Learner Guide
Revision checklists
The tables below can be used as a revision checklist: It doesn’t contain all the detailed knowledge you need to know, just an overview. For more detail see the syllabus and talk to
your teacher.
The table headings are explained below:
Topic You should be able to R A G Comments
Topics in the syllabus Content in the syllabus you need to cover. You can use the tick boxes to show when you have revised You can use the ‘Comments’ column to:
you need to cover. an item and how confident you feel about it.
• add more information about the details for
R = RED means you are really unsure and lack confidence; each point
you might want to focus your revision here and possibly • add formulae or notes
talk to your teacher for help
• include a reference to a useful resource
A = AMBER means you are reasonably confident but need • highlight areas of difficulty or things that
some extra practice you need to talk to your teacher about or
G = GREEN means you are very confident look up in a textbook.
As your revision progresses, you can concentrate on the
RED and AMBER items in order to turn them into GREEN
items. You might find it helpful to highlight each topic in
red, orange or green to help you prioritise.
17 Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science 9618
Learner Guide
Paper 1 – Theory Fundamentals
Topic You should be able to R A G Comments
Data Representation • Understand binary integers including, magnitudes, addition and subtraction
and understand how overflow can occur
• Convert between binary, denary, hexadecimal and Binary Coded Decimal
(BCD)
• Understand binary representation of character data including ASCII
(American Standard Code for Information Interchange) and Unicode
Multimedia • Understand bitmapped and vector image encoding and justify their use
• Estimate bitmap image sizes
• Understand representation of sound and the impact of changing the
sampling rate and resolution
Compression • Understand the need for and use methods (lossy and lossless) of
compression for text, bitmap, vector graphics and sound files
Communication • Understand networking including LANs (local area networks), WANs (wide
area networks), devices, models (client-server and peer-to-peer), wireless
and wired communication, routers, ethernet
• Understand the difference between the World Wide Web (WWW) and the
Internet
• Understand the use of IP addressing, Uniform Resoruce Locator (URL) and
Domain Name Service (DNS)
Hardware • Understand the need for and the operation of input, output and storage
devices including embedded systems
• Understand and use logic gates with a maximum of two inputs
• Construct logic circuits, truth tables and logic expressions
Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science 9618 18
Learner Guide
Topic You should be able to R A G Comments
Processor Fundamentals • Understand the Von Neuman model for a computer system including the
Fetch-Execute (F-E) cycle, interrupts and ports
• Understand the role of an assembler, a simple assembly language program
that includes different modes of addressing and bit manipulation
System Software • Describe an Operating System (OS), the tasks performed, why an OS is
needed, the role of utility programs and program libraries
• Understand the need for language translators, Integrated Development
Environments (IDE), the role of compilers and interpreters and their benefits
and drawbacks
Security, privacy and data • Understand the difference between security, privacy and integrity of data
integrity
• Describe security measures for stand-alone PCs and networks
• Describe and use methods of data validation (on entry) and data verification
(on entry and during transfer)
Ethics and Ownership • Understand the need for ethical computer professionals, copyright
legislation, software licensing and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Databases • Understand the limitations of a file-based approach
• Understand and use relational database terminology, entity-relationship
(E-R) diagrams, the normalisation process to 3NF and the features of a
Database Management System (DBMS)
• Understand and use simple Structured Query Language (SQL), Data
Definition Language (DDL) commands and Data Manipulation Language
(DML) commands
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Learner Guide
Paper 2 – Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills
Topic You should be able to R A G Comments
Computational thinking skills • Understand the purpose and benefits of abstraction
• Describe and use decomposition
Algorithm Design • Write pseudocode from structured English or a flowchart
• Describe and use stepwise refinement
Data Types and structures • Select and use basic data types including records
• Select and use 1D and 2D arrays
• Understand and use text files
• Understand and use Abstract Data Types (ADTs) including stacks, queues and
linked lists
• Write pseudocode for 1D and 2D arrays and to process array data
Programming • Write pseudocode statements for:
• the declaration of variables and constants
• the assignment of values to variables and constants
• the expressions involving any of the arithmetic or logical operators input
from the keyboard and output to the console
• IF, CASE and loop statements.
• Define and use procedures and functions
Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science 9618 20
Learner Guide
Topic You should be able to R A G Comments
Software Development • Understand the purpose, principles, benefits, drawbacks and the need for
different development cycles
• Understand the stages of the program development life cycle
• Use structure charts to decompose a problem
• Use state-transition diagrams to document an algorithm
• Test and maintain a program including error identification and location, test
strategy and planning, choice of test data, different types of maintenance
Paper 3 – Advanced Theory
Topic You should be able to R A G Comments
Data Representation • Understand and use user-defined data types
• Understand methods of file organisation and access including use of hashing
algorithms
• Understand and use normalised floating point numbers including conversion
to and from denary
Communication and internet • Understand communication protocols and the TCP / IP protocol suite
technologies
• Understand circuit switching and packet switching
Hardware • Understand Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) and Complex
Instruction Set Computer (CISC) processors, the use of pipelining, and
registers, the four basic computer architectures, the characteristics of
massively parallel computers and the concept of a virtual machine
• Produce truth tables for logic circuits including full and half adders
• Understand and use Boolean algebra and Karnaugh maps (K-map)
21 Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science 9618
