A-level Computing 2009/CIE

This is a book about A-Level Computing. It aims to fit in with the Cambridge International AS and A Level Computing syllabus but is not endorsed by Cambridge International. It should be useful as a revision guide or to find alternative explanations to the ones in your textbook. If you haven't heard of an A-Level then this book probably won't be of much interest to you but you can find out about them at Wikipedia.

If any part of this book is unclear or even wrong then please post a comment on the discussion page or simply fix it yourself! In particular, please say if the book assumes any knowledge or skills which not all A-Level Computing students have.

How to read the book
You will meet several coloured boxes, here are their meanings:

What the specification says you must learn for each chapter

Example questions and how to solve them

Topics that aren't examined but you might be interested in

There will be a lot of concepts that you need to be familiar with, definitions are highlighted like so:

Course Structure
The book is split into the four sections. Each section is split into chapters with each chapter covering the topics for that section.
 * To be awarded an AS (Advanced Subsidiary) Level qualification in Computing, a student must take the 2 AS sections.
 * To be awarded an A (Advanced) Level qualification in Computing, a student must take all 4 sections.

AS sections

 * /Theory Fundamentals/
 * /Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming skills/

A2 sections

 * /Operating Systems/
 * /Computing project/