England · AQASyllabus
Computer Science syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the England Computer Sciencesyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
3.5 Fundamentals of computer networks
Module overview →- How do we keep a network and its data safe?Understand the methods used to keep a network secure, including authentication, encryption, firewalls and MAC address filtering.7 min answer →
- How are computers connected together, and in what shapes?Understand what a network is, the difference between a LAN and a WAN, and the star and bus (mesh) network topologies.8 min answer →
- What rules let different devices communicate over a network?Understand the purpose of network protocols, the common protocols and ports, and the four-layer TCP/IP model and why layering is used.8 min answer →
- Should devices connect by cable or wirelessly, and how?Compare wired and wireless connectivity, understand how Wi-Fi works, and the role of encryption in wireless networks.7 min answer →
3.4 Computer systems
Module overview →- How do logic gates make decisions inside a computer?Understand the AND, OR and NOT logic gates, construct and interpret truth tables, and build and read simple logic circuits.8 min answer →
- What are the two parts that make up a computer system?Understand the difference between hardware and software, and the relationship between them in a computer system.6 min answer →
- Where does a computer keep data while it works?Understand the difference between RAM and ROM, the purpose of each, and the need for virtual memory and cache.8 min answer →
- How does a computer store data permanently?Understand the need for secondary storage and compare the three types: magnetic, optical and solid state.8 min answer →
- What software manages the computer itself?Understand the role of the operating system and its functions, and the purpose of common utility software.8 min answer →
- How does the processor run a program?Understand the purpose and components of the CPU, the fetch-execute cycle, and the factors that affect CPU performance.8 min answer →
3.6 Cyber security
Module overview →- What kinds of attack threaten computer systems?Understand the main cyber security threats, including the difference between vulnerabilities and attacks, and forms such as brute-force and denial-of-service attacks.7 min answer →
- What is malicious software and what forms does it take?Understand what malware is and the main forms, including viruses, worms, trojans, spyware and ransomware, and the harm each can cause.7 min answer →
- How do we detect and prevent cyber attacks?Understand the methods used to detect and prevent cyber security threats, including penetration testing, anti-malware, firewalls, user access levels, passwords and encryption.8 min answer →
- How do attackers trick people instead of computers?Understand social engineering, including phishing, shouldering and pretexting, and why people are often the weakest point in security.7 min answer →
3.8 Ethical, legal and environmental impacts
Module overview →- How does digital technology affect the environment?Understand the environmental impact of digital technology, including energy use, e-waste and the use of finite raw materials, and how impacts can be reduced.7 min answer →
- What ethical, legal and cultural issues does technology raise?Understand the ethical, legal and cultural issues raised by digital technology and how stakeholders are affected.7 min answer →
- What laws protect data and govern the use of computers?Understand privacy issues and the key UK legislation, including the Data Protection Act, the Computer Misuse Act and copyright law.7 min answer →
3.1 Fundamentals of algorithms
Module overview →- How do we break a problem down so a computer can solve it?Computational thinking through abstraction, decomposition and algorithmic thinking, and understanding what an algorithm is and the difference between an algorithm and a program.7 min answer →
- How do we write down an algorithm clearly before we code it?Represent and interpret algorithms using flowcharts and pseudocode, recognise the standard flowchart symbols, and read and write AQA-style pseudocode.8 min answer →
- How do computers find an item in a list quickly?Understand and explain how the linear search and binary search algorithms work, trace each one, and compare them including the requirement that binary search needs a sorted list.8 min answer →
- How do computers put a list of values into order?Understand and explain how the bubble sort and merge sort algorithms work, trace each one, and compare them in terms of method and efficiency.8 min answer →
3.3 Fundamentals of data representation
Module overview →- How do computers add binary numbers and shift the bits?Add binary numbers up to and including three 8-bit numbers, recognise overflow, and apply logical and arithmetic binary shifts.8 min answer →
- How are letters and symbols stored as numbers?Understand how characters are represented using ASCII and Unicode character sets, and the effect of the character set on storage and the range of characters.7 min answer →
- How do we make files smaller, and what is the trade-off?Understand why data is compressed, and the difference between lossy and lossless compression including run-length encoding and Huffman coding.8 min answer →
- Why is hexadecimal useful, and how do we convert to and from it?Understand hexadecimal, convert between binary, denary and hexadecimal, and explain why hexadecimal is used.8 min answer →
- Why do computers use binary, and how does it relate to the numbers we use?Understand the binary, denary and hexadecimal number bases, why computers use binary, and convert between binary and denary.8 min answer →
- How is a picture stored as binary?Understand how a bitmap image is represented using pixels and colour depth, the effect of resolution and colour depth on quality and file size, and the role of metadata.8 min answer →
- How is sound stored as binary?Understand how analogue sound is sampled to be stored digitally, the effect of sample rate and bit depth on quality and file size, and calculate sound file sizes.8 min answer →
- How do we measure the amount of data a computer stores?Know that data is stored in bits and bytes, the units from bit to terabyte, and calculate file sizes and storage requirements.7 min answer →
3.2 Programming
Module overview →- How does a program do calculations and make logical decisions?Use arithmetic operators including integer division and modulus, comparison operators, and the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT, applying correct operator precedence.8 min answer →
- How do we store and work with collections of related data?Use one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays and records to store collections of data, and access elements using indexes and field names.8 min answer →
- How does a program store and label the data it works with?Use the common data types, declare and assign variables and constants, and understand the difference between a variable and a constant.7 min answer →
- How does a program read from and write to a file?Read from and write to a text file, including opening, reading line by line, writing and closing a file, so that data persists after the program ends.7 min answer →
- How do we control the order in which a program's instructions run?Use the three programming constructs of sequence, selection and iteration, including definite and indefinite iteration, and nest them.8 min answer →
- How does a program manipulate text?Use common string-handling operations including length, position, substring, concatenation, and converting between case and between strings and numbers.7 min answer →
- How do we design programs that are easy to write, read and maintain?Apply the principles of structured programming, breaking a problem into subroutines with clear interfaces, and explain the benefits of this approach.7 min answer →
- How do we split a program into reusable named blocks?Use subroutines (procedures and functions), pass parameters and return values, and understand the scope of local and global variables.8 min answer →
3.7 Relational databases and SQL
Module overview →- How is data organised in a relational database?Understand relational database concepts including tables, records, fields, primary keys and foreign keys, and why data is organised this way.8 min answer →
- How do we retrieve and change data in a database using SQL?Use SQL to retrieve data with SELECT, FROM, WHERE and ORDER BY, and to insert, update and delete records.8 min answer →