At a glance
The course in numbers
How to read it. One row is one 45-minute lesson; its pack holds the plan, worksheet and quiz. The week column counts 3 lessons a week until you change the control above; the sheet you download uses the same numbers. Each topic ends at an assessment point, its question bank, which you can assign in the app for a marked score. The learning intention is the first idea of each lesson in the students' own pages; the traps are the examiner traps those pages pre-empt.
AS Level
Year 1: the AS topics
Weeks 1 to 20Topic 1Information representation
Weeks 1 to 3| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.1 | Binary and decimal prefixes | Open the prefixes mode of the lab and compare each decimal unit with its binary partner. |
| 1 | 1.1 | Binary, denary, hexadecimal and BCD | Use the lab to flip bits and watch the denary and hex values change together. |
| 1 | 1.1 | Two's complement and binary arithmetic | In the lab's two's complement mode, set the bits and watch the leftmost one count as −128. |
| 2 | 1.1 | Character sets: ASCII, extended ASCII and Unicode | Type some text into the lab and watch each character become its code and then its binary pattern. |
| 2 | 1.2 | Bitmap and vector graphics | In the lab, change the resolution and the colour depth of the image. |
| 2 | 1.2 | Sampled sound | In the lab, watch one millisecond of a sound wave being sampled. |
| 3 | 1.3 | Lossy and lossless compression, run-length encoding | In the lab, try the lossy mode on the image and turn the amount of compression up. |
| 3 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 42 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Read the symbol carefully.
- A capital B is bytes and a small b is bits. 100 Mbps is 100 000 000 bits per second, which is 12 500 000 bytes per second.
- Do not convert the whole number to binary and call it BCD.
Topic 2Communication
Weeks 3 to 5| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2.1 | LANs, WANs, client-server and peer-to-peer | Every networking question starts here: what does connecting the devices actually give you? |
| 3 | 2.1 | Network topologies and hardware | In the lab, choose a topology and click a computer, a cable or the switch to break it. |
| 4 | 2.1 | Cloud computing | "The cloud" is not in the sky. |
| 4 | 2.1 | Wired and wireless media, Ethernet and CSMA/CD | Compare media using the same four headings every time: bandwidth (bit rate), distance, interference and cost. |
| 4 | 2.1 | The internet and the world wide web | In the lab, send a message across a network of routers. |
| 5 | 2.1 | IP addressing and the domain name service | In the lab, click a device to see its MAC address and its IP address, switch between IPv4 and IPv6, and restart the router to see dynamic addresses change. |
| 5 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 36 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- "A WAN is a big LAN" earns nothing.
- Always tie a justification to the scenario. "Client-server is more secure" is weak; "the patient records are on one server, so access rights and backups are managed centrally" earns the mark.
- Thin and thick describe the client, not the server, and both still exist inside a client-server network.
Topic 3Hardware
Weeks 5 to 6| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 3.1 | Input, output and storage devices | Exam questions often ask you to justify a type of hardware rather than just name it. |
| 5 | 3.1 | RAM and ROM: SRAM, DRAM, PROM, EPROM and EEPROM | Both are primary memory: the CPU can address them directly. |
| 6 | 3.1 | Embedded systems, monitoring and control | Click the devices in the lab to see the embedded system inside each. |
| 6 | 3.2 | Logic gates | Pick a gate in the lab and switch its inputs on and off. |
| 6 | 3.2 | Logic circuits, truth tables and expressions | Choose an expression in the lab and watch it become a circuit, then switch the inputs to see the values travel through each gate. |
| 6 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 30 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Do not say secondary storage is needed "to store data": RAM stores data too.
- A touchscreen is both an input and an output device, and so is a VR headset (screens out, motion sensors in).
- A buffer does not make the printer itself faster.
Topic 4Processor fundamentals
Weeks 7 to 9| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 4.1 | The Von Neumann model and registers | Click each part in the lab to see what it does. |
| 7 | 4.1 | Buses, ports and processor performance | A bus is a set of parallel wires connecting the components of a computer. |
| 7 | 4.1 | The fetch-execute cycle in register transfer notation | Step through the cycle in the lab: each step shows its register transfer. |
| 8 | 4.1 | Interrupts | Without interrupts, the processor would have to keep checking every device to see whether it needed anything, wasting time. |
| 8 | 4.2 | Assembly language and the two-pass assembler | Load a program in the lab and run it: each line is one instruction, made of an opcode and (usually) an operand. |
| 8 | 4.2 | Addressing modes | In the lab, choose a mode, change the operand and the index register, and watch which memory location is used. |
| 9 | 4.2 | Tracing an assembly language program | Run the "Loop with OUT" and "Indexed addressing: total" programs in the lab and watch the trace table fill up row by row. |
| 9 | 4.3 | Shifts, masks and bit manipulation | In the lab, shift a byte left and right and watch the zeros enter and the end bits fall off. |
| 9 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 48 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- "Data and programs are stored in memory" is not enough to describe the stored program concept.
- The control unit does not do calculations.
- General purpose does not mean "used for everything at once".
Topic 5System Software
Weeks 9 to 10| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 5.1 | Why a computer needs an operating system | A bare computer is just hardware that obeys machine code. |
| 10 | 5.1 | Utility software and program libraries | Each utility exists because of a specific problem. |
| 10 | 5.2 | Assemblers, compilers and interpreters | Assembly language uses mnemonics that map closely to machine code instructions. |
| 10 | 5.2 | Features of an IDE | These features help while the code is being typed, before it is ever run. |
| 10 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 24 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- "The OS lets the computer run" earns nothing.
- Do not mix up the tasks.
- Defragmenting a solid state drive gives no speed benefit (it has no moving heads) and causes extra write operations that wear it out.
Topic 6Security, privacy and data integrity
Week 11| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 6.1 | Security, privacy and integrity of data | Think of a hospital database of patient records. |
| 11 | 6.1 | Threats to computer systems and how to protect them | In the lab, match each threat with the defences that work against it, test some passwords, then find the giveaway signs in a phishing email. |
| 11 | 6.2 | Validation and verification | In the lab, run each validation routine with normal, abnormal, extreme and boundary data and watch which values are rejected. |
| 11 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 18 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Do not define one term using another ("privacy means keeping data secure").
- A backup protects against loss of data.
- Encryption does not prevent hacking or interception.
Topic 7Ethics and ownership
Week 12| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 7.1 | Ethics and professional codes of conduct | The law sets the minimum a person must do. |
| 12 | 7.1 | Copyright and software licensing | Software is easy to copy perfectly and share instantly. |
| 12 | 7.1 | The impact of artificial intelligence | An ordinary program follows rules a programmer wrote for every case. |
| 12 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 18 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- "Ethics means obeying the law" is not enough.
- In a "discuss the impact" question, one side is not enough.
- Buying software does not mean you own the program.
Topic 8Databases
Weeks 13 to 14| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 8.1 | Relational databases and keys | Before databases, each department wrote its own program with its own data files. |
| 13 | 8.1 | Entity-relationship diagrams | To find the degree of a relationship, ask the question both ways round: "one A has how many B?" and "one B has how many A?". |
| 13 | 8.1 | Normalisation to third normal form | A sixth-form college records which courses each student takes. |
| 14 | 8.2 | Database management systems | Each feature of a DBMS answers one of the problems of the file-based approach. |
| 14 | 8.3 | SQL data definition language | SQL has two halves. |
| 14 | 8.3 | SQL data manipulation language | Every example in this lesson uses the library tables below. |
| 14 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 36 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Redundancy and inconsistency are not the same thing.
- Referential integrity is about foreign keys matching primary keys.
- Always ask the question in both directions. "A customer places many orders" on its own does not tell you whether the relationship is 1:M or M:M.
Topic 9Algorithm design and problem-solving
Week 15| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 9.1 | Abstraction and decomposition | A real system holds far more detail than any program can or should handle. |
| 15 | 9.2 | Structured English, flowcharts and pseudocode | Fig. 1 is an algorithm: a finite sequence of defined steps that always does the same thing for the same input. |
| 15 | 9.2 | Stepwise refinement | A car park charges drivers when they leave. |
| 15 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 18 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Saying abstraction "makes it simpler" is too vague for the mark.
- An abstract model depends on the purpose.
- Do not call a function with CALL.
Topic 10Data types and structures
Weeks 16 to 17| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 10.1 | Data types and records | Pick the type from what the data is and what the program must do with it. |
| 16 | 10.2 | 1D and 2D arrays | Declare the array with its bounds and data type, then use a loop variable as the index to visit every element in turn. |
| 16 | 10.2 | Linear search and bubble sort | In the lab, search for a value that is in the list and then for one that is not. |
| 17 | 10.3 | Text files | Any data that must outlive a single run of a program has to be saved somewhere other than main memory. |
| 17 | 10.4 | Stacks, queues and linked lists | In the lab, push a few values, then pop them. |
| 17 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 30 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- "Phone number: INTEGER because it is a number" loses the mark.
- TYPE...
- The index belongs to the array, not the field: Library[12].Copies, never Library.Copies[12].
Topic 11Programming
Weeks 17 to 18| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 11.1 | Variables, constants and built-in functions | Exam questions give you a design as a program flowchart or as structured English and ask for pseudocode. |
| 18 | 11.2 | Selection and iteration constructs | An IF statement chooses between two paths. |
| 18 | 11.3 | Procedures and functions | Use a procedure when a task is needed in more than one place, or to break a large problem into separate modules, and the task does not need to hand back a single value (it outputs something, or changes data). |
| 18 | 11.3 | Passing parameters by value and by reference | With BYVAL the procedure receives a copy of the value. |
| 18 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 24 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- CONSTANT VAT = Price * 0.2 is not allowed: a constant must be a literal.
- 17 / 5 is 3.4, not 3.
- In the 9618 guide UCASE and LCASE take a single CHAR, and string positions start at 1.
Topic 12Software development
Weeks 19 to 20| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 12.1 | Program development life cycles | Whatever life cycle a team follows, the same five kinds of work have to be done. |
| 19 | 12.2 | Structure charts | Read Fig. 1 from the top down and from left to right. |
| 19 | 12.2 | State-transition diagrams | Follow Fig. 1 with your finger. |
| 20 | 12.3 | Types of error and testing methods | The type of an error depends on when and how it shows itself (Fig. 1). |
| 20 | 12.3 | Test data and maintenance | In the lab, the age check accepts 11 to 18. |
| 20 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 30 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Name the stage that matches the activity.
- "Waterfall is old so it is bad" earns nothing.
- A structure chart does not show the detailed steps inside a module, and it is not a flowchart.
A Level (A2)
Year 2: the A2 topics
Weeks 20 to 31Topic 13Data representation
Weeks 20 to 21| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 13.1 | User-defined data types | User-defined types are necessary because a language cannot predict every kind of data. |
| 21 | 13.2 | File organisation, access and hashing | The organisation is fixed when records are written. |
| 21 | 13.3 | Floating-point binary representation | In fixed point the binary point is in the same place for every number, so a few bits give either a small range or poor precision. |
| 21 | 13.3 | Normalisation, range and precision | Leading 0s on a positive mantissa (or leading 1s on a negative one) carry no information: they just take up bits that could hold significant digits. |
| 21 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 24 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Writing TYPE Season = ("Spring", "Summer",...) loses the mark.
- A set is not an array: it has no index and no order, and adding a value that is already present changes nothing.
- Serial and sequential are not the same.
Topic 14Communication and internet technologies
Week 22| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 14.1 | The TCP/IP protocol suite | A protocol is to computers what a shared language plus a set of manners is to people: both sides must agree on it before any communication can happen. |
| 22 | 14.1 | HTTP, FTP, POP3, IMAP, SMTP and BitTorrent | In the lab, switch to Protocols and click each one to see what it moves and in which direction. |
| 22 | 14.2 | Circuit switching and packet switching | In the lab, switch to "Circuit or packet": in the top network one route is reserved and every piece of data follows it. |
| 22 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 18 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- "A protocol lets computers communicate" is too vague for the mark.
- Do not mix up the addresses.
- Sequence numbers are added by the Transport layer, not by IP, and it is TCP at the receiver that reorders the data and requests lost segments.
Topic 15Hardware and virtual machines
Weeks 23 to 24| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 15.1 | RISC and CISC processors and pipelining | The two designs make opposite trade-offs. |
| 23 | 15.1 | Parallel processing architectures | An instruction stream is a sequence of instructions being executed; a data stream is a sequence of data items being processed. |
| 23 | 15.1 | Virtual machines | A guest operating system cannot tell the difference between real hardware and the emulated hardware that the virtual machine software gives it. |
| 24 | 15.2 | Boolean algebra | Each law below is true for every combination of inputs, which you can check with a truth table. |
| 24 | 15.2 | Karnaugh maps | Each cell is one row of the truth table. |
| 24 | 15.2 | Half adders, full adders and flip-flops | Adding two single bits gives a two-bit answer: 1 + 1 = 10 in binary, a sum of 0 and a carry of 1. |
| 24 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 36 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Do not say RISC processors "cannot do" complex operations.
- Pipelining does not make a single instruction faster: each one still passes through all five stages.
- When a pipeline is flushed, the discarded instructions are not lost: the saved program counter points to the first one that did not complete, so they are fetched again after the ISR.
Topic 16System Software
Weeks 25 to 26| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 16.1 | Process states and scheduling | At A Level you need to explain HOW the OS gets the most out of the hardware, not just list what it manages. |
| 25 | 16.1 | Paging, segmentation and virtual memory | Both schemes let the OS place a process in memory in pieces, so memory can be shared efficiently between many processes. |
| 25 | 16.2 | The stages of compilation | At AS Level you compared compilers and interpreters. |
| 26 | 16.2 | BNF and syntax diagrams | This grammar defines identifiers made from a small set of letters and digits. |
| 26 | 16.2 | Reverse Polish notation | Infix expressions are easy for people but awkward for a translator: it has to look ahead, apply precedence (* and / before + and −) and match brackets. |
| 26 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 30 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- A blocked process never goes straight to running.
- SJF is non-pre-emptive: once a job starts it runs to the end.
- Do not say segments and pages are both fixed size.
Topic 17Security
Weeks 26 to 27| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | 17.1 | Symmetric and asymmetric encryption, quantum cryptography | In the lab, type a message and pick a key. |
| 27 | 17.1 | SSL and TLS | In the lab, follow a URL to a web server. |
| 27 | 17.1 | Digital signatures and digital certificates | Anyone can generate a key pair and claim it belongs to a bank. |
| 27 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 18 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- "Encryption stops hackers getting the data" is wrong.
- Never say the sender encrypts a private message with their own private key.
- Quantum cryptography does not stop someone intercepting the photons.
Topic 18Artificial Intelligence
Weeks 27 to 28| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 18.1 | Graphs in AI: Dijkstra's and A* algorithms | Many AI problems are really questions about connections: which places are linked, which game positions can follow each other, which actions lead to the goal. |
| 28 | 18.1 | Machine learning: supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement | Traditional programs follow rules written by a programmer. |
| 28 | 18.1 | Neural networks, deep learning and back propagation | An artificial neuron is loosely modelled on a brain cell: it receives signals, combines them, and fires a signal of its own. |
| 28 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 18 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- The syllabus does not ask you to write code for a graph or a search.
- The edge A to B is the most direct way to B, but it is not the shortest: 4 is beaten by A → C → B = 3.
- Do not stop A* when the goal first appears in the open list.
Topic 19Computational thinking and problem-solving
Weeks 28 to 30| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | 19.1 | Binary search | In the lab, search for a value and step through. |
| 29 | 19.1 | Insertion sort and comparing sorts | In the lab, step through an insertion sort. |
| 29 | 19.1 | Stacks, queues, linked lists and binary trees | In the lab, fill the circular queue, dequeue a few items and enqueue again: the rear pointer wraps round to index 0. |
| 29 | 19.1 | Comparing algorithms: Big O notation | Timing two programs with a stopwatch is not a fair test: the result depends on the processor, the language, the compiler and whatever else is running. |
| 30 | 19.2 | Recursion and the call stack | Factorial is the classic first example: 4! = 4 × 3 × 2 × 1, and 4! = 4 × 3!. |
| 30 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 30 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- "A binary search splits the list in half" is not enough for the marks.
- Do not use the loop condition Low < High.
- Do not say a binary search is "always faster".
Topic 20Further Programming
Weeks 30 to 31| Week | Ref | Lesson | Learning intention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 20.1 | Low-level, imperative and declarative paradigms | A paradigm is not a language: it is a way of thinking about a program. |
| 30 | 20.1 | Object-oriented programming | In the 9618 pseudocode a class is written between CLASS and ENDCLASS. |
| 31 | 20.2 | Serial, sequential and random file processing | A text file is a series of lines read and written one after another as strings. |
| 31 | 20.2 | Exception handling | Syntax errors stop a program being translated; logic errors give wrong answers. |
| 31 | Assessment point | Topic question bank, 24 multiple-choice questions: print or review, or assign in the app for a marked score. |
Examiner traps to pre-empt:
- Do not describe a paradigm by naming a language. "Prolog" earns nothing; "the program is a set of facts and rules, and a goal is satisfied by searching them" earns the mark.
- Variables must start with a capital letter and constants with a lower-case letter.
- A class and an object are not the same thing.
Also for this course
Beyond the scheme
Lesson packs92 packs: plan, worksheet, quiz
Question bankBuild a test from every course
PlannerBlock out the term
Classes and gradebookAssign the banks, track everyone
Student syllabus pageA-Level Computer Science 9618
Original work by the TheLucidSTEM team. Week numbers assume 3 lessons a week unless you change the control; the download carries the numbers shown.