programming language as a vehicle to explore, learn and assess the aspects of problem solving and programming covered in this specification. The requirements of this qualification can be met using the Python 3 programming language. Centres are advised to choose the most up-to-date version of an interpreter than supports Python 3.

Students will need experience using an IDE to write, run and debug their programming code. Developing skills using an IDE will allow students to be more productive, especially in time-constrained activities. A suitable IDE includes these functionalities:

• an editor, with line numbers
• a syntax highlighter and checker
• breakpoints and stepping
• a variable inspector.

Our resources will help prepare your students for these new focus questions.