Data Representation

• User-defined data types
• File organisation and access
• Floating-point numbers, representation and manipulation

Communication and internet technologies

• Protocols
• Circuit switching, packet switching

Hardware and Virtual Machines

• Processers, Parallel Processing and Virtual Machines
• Boolean Algebra and Logic Circuits

System Software

• Purposes of an Operating System (OS)
• Translation Software

Security

• Encryption, Encryption Protocols and Digital certificates

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Artificial Intelligence

Computational thinking and problem solving

• Algorithms
• Recursion

Further Programming

• Programming Paradigms
• File Processing and Exception Handling

Paper 1

• Theory Fundamentals (1 hour 30 minutes – 75 marks)
• Paper 1 will assess sections 1 to 8 of the syllabus content.
• Written paper.
• Externally assessed. Candidates answer all questions.
• 50% of the AS Level
• 25% of the A Level

Paper 2

• Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills (2 hours – 75 marks)
• Paper 2 will assess sections 9 to 12 of the syllabus content.
• Candidates will need to write answers in pseudocode.
• Written paper.
• Externally assessed. Candidates answer all questions.
• 50% of the AS Level
• 25% of the A Level

Paper 3

• Advanced Theory (1 hour 30 minutes – 75 marks)
• Paper 3 will assess sections 13 to 20 of the syllabus content.
• Written paper.
• Externally assessed. Candidates answer all questions.
• 25% of the A Level

Paper 4

• Practical (2 hours 30 minutes – 75 marks)
• Paper 4 will assess sections 19 to 20 of the syllabus content, except for low-level and declarative programming.
• Candidates will submit complete program code and evidence of testing.
• Candidates will be required to use either Java, VB.NET or Python programming languages.
• Externally assessed. Candidates answer all questions on a computer without internet or email facility.
• 25% of the A Level