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GCSE Computing: Topics, Requirements & Page Numbers
Homework
Book
Page No.
Topic Name:
You should be able to:
1*
BASIC COMPUTER
SYSTEM MODEL
[ Book Pages 12]
[ MOOC Page1]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-3]
• define a computer system
2
IMPORTANCE OF
COMPUTERS
[ Book Page 23]
[ MOOC Pages 23]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-8]
• describe the importance of
computer systems in the modern
world
• explain the need for reliability in
computer systems �
3
PROFESSIONAL
STANDARDS
[ Book Pages 35]
[ MOOC Page 4]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-4]
• explain the need for adherence
to suitable professional standards
in the development, use and
maintenance of computer systems
4
CONSIDERATIONS
WHEN CREATING
COMPUTER SYSTEMS
[ Book Pages 56]
[ MOOC Pages 5 & 6]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1- 8]
• explain the importance of
ethical, environmental and legal
considerations when creating
computer systems
5*
UNITS
[ Book Page 9]
[ MOOC Pages 30 & 31]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1 & 2]
• understand that data needs to
be converted into a binary format
to
be processed by a computer
• define the terms bit, nibble,
byte, kilobyte, megabyte,
gigabyte,
terabyte
6*
NUMBERS
[ Book Pages 10 & 11]
[ MOOC Page 32]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 37]
• convert positive denary whole
numbers (0255)
into 8bit
binary
numbers and vice versa
7
NUMBERS … continued
[ Book Pages 12 & 14]
[ MOOC Pages 33 & 34]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 2 & 3]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1 & 3]
• add two 8bit
binary integers and explain
overflow errors which
may occur
• convert positive denary integers
(0255)
into 2digit
hexadecimal
numbers and vice versa
• convert between binary and
These are the requirements from the OCR
GCSE Computing Specification
hexadecimal equivalents of the
same
number
• explain the use of hexadecimal
numbers to represent binary
numbers
8
CHARACTERS
[ Book Pages 14 & 15]
[ MOOC Page 35]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 4 & 5]
• explain the use of binary codes
to represent characters
• explain the term character set
• describe with examples (for
example ASCII and Unicode) the
relationship between the number
of bits per character in a
character
set and the number of characters
which can be represented
9*
IMAGES
[ Book Page 16]
[ MOOC Pages 36 & 37]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-3]
• explain the representation of an
image as a series of pixels
represented in binary
• explain the need for metadata
to be included in the file such as
height, width and colour depth
• discuss the effect of colour
depth and resolution on the size
of an
image file
10 *
SOUND
[ Book Page 17]
[ MOOC Page 38]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-4]
• explain how sound can be
sampled and stored in digital form
• explain how sampling intervals
and other considerations affect
the
size of a sound file and the quality
of its playback
11 *
INSTRUCTIONS
[ Book Page 18]
[ MOOC Page 39]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-3]
• explain how instructions are
coded as bit patterns
• explain how the computer
distinguishes between instructions
and
data
12
THE CENTRAL
PROCESSING UNIT
(CPU)
[ Book Pages 23 & 25]
[ MOOC Pages 7-11,20]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-3]
[ BBC Bitesize Page 5]
• state the purpose of the CPU
• describe the function of the CPU
as fetching and executing
instructions stored in memory
• describe cache memory
• explain how common
characteristics of CPUs such as
clock speed,
cache size and number of cores
affect their performance
13
MEMORY
[ Book Pages 25-28]
[ MOOC Pages 15-21]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 6-9]
• describe the difference between
RAM and ROM
• explain the need for ROM in a
computer system
• describe the purpose of RAM in
a computer system
• explain how the amount of RAM
in a personal computer affects the
performance of the computer
• explain the need for virtual
memory
• discuss how changes in memory
technologies are leading to
innovative computer designs
14
SECONDARY
STORAGE
[ Book Pages 28-31]
[ MOOC Pages 21,25,26]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 6-7]
• explain the need for secondary
storage
• describe common storage
technologies such as optical,
magnetic
and solid state
• describe flash memory
• select suitable storage devices
and storage media for a given
application and justify their choice
using characteristics such as
capacity, speed, portability,
durability and reliability
15 *
INNOVATIVE
COMPUTER
DESIGN
[ Book Page 32]
[ MOOC Page 21]
[ BBC Bitesize Page 6]
• discuss how changes in memory
technologies are leading to
innovative computer designs
16
INPUT & OUTPUT
DEVICES
[ Book Pages 32- 37]
[ MOOC Pages22- 24]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages1-5,8]
• understand the need for input
and output devices
• describe suitable input devices
for a wide range of computer
controlled situations
• describe suitable output devices
for a wide range of computer
controlled situations
• discuss input and output devices
for users with specific needs
17
BINARY LOGIC
[ Book Pages 38-40]
[ MOOC Pages 12-14]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-3]
• explain why data is represented
in computer systems in binary
form
• understand and produce simple
logic diagrams using the
operations NOT, AND and OR
• produce a truth table from a
given logic diagram
18
OPERATING SYSTEMS
[ Book Pages 46-50]
[ MOOC Page 27]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-7]
• explain the need for the
following functions of an
operating system:
user interface, memory
management, peripheral
management,
multitasking
and security
19
UTILITY SOFTWARE
[ Book Pages 51-55]
[ MOOC Page 28]
[ BBC Bitesize Page 7]
• describe the purpose and use of
common utility programs for
computer security (antivirus,
spyware protection and firewalls),
disk
organisation (formatting, file
transfer, and defragmentation),
and
system maintenance (system
information and diagnosis, system
cleanup tools, automatic
updating)
20
APPLICATION
SOFTWARE
[ Book Pages 55-57]
[ MOOC Page 29]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 3-5]
• discuss the relative merits of
custom written, off the shelf,
open
source and proprietary software
21
THE DATABASE
CONCEPT
[ Book Pages 63-64]
[ MOOC Page 40]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-3]
• describe a database as a
persistent organised store of data
• explain the use of data handling
software to create, maintain and
interrogate a database
22
THE DBMS
[ Book Pages 65-66]
[ MOOC Page 41]
[ BBC Bitesize Page 3]
• describe how a DBMS allows the
separation of data from
applications and why this is
desirable
• describe the principal features
of a DBMS and how they can be
used to create customised data
handling applications
23
RELATIONAL
DATABASES
[ Book Pages 67-73]
[ MOOC Pages 42-45]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 4-8]
• understand the relationship
between entities and tables
• understand the components of a
relational database, such as
tables, forms, queries, reports
and modules
• understand the use of logical
operators in framing database
queries
• explain the use of key fields to
connect tables and avoid data
redundancy
• describe methods of validating
data as it is input
24
LOCAL AREA
NETWORKS (LAN)
+ Network Topologies
+ PeertoPeer
or
ClientServer
[ Book Pages-78-81]
[ MOOC Pages-46-49]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages-1-7]
• explain the advantages of
networking standalone
computers into
a local area network
• describe, using diagrams or
otherwise, the ring, bus and star
network topologies
• describe the hardware needed
to connect standalone
computers
into a local area network,
including hub/switches, wireless
access
points
• explain the different roles of
computers in a clientserver
and a
peertopeer
network
25 *
WIDE AREA
NETWORKS (WAN)
[ Book Page 82]
[ MOOC Page 50]
[ BBC Bitesize Page 2]
• describe the differences
between a local area network and
a wide
area network such as the internet
26 *
HOW DEVICES
COMMUNICATE ON A
NETWORK
[ Book Pages 83-84]
[ MOOC Page 51]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 4,6]
• explain the terms IP addressing,
MAC addressing, packet and
protocols
27
THE INTERNET
[ Book Pages 85-87]
[ MOOC Pages 54-55]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-2, 5-7]
• describe the nature of the
internet as a worldwide collection
of
computer networks
• explain the need for IP
addressing of resources on the
internet and
how this can be facilitated by the
role of DNS servers
28 *
Connecting to the
Internet
[ Book Pages 87-88]
[ MOOC Page 54]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 3-4]
CREATING WEB
PAGES IN HTML
[ Book Pages-89-91]
[ MOOC Page-56]
[ BBC Bitesize Page-8]
• describe the hardware needed
to connect to the internet
including
modems, routers etc
29
• explain the importance of HTML
and its derivatives as a standard
for the creation of web pages
30
SECURITY
[ Book Pages 91-95]
[ MOOC Pages 52-53]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-3]
• explain the need for security
measures in networks, such as
user
access levels, suitable passwords
and encryption techniques
• describe and justify network
policies such as acceptable use,
disaster recovery, failover,
backup, archiving
31
FILE TYPES AND FILE
COMPRESSION
[ Book Pages 95-98]
[ MOOC Page 57]
[ BBC Bitesize Page 8]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1,4]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 6-7]
• explain the importance of
compressing files that are
transmitted via
the internet
• describe the differences
between lossy and lossless
compression
• describe common file standards
associated with the internet such
as JPG, GIF, PDF, MP3, MPEG
32
ALGORITHMS
[ Book Pages 105-108]
[ MOOC Page 58]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-6]
• understand algorithms (written
in pseudocode or flow diagram),
explain what they do, and correct
or complete them
• produce algorithms in
pseudocode or flow diagrams to
solve
problems
33
CONTROL FLOW IN
IMPERATIVE
LANGUAGES
[ Book Pages 108-111]
[ MOOC Pages 61-63]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-7]
• understand and use sequence in
an algorithm
• understand and use selection in
an algorithm (IF and CASE
statements)
• understand and use iteration in
an algorithm (FOR, WHILE and
REPEAT loops)
34
PROGRAMMING
LANGUAGES
[ Book Pages 112-114]
[ MOOC Page 59]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-3]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-2]
• explain the difference between
high level code and machine code
• explain the need for translators
to convert high level code to
machine code
• describe the characteristics of
an assembler, a compiler and an
interpreter
35
HANDLING DATA IN
ALGORITHMS
+ Operations on
common data types
+ Arrays
[ Book Pages 115-120]
[ MOOC Pages 64-67]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 1-5]
[ BBC Bitesize Page 2]
• define the terms variable and
constant as used in an imperative
language
• use variables and constants
• describe the data types integer,
real, Boolean, character and
string
• select and justify appropriate
data types for a given program
• perform common operations on
numeric and Boolean data
• use onedimensional arrays
36
ERRORS
[ Book Pages 120-121]
[ MOOC Page 68]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 5-6]
• describe syntax errors and logic
errors which may occur while
developing a program
• understand and identify syntax
and logic errors
37
TESTING
[ Book Pages 122-123]
[ MOOC Page 69]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 5-10]
• select and justify test data for a
program, stating the expected
outcome of each test
38
IDE TOOLS
[ Book Pages 124-126]
[ MOOC Page 60]
[ BBC Bitesize Pages 4,6]
• describe common tools and
facilities available in an integrated
development environment(IDE):
editors, error diagnostics, runtime
environment, translators, autodocumentation
* Denotes a smaller topic