One of the best ways to revise for any subject at GCSE is to work through past exam papers. Because Computer Science is a fairly new subject, there aren’t that many exam papers available.
Also, when you’re trying to work through a past paper and you haven’t got a clue how to answer it, it can be soul-destroying looking at the question then looking at the answer and not being able to tell why the answer is right.
Computing students at Fulford School kindly responded to a pupil voice survey just before their mock exams with some suggestions on how we could help them be better prepared for their exams. In response to their suggestions, we’ve finally got YouTube unblocked for Y11 students (woohoo!) and are planning to release a series of worked solutions for past paper questions.
The past paper we’re using for the videos is based on (but not the same as) the June 2018 Edexcel GCSE Computer Science 9-1 Paper 1 exam. It’s in the same style with content from similar topics but with different questions, so that you can use these videos to prepare for that exam or in response to getting a grade back from that exam.
The aim of each video is to go through the keywords, concepts and theory for any question then the next video walks you through what the answer is and how to get there.
Here’s how I’m recommending that you use these to revise:
- Download the past paper and read a question
- Watch the video that reads out that question and explains the keywords
- Attempt to solve that question yourself
- Watch the next video which gives the answer and mark your own response as well as any points that you missed
- Use the keyword revision games in the links under each video if you want help remembering any key concepts or vocab.
Here’s the YouTube playlist:
I hope it helps. All the best for your revision and all the best for your exams.
