(Almost) All The Algorithms You Need To Know For OCR A Level Computer Science (version 2.0)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

I didn't plan on making a second iteration to this resource but then I realised having it in a presentation format is much more convenient than the original. As before, it contains the same 17 algorithms:

1. Linear Search
2. Iterative Binary Search
3. Recursive Binary Search
4. Bubble Sort
5. Insertion Sort 
6. Merge Sort
7. Quick Sort
8. Dijkstra's Algorithm
9. A* Search Algorithm
10. Depth-first Graph Traversal
11. Breadth-first Graph Traversal
12. Algorithm For Outputting Linked List In Order
13. Algorithm For Searching Item in Linked List
14. Queue PUSH Operation
15. Queue POP Operation
16. Stack PUSH Operation
17. Stack POP Operation

Here's the link: (Almost) All The Algorithms You Need To Know For OCR A Level Computer Science (v2.0)

Hope this helps!

OCR A Level Computer Science 101: Computer Architecture

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

Was writing my personal statement yesterday and then the Internet died so I not only didn't finish it, but I also missed yesterday's post. Anyway, I've completed my UCAS application today which is quite early considering it's still only September and I would definitely advise you all to try and finish it asap.

Whether or not you're applying for Oxbridge, medicine, vet med or dentistry, I think it's a good idea to try and get your application out of the way so you can focus on your A levels. Plus, the personal statement can take a bit of time to write so take that into consideration before starting your application.

Whatever you do, DO NOT leave it till January and apply on deadline day, it won't do you or your application any favours. The timing of your application can make a difference as well. Sending it earlier will show unis that you're punctual and well organised. If your deadline isn't October 15, then I would advise sending your application straight after the Oxbridge deadline.

Anyway, that wasn't the purpose of today's post. I found this handy presentation covering pretty much everything of section 1.1 of the spec. It's not strictly catered to the H046/H446 spec so there's a few things missing but most of this stuff is still applicable to OCR's course.

Don't forget the sneak peek of my revision guide includes all of the section 1.1 content and it is as clear and concise as you can get. That's all from me for now. Enjoy!

Here's the link: Computer Architecture Presentation

Hope this helps!

A Sneak Peek At My Revision Guide

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

I know what you're thinking, WHERE WERE YOU?! Well, as the more intuitive among you may be able to decipher from what the title suggests, I was busy writing the revision guide I said I wanted to make a long time ago.

It's still not finished but since I haven't posted for 4 days (which would have been 5 if I didn't have the decency to post today either), I thought I might as well give a sneak peek of things to come. 

I'd say the revision guide is about 60% completed more or less (which is pretty impressive since I literally started to work on it 6 days ago). The designing of it took longer than writing the actual content strangely enough as I wanted this revision guide to be really unique but more importantly, really concise. 

I've written 20 pages and I reckon it will take about 20 pages more to complete it which includes the title page, contents page, index page, glossary page and what have you. I guess I just want some feedback as well on this now that I'm just over half way through. You could say I'm doing some beta testing.

I still have no idea when I will finish this. I want to finish it before the end of 2017 but I also don't want to rush it. And I also need a break because this takes A LOT of effort so for the time being I'll be back to posting daily InShaAllah and resume writing my revision guide in the near future InShaAllah.

That's all for now folks, check out the revision guide and make sure to leave some comments below! Honestly, I need to know i'm not talking to a brick wall here, talk to me people! Say anything, anything at all!

Here's the link: (Almost) Everything You Need To Know For OCR A Level Computer Science (v0.0)

Hope this helps!

A bit of an unusual ending, but I really need to change these labels.

Some Interview Preparation Tips, Links & Documents For Computer Science

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

This post may or may not be of use to you (depending on if you're planning on doing a Computer Science degree at a university where they require an interview). Anyway, it's nearly the UCAS deadline for Oxbridge, Medicine, Dentistry & Veterinary Medicine applications so I thought I'd share a couple of interview preparation resources.

Most unis don't require an interview for Computer Science but a few such as Cambridge, Oxford (duh) and Imperial do. Interviews may seem like a nightmare, so much so they may even put you off from applying to a certain university but don't worry, there's plenty of help at hand! And I don't just mean this blog, there's tons of interview preparation resources and material all over the Internet to help you prepare as best you can.

I've found a couple of documents relating to technical computer science questions you may be asked at your interview (including examples from Oxford interviews). If you're applying Oxbridge, you should be aware that they require an admissions test for their Computer Science degrees.

Cambridge recently (by that I mean like 2 years ago) introduced the CSAT (Computer Science Admissions Test) for ALL Computer Science applicants, not just the Maths and Computer Science ones (although if you're applying for this you'll have to do STEP.

Oxford on the other hand, require the MAT (Maths Admission Test) for Computer Science but that's nothing new. Imperial's requirements are a different beast altogether. Since last year, they have included STEP II as part of their Computing degree requirements so good luck with that one.

Anyway, back to the interview preparation. In short, just be yourself (and oh yeah, make sure you don't mess up the interview). That's literally all i'm going to say. I'm not even joking. That's all I got, good luck.

Here's the link: Interview Preparation Examples & Questions

Hope this helps!

Here's A Few Resources For Learning Floating Point Representation & Normalisation

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

You may remember my previous post on floating point representation, if you don't then basically I shared a resource with some exercises that at the time I could not find the answers for.

After a bit of digging I found it and a couple of other useful resources all related to the binary part of the spec. I'm not saying these resources are created for the new spec, but binary is a topic in Computer Science that pretty much stays universally the same across all specifications.

Anyway, alongside the answers to the exercises aforementioned there's a floating point representation presentation (that does go a bit overboard on the topic so make sure to check with the spec and the subject content clarification guide on what exactly do you need to know) and some normalisation resources.

As I've said before (probably), this topic isn't hard at all. Just because it looks a bit mathematical doesn't mean it's impossible to do for those of you who don't like maths. Besides, Computer Science has loads of Maths in it anyway but luckily the OCR spec doesn't go too deep into the mathematical side.

Here's the link: Binary Resources Folder

Hope this helps!   

The Ultimate OCR A Level Computer Science Dictionary (version 4.0)

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

It's been a while, but version 4.0 is finally here. I tried something different with this one, instead of listing all the definitions in a Word document I thought some people may prefer it in a PowerPoint presentation where each slide has a definition. 

If you read my previous post where I ranked all the resources I've used you'll notice that Criag 'n' Dave have something similar (except the one they have is a blank template of all the definitions and to get the full version you have to subscribe to premium i.e. you have to pay £149 per year!). 

Obviously all the resources on this blog are free so you don't have to worry about paying that giant price tag. Anyway, the presentation is still colour coded so the definitions correlate to the section of the spec they belong in.

I know when I released version 3.0 I said I won't be making any new resources because I wanted to create a revision guide but I don't want to rush it so i'm still creating resources as I work on the revision guide which I have no idea how long it's going to take so don't ask.

I already have a few ideas for version 5.0 which will come out in the near future InShaAllah but for this iteration I think there's been enough of a change to merit a new version.

Here's the link: The Ultimate OCR A Level Computer Science Dictionary (v4.0)

Hope this helps!

Top 10 Resources For OCR A Level Computer Science Part 2

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

If you haven't checked out the first part, click here. Anyway, let's jump straight into part 2 because this is going to be a really long post.


5: Hodder Education OCR A Level Computer Science & My Revision Notes

OCR A Level Computer Science Textbook

1. Content 10/10: This textbook is actually endorsed by OCR (not that that means much) so by default it covers it's entire course and yes it includes material on the coursework.
2. Concision 8/10: Not as long as the Cambridge Elevate Student Book which was over 300 pages but still has lot of useless information in it and is 270 pages long.
3. Presentation 9/10: Very clear layout, good use of space on each page makes the textbook very easy to read. Includes images and diagrams to further enhance the aesthetic appeal. 
4. Accessibility 7/10: Has loads of errors which I think they've now fixed in the new edition or something, but judging by the textbook I have then I have to say it was really annoying finding so many errors in a resource that was supposedly endorsed by OCR.
5. Price 8/10: £31 for the textbook which is slightly overpriced in my opinion since the Cambridge one was only £28 (but I'd recommend this one over that). Well, I guess they can do that since they're endorsed by OCR. Don't worry though, a quick search on Ebay or Amazon and you can get this used for as little as £25. 

Final Score & Verdict: If the price would be a bit lower this resource is a must buy in my opinion. If you're lucky enough to get it for free from your school then definitely use it, there's a lot of good stuff in here. 8.4/10

My Revision Notes Textbook

1. Content 9/10: This textbook isn't endorsed by OCR and it doesn't have anything for the coursework component. Heavily focused on the exam components which is OK for a revision guide sort of thing (although I don't consider it one).
2. Concision 8/10: Only 168 pages but still has the same style of delivering content as the other textbook. An improvement but just too much waffling to be honest.
3. Presentation 9/10: Again, very clear layout, good use of space on each page makes the textbook very easy to read. Includes images and diagrams to further enhance the aesthetic appeal. No faults here.
4. Accessibility 8/10: Has a few mistakes here and there and sometimes misses some content completely so it's hard get a good understanding of some topics as a whole. I guess that's why it's not endorsed by OCR.
5. Price 9/10: £17. Decent price for a fairly high quality resource. Hard to find anything cheaper on Ebay or Amazon since this is not as popular as the other textbook.

Final Score & Verdict: If this resource is supposed to be a revision guide, I wouldn't say it's great one but as a textbook it get's the job done in getting all the content across in it's own way (which can be unnecessarily long sometimes). Even though this is cheaper, I would recommend the other one as it fully supports the specification. 8.6/10

Final Hodder Education Series Score: 8.5/10

4: PG Online Textbook

1. Content 9/10: This textbook is endorsed by OCR as well but strangely misses out on the programming project.
2. Concision 9/10: Almost 100 pages longer than the Hodder Education textbook yet doesn't have any useless information and minimal waffling. It's just very detailed which is OK but personally I think it could've been shorter
3. Presentation 9/10: Same as the other textbooks. Very clear layout, good use of space on each page makes the textbook very easy to read. Includes images and diagrams to further enhance the aesthetic appeal. 
4. Accessibility 8/10: Initially had a few mistakes which were corrected but is still a solid textbook that actually deserves an endorsement by OCR.
5. Price 8/10: £30 for the textbook which isn't bad at all. £1 cheaper than the Hodder Education one and is better in my opinion. Unfortunately, a quick search on Ebay or Amazon will not get you anything cheaper.

Final Score & Verdict: It's a great textbook, covers everything (apart from the programming project) in great detail. If I had to choose between this and the Hodder Education one it's a close call because both of them are very good but this one edges it for me. Again. if you're lucky enough to get one of these for free from your school you should definitely use it. 8.6/10

Final PG Online Textbook Score: 8.6/10

3: CGP OCR A Level Computer Science Revision Guide

Error 404: Not Found (For some reason CGP haven't got a revision guide for A level Computer Science but if they did I'd reckon it would be amazing).

3: ZigZag Education Revision Guide & Course Companion

Revision Guide

1. Content 9/10: This one is a bit of a punt since the full A level revision guide is going to be released this October but judging by the AS revision guide (which is excellent), I think it may just include everything apart from the coursework component.
2. Concision 10/10: Very, very concise. Doesn't beat around the bush and just gives you all the information you need in minimal space. Definitely the best revision guide available right now (unfortunately, CGP haven't got one for A level Computer Science otherwise I think it would be equally good).
3. Presentation 10/10: A very unique way of displaying the information that works very well. Everything is separated into boxes that fill the page very nicely. Despite it being in black and white this revision guide is presented amazingly well.
4. Accessibility 10/10: Surprisingly easy to understand. Even though it gives the content you need to know without any waffling or introductions (which is great) it makes it very easy to digest the info via bullet points and short paragraphs.
5. Price 6/10: £79 for the AS guide and £119 for the A level guide. Obviously that's way too expensive for your average student to afford but this guide is absolutely brilliant so I would highly recommend that you ask your teacher to pre-order the A level revision guide coming out in a few weeks.

Final Score & Verdict: This is definitely by far the best paper resource out there. Beats all the textbooks in everything except price. I would highly recommend you get your school to get this resource because it's definitely worth it. 9/10

Course Companion

1. Content 9/10: This one is already available but doesn't have anything on the programming project either. Covers all other parts of the spec very well.
2. Concision 9/10: This resource uses more of a textbook approach in explaining things and is about 240 pages long which is shorter than all the other textbooks in this list. Again, very concise but can have a bit of waffling here and there.
3. Presentation 8/10: Generally displays the content well but not the presentation is not as good as the other textbooks in my opinion. Maybe it's because of its monochromatic images or simply because there's no colour whatsoever. 
4. Accessibility 10/10: Quality of accessibility is pretty much the same as the revision guide. No complaints here. 
5. Price 6/10: £119 for AS guide and £179 for the full A level. Again, it's way too expensive but if you can get your teacher to purchase it then go for it.

Final Score & Verdict: This is definitely one of the best paper resources out there. Very good but is unfortunately very expensive as well. Again, I would highly recommend you get your school to get this resource because it's definitely worth it. 8.4/10

Final ZigZag Education Resources Score: 8.7/10

2: Dynamic Learning Package

1. Content 10/10: The plethora of resources available in the package fully support the specification
2. Concision 10/10: Most of the resources are actually summary presentations of the Hodder Education textbook which condense all the important information from 270 pages in short slides.
3. Presentation 10/10: All the interactive activities, worksheets, tests and the summary presentations are extremely well presented. Can't fault anything here.
4. Accessibility 10/10: All the resources are very easy to understand, much more accessible than the textbook.
5. Price 5/10: Now all these wonderful resources come at a price. It's £400 for the package which is sort of crazy but these resources are excellent and a must buy for all schools providing this course.

Final Score & Verdict: The best online resource available plain and simple (that isn't endorsed by OCR for some reason). 9/10

1: OCR Past Papers

1. Content 10/10: Need I say more?
2. Concision 10/10: Markschemes are the best resource of all in my opinion. Clear, concise and get straight to the point. It simply tells you everything the examiners are looking for without any unnecessary information.
3. Presentation 10/10: As past papers go, there isn't much else you can improve here.
4. Accessibility 9/10: Going to have to give a slight downgrade here since OCR (along with pretty much every other exam board) are quite notorious for writing "evil" papers. 
5. Price 10/10: They're free, duh.

Final Score & Verdict: It's absolutely essential to do past papers in order to succeed in the final exam. All the other resources on this list are irrelevant if you do not do all the past papers available, and yes that means both old H047/H447 and new H046/H446 spec ones. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can only do each paper once so you should start doing them in like March or something. Start NOW, I mean it. It doesn't matter if you have to do them more than once, if anything it'll help you understand the exam patterns and make it easy to memorise markschemes. Obviously skip the questions in the old spec papers that aren't relevant to the new spec but by all means do the rest.

Final OCR Past Papers Score: 9.8/10

(Cheeky) Honorable Mention

This blog: http://themuslimcompsciblog.blogspot.co.uk/

It's nearly been a month since I've made this blog and I know it isn't amazing (#stay humble) but I would be really grateful if everyone reading this could just spread this around. It would honestly mean the world to me even if one person would benefit from this blog :) .

Anyway, enough self advertising. That's my list of the top 10 resources for OCR A level Computer Science that I have used personally, do you agree with it? Is there any resource I missed? Put your comments below and as always...

Hope this helps!

Top 10 Resources For OCR A Level Computer Science Part 1

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

WOW, it's been a while hasn't it (9 days to be precise)? The purpose of this post isn't to specify why I haven't posted for so long (but I may reveal that in the future InShaAllah) so don't worry, this post is something I've been wanting to do for a while but just needed to do a few things first. 

I've also realised in my short break it's going to be unfeasible for me to post everyday like I intended to when I made this blog. Anyway, as the title says this is a ranking of the top 10 resources for the H046/H446 spec. Now I must admit, I wasn't even sure there were 10 decent resources to put on this list but after a bit of digging I've found them.

So here's how this is going to work, each place in the ranking may be occupied by more than one resource. They will all be ranked according to 5 indicators each rated out of 10 to give the resource a combined score out of 10 which will be followed by a final verdict:

1. Content: arguably the most important, a resource is no good if it doesn't cover the entire spec! 
2. Concision: ranks resources according to how they deliver the content, not what the content is like the previous indicator. Basically, the less waffle the better!
3. Presentation: a good resource should be aesthetically appealing, even it has all the content it should lay out all the information in an easy to grasp form.
4. Accessibility: similar to the previous indicator but judges resources according to how accessible is the information itself, not the presentation of the information. In other words, how easy is it to understand the content delivered.
5. Price: no matter how good a resource is, if it's expensive chances are you may not even use it so the price of a resource is essential in this ranking.

The links to each resource will be in the title. Anyway, without further ado, let's do this!

10: Teach-ICT For Computer Science

1. Content 7/10: Doesn't cover the entire spec. Only covers material for the Computer Systems and Computing Principles exams and a bit for the programmming exam. No material for the coursework component either.
2. Concision 8/10: The content available on the website is fairly straight to the point. It has enough info to allow a good understanding but not too much so that it just turns into waffle which is fairly consistent throughout the whole website. 
3. Presentation 9/10: Despite presenting all the info on a website, the content is very well displayed with short paragraphs/bullet points accompanied by images making this resource very appealing.
4. Accessibility 9/10: Uses a straightforward approach in delivering material which is very easy to understand. No flowery language or technical terminology, takes you through the theory step by step.
5. Price 3/10: £145 per year. Everything on the website was initially free about a year or so ago but back then it was still in its development phase I suppose. Anyway, now that it's complete they decided to add a massive price tag to it which is clearly unreasonable for your average student. Subscription gives you access to ALL the resources on the website but there's not much for OCR A level Computer Science for it to be worth it. About 90% of it is for GCSE so there's honestly no point in investing in this resource. The only way the vast majority of students will have access to these resources is if the school subscribes and lets the students use the resources for free.

Final Score & Verdict: If your school doesn't give you this for free, don't subscribe. There's simply not enough material on this website catered to the A level spec for it to be worth £145. Even if you don't have access to this website don't worry, you're not missing out on much. 7.2/10

Final Teach-ICT For Computer Science Score: 7.2/10

9: Mr Fraser Computing Resources

1. Content 5/10: The site is a work in progress but the content already available is very good. Pretty much all the stuff for the AS spec is there but for the A level spec there's nothing relating to the programming project and some other spec points.
2. Concision 7/10: Mostly contains very relevant information which doesn't go off topic but can sometimes border on waffling. Some questions in the revision exercises can go beyond the scope of the spec but the resources are still reasonably concise. 
3. Presentation 7/10: Both revision and exercise resources are in pdf format and are very easy to read. The text in the revision resources is laid out well and has relevant diagrams and images to enhance the appeal of said resources.
4. Accessibility 8/10: The questions in the exercises are similar in difficulty to new spec papers. Not hard to see why they're so accessible since they're taken from textbooks but even the revision resources can be easily understood.
5. Price 10/10: It's free but you have to register with your school email.

Final Score & Verdict: Contains a wealth of resources which are all free so definitely use as many as you can. Highly recommend the revision exercises as the new spec papers aren't enough at this stage and you need all the practice you can get. 7.4/10

Final Mr Fraser Computing Resources Score: 7.4/10

8: The Teacher

1. Content 10/10: Tons of resources covering pretty much every aspect of the spec, even the programming project. 
2. Concision 8/10: Material covers all the content well but does go overboard sometimes in giving info not relevant to the spec i.e. content that you don't need to know! 
3. Presentation 10/10: Very well presented. All the content on the PowerPoint Presentations is very good as it doesn't have too much info per slide. PDFs are laid out nicely as well. No faults here.
4. Accessibility 10/10: All the resources are very high quality and thus are very accessible. One should have no problem understanding the information delivered.
5. Price 1/10: £349 for 1 year of £649 for 2 years. Yes, you read that correctly. Before you lose all hope, this website only offers their resources to schools so there's no way for students to access them if their school have not bought them. So if you're one of the lucky ones who's school has got them, use them. Despite the high cost these resources are actually somewhat worth it (even though I reckon they're worth about £100 less). 

Final Score & Verdict: If your school hasn't got this then I recommend you ask your Head of Computer Science or whoever is in charge to purchase these resources. There are better ones than this but if the school's paying it's worth it. 7.8/10

Final The Teacher Score: 7.8/10

7: Craig 'n' Dave Free & Premium

Free

1. Content 8/10: the free flipped classroom videos cover pretty much every single spec point in depth for the exam components and there's a couple of other free resources as well on top of that. It doesn't however, have anything for the programming project.
2. Concision 6/10: although the aforementioned videos cover the spec entirely, some of them (primarily those related with theory) include a bit of "waffling". The other free resources (which aren't a lot) are fairly concise. 
3. Presentation 8/10: can't really judge videos on their presentation but the few free resources available are nicely laid out, maybe that's because there isn't a lot of info in them but whatever content is available is presented well.
4. Accessibility 9/10: Video is probably the most accessible way to deliver content, there's little to no reading and you just have to watch and listen carefully. The videos and the other resources deliver content in a very accessible way suitable for pretty much everyone.
5. Price 10/10: it's free.

Final Score & Verdict: Despite being 7th on the list this is the only resource that provides videos so I'd highly recommend you use them. The videos are all very short so you can easily watch them without getting bored and the other resources such as the cheat sheets for boolean algebra and pseudocode are both incredibly useful. As I always say, when resources are scarce use whatever you can find! 8.2/10

Premium

1. Content 10/10: Unlike the free resources, the premium ones have loads of guidance on the programming project in the form of videos, exemplars and more!
2. Concision 8/10: There is a Presentation containing pretty much every single definition in the spec which are essentially good summaries of each topic.  
3. Presentation 8/10: Most of the premium resources available are well presented, a few of them could be better but on the whole they are all aesthetically appealing.
4. Accessibility 9/10: Aside from the videos, the premium resources (notable the Key Terminology Presentation and Cheat sheets aforementioned) are very easy to understand.
5. Price 5/10: £149 per year. Now for a student to afford that is insane. For those of you who done AQA GCSE Science before 2016, you'll most likely have heard of myGCSEscience. Those resources were in my opinion a lot better than these and yet it only costed about £30 for premium. Even now it only costs £49.90 for the subscription which is reasonable but £149 is quite frankly ridiculous. Again, the only way the vast majority of students will have access to these resources is if the school subscribes and lets the students use the resources for free.

Final Score & Verdict: If your school doesn't give you this for free, don't subscribe. I'm not saying it's a bad resource but with that price tag it's simply not worth it. The flipped classroom videos are free anyway along with some other resources but £149 for the other premium resources is about £100 too much to be worth it. Trust me, there's a lot of better resources you could buy for less than this. 8/10

Final Craig 'n' Dave Score: 8.1/10

Cambridge Elevate Student Book w/Enhanced Edition

1. Content 9/10: The textbook and enhanced edition deliver all the content of the spec in detail except for material on the coursework component.
2. Concision 7/10: The material doesn't go too much off the scope of the spec but it does contain a fair amount of waffling which is immediately obvious considering the textbook is over 300 pages!  
3. Presentation 9/10: Very clear layout, good use of space on each page makes the textbook very easy to read. Includes images and diagrams to further enhance the aesthetic appeal. Same applies for the enhanced edition.
4. Accessibility 9/10: Surprisingly very accessible. Despite some waffling the info is not hard to understand. Both the enhanced edition and the textbook present content in an easy to grasp way. 
5. Price 8/10: £28 for the student book and £32 for the enhanced edition included. Reasonable priced given that the book and enhanced edition are high quality.

Final Score & Verdict: This resource is very good, if it was a bit cheaper then it would be great. As textbooks go, there's room for improvement but if you can afford I'd say go for it. A bit iffy on the enhanced edition but if you can pay that extra £4 then why not. You could try and find it cheaper used on Amazon or Ebay. 8.4/10

Final Cambridge Elevate Student Book w/Enhanced Edition Score: 8.4/10

Originally wanted to make this list into one post but since it's getting a bit long I think I will save the rest for tomorrow InShaAllah. 

Some Helpful Info For OCR A Level Computer Science Coursework

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

It's been a while since I've posted anything regarding coursework so I thought I'd share a document that contains a bit of helpful info on the programming project. It's very brief and to be honest, isn't the best of resources however it is still useful when resources are scarce.

As I've said in my other posts (probably), the coursework isn't really hard but it's just REALLY long. The key is to keep up with deadlines and don't fall behind. In all honesty, finishing work ahead of deadlines is much more rewarding and less stressful but if you're a last minute type of person then all I can say is good luck.

Make sure you get the highest you possibly can in the coursework so you have less to worry about in the exams. With that said, don't spend all your time improving your coursework to get those extra marks at the expense of revising for your exams which are equally, if not more important.

Despite only being worth 20% of the A level, the programming project will take loads of time. You'll probably be making small improvements here and there all the way till May but the important thing is to keep the exams in mind whilst doing so.

Anyway, I'm sure I've mentioned some of this stuff before so I'll quit yammering on and on but the coursework is no joke. Taking it seriously at the start of the year might be a bit annoying but trust me, you'll thank yourself for it. 

Here's the link: A level coursework info

Hope this helps!

A Fairly Thorough Memory Addressing Resource

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

As promised, today's post will not feature an algorithms resource but something different. This resource isn't even a presentation but a document that goes through all the modes of addressing that you need to know (plus relative addressing which you don't).

This resource was probably made with the old H047/H447 spec in mind but it still covers pretty much all the content needed for the new H046/H447 spec as well. As usual, the spec mentions this topic in a vague fashion by simply stating each mode of addressing you need to know (immediate, direct, indirect and indexed).

However, a closer inspection of the subject content clarification guide gives us a better understanding as to what knowledge is required:

"Candidates need an understanding of addressing, which should be integrated with assembly language. Candidates should have experience of using immediate, direct, indirect and indexed addressing in the writing, reading and tracing of programs written in assembly language." 

There's a lot going on above so let's break it down. Firstly, you need to have a general understanding of memory addressing along with all of the modes aforementioned. Secondly, just knowing the theory isn't enough, you need to integrate your understanding of memory addressing with assembly language (which you should already be familiar with before learning this. So basically, you need to be able to work with the modes of addressing mentioned whilst dealing with assembly language.

Despite being essentially a theoretical topic, memory addressing can be a bit tricky at first. However, practicing questions from past papers can greatly increase your confidence when dealing with addressing. You can find loads of addressing questions in the advanced computing theory papers of the old spec but doing the new spec questions are more worthwhile.

Being good at assembly language helps a lot in this topic so I guess this is a bit related to the practical side of things rather than the theoretical. But anyway, I recommend using the document below to gain an understanding of the topic and use The Ultimate OCR A Level Computer Science Dictionary to remind yourself of the definitions of each mode of addressing.

Here's the link: Memory Addressing Document

Hope this helps!

Another Algorithms Presentation For Implementing Dijsktra's Shortest Path Algorithm

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

Another algorithms resource coming your way. This time it's a presentation that goes through an implementation of Dijsktra's algorithm on a graph. It finds the shortest path between 2 nodes step by step so you can understand it easily.

I'm not saying you can learn the algorithm just by using this, but it does give you a nice visual representation of how the algorithm works in stages. As with anything practical, the way you get better at it is by practicing so doing questions on the algorithm's implementation would be the most beneficial.

Now where do I find questions on Dijkstra's algorithm, I here you ask? Well, finding questions specifically for OCR is a nightmare so I would highly recommend you do Edexcel's D1 Dijsktra's questions.

You can find D1 papers on Edexcel's website but you can find the specific Dijkstra algorithm questions on Physics & Maths Tutor. Obviously, you can go for AQA and OCR questions as well but I think Edexcel is the easiest to do.

Speaking of questions by topic, I'm going to start grouping OCR past paper questions from both the old and new spec according to their topics as well. I think it would be very useful since you could just focus on the area's of the spec you find challenging rather than do an entire past paper which has parts you can do with ease.

Here's the link: Dijkstra's Algorithm Presentation

Hope this helps!

Here's Another 2 Good Big O Notation Presentations

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

It may seem like I only have resources on algorithms but I just want to share resources systematically since they're so many! My Google Drive is a it cluttered as well so it makes resources harder to find but nonetheless I've found these 2 presentations that are more relevant than the previous one to the OCR spec.

Now I'm not saying that they're made for the spec or they're completely relevant, but their content doesn't go too much beyond the A level scope. I have a couple of other ones but they're for AQA A level Computer Science so I have decided against posting them yet.

The first presentation is the shorter one and is much easier to understand. It's more of a beginner's guide to Big O Notation but I highly recommend it anyway since it's content is quite relevant to the OCR spec. 

The second presentation is a bit longer and more complex, but is still very useful. It's much more detailed than the shorter one but sometimes goes beyond the scope of the OCR spec so as usual, check with your teacher as to what you specifically need to know or just check out the subject content clarification guide.

Big O Notation isn't really that complicated once you get the hang of it. It might look a bit hard at first since there's numbers and graphs involved but there's nothing too mathematical about it. Most of it is actually theoretical knowledge rather than math so for those who aren't good with numbers or if you simply hate math, you have nothing to worry about (not too much anyway).

Anyway, the links are below and as aforementioned I recommend you start with the shorter one for beginners and then move onto to the longer one next.

• Short Big O Notation Presentation
• Long Big O Notation Presentation

Hope this helps!

All Official OCR A Level Computer Science Delivery Guides

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

These delivery guides are available on OCR's website but not a lot of people use them since they're meant for teachers. Personally, I find some of the delivery guides quite informative and each one has links to some very good resources/websites.

Now I'm not saying they're a great resource but when the amount of resources you have is scarce, then even looking through these can be worthwhile. Maybe because I'm self teaching I find these useful but I would highly recommend that you look through these as they have some good content.

Generally speaking you should always take advantage of any resource you find (especially the free ones), even though they may not have exactly what you're looking for. Anyway, on the OCR website these delivery guides aren't listed in the specification order so I thought that's the least I could do in this post. Here's all 19 links in order:

1. 1.1.1 Structure And Function Of The Processor
2. 1.1.2 Types Of Processor
3. 1.1.3 Input, Output And Storage
4. 1.2.1 Systems Software
5. The Function And Purpose Of Operating Systems
6. 1.2.2 Applications Generation
7. 1.2.3 Software Development
8. 1.2.4 Types Of Programming Language
9. 1.3.1 Compression, Encryption And Hashing
10. 1.3.3 Networks
11. 1.3.4 Web Technologies
12. 1.4.1 Data Types
13. 1.4.2 Data Structures
14. 1.4.3 Boolean Algebra
15. 2.1.1 Thinking Abstractly
16. 2.1.2 Thinking Ahead
17. 2.1.5 Thinking Concurrently
18. 2.2.1 Programming Techniques
19. 2.2.2 Computational Thinking

For some reason, a few topics from the spec are missing as you can tell from the numbering but the ones available are still worth a look.

Hope this helps!

A Surprisingly Informative Official OCR A Level Computer Science Poster

As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh World!

A bit of a random post here since I was a bit hesitant about posting this but for some reason I changed my mind. This isn't the best of resources but trust me, I'm not scraping the bottom of the barrel and I have loads of other resources to share InShaAllah.

Anyway, this poster summarises both the coursework and exam components quite (and rather surprisingly I might add) well. So let's start with the coursework and I know I've already done a couple of posts on the programming project but the more the merrier.

The Coursework

The coursework can be broken down into 5 "simple steps":

1. Success Criteria: Before you even think about programming or anything, you need to know what will make your solution successful and that will require extensive analysis. If you're success criteria is wrong, then it doesn't matter how good you think your program is because it doesn't solve the problem! 
2. Planning & Design: (even though in the spec the design is separate and it's actually called analysis and design, here it refers to the same thing but a bit differently). The analysis is probably the bulk of the write up where you basically identify and research the problem, describe stakeholders and specify a solution to the problem. The design has less writing but isn't necessarily less work to do. It consists of flow charts and pseudocode that are used to describe the solution after you have decomposed the problem. After that obviously comes the description of the testing you'll carry out in later stages.
3. Development: this step carries the most marks (25 which is more than a third of the total) and can be split up into 2 stages: the iterative development process and testing. Again, there's less writing to do here but you have to narrate the process of developing your program by explaining your code. This way the examiners will know you haven't just taken someone else's code (something I highly recommended against in a previous post). Just copying and pasting a bunch of screenshots/dumps won't do, you'll need to explain the code step by step and make sure you don't just screenshot the final program, the examiners want to see it's development process along with explanation.
4. Testing & Remedial Actions: In simple words, this is just a narrative of the changes you made during the iterative development process. Obviously you can't make the perfect program immediately so with every "mistake" you make, show how your tests informed you in the development process. When the program is more or less finished and the final tests are being done, you'll need to test to inform the evaluation as well.
5. Evaluation: This is where you write about your tests, how successful is the final solution, a description of the final product, maintenance and further development and link it all to the success criteria originally made in the planning step. After all, the success of the solution can only be deemed by the success criteria. Remember, just because you have to write a lot, don't just waffle for the sake of writing a lot, clearly link everything to the success criteria and (as I've said several times before) STICK TO THE MARKING CRITERIA!

The Exams

I've already talked quite a bit about the new linear exams in my previous posts so I won't go into too much detail but the main thing is about these exams is that they're basically like the old ones dressed up in certain contexts to throw you off. Don't get me wrong, of course these exams have different content and are obviously harder since they're not modular, but if you work hard you should have nothing to worry about. 

The best thing you can do for yourself before the exams is get the highest you possibly can in the coursework, if you have a teacher that hates you then bad luck but seriously the coursework is (despite being really long and annoying) a lifeline in the linear system. Maximise your coursework marks to allow yourself a little breathing space in the exams.

I recently linked all the old and new spec papers together here and here which I highly recommend you do at least twice (once in open book conditions and once in exam conditions). Apart from that there's not a lot of decent resources out there, the past papers are by far the best so use them well.

I think I'll label this under programming project since I talked more about that in this post. As you know, I'm posting resources here everyday InShaAllah so you'll have more to study with soon. Anyway, here's the link for the poster if you're interested: Poster 

Hope this helps!