Computer Studies / Computing

Assessment

Paper one is an on-screen programming paper where students design and create solutions to problems set, and make changes and enhancements to the board set program. This is a large programme which has some obvious errors, but also which could be improved with additional features. In the exam, the students are asked to make several changes and assessed on how many of these they can complete. The programming language used at BMS is Java, though there is some flexibility if students have a strong preference for an alternative. 2h 30m (40%). Paper two is a written exam covering the theory side of the course, focusing on computer architecture, searching and sorting algorithms, data types, graphs, trees, hash tables, tree traversal algorithms, finite state machines, Backus-Naur form (BNF) and Reverse Polish Notation (RPN), communication systems, networks and databases, Transmission Control Protocols, regular expressions, vectors and functional programming. 2h 30m (40%).