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Big Coding Y11

The document outlines various algorithms and programming tasks related to data handling, searching, and calculations in a context involving drones, pilots, and alarm systems. It includes requirements for refining search algorithms, calculating pilot pay, validating inputs, and managing sensor data. Additionally, it discusses game mechanics for an adding game and the structure of data storage for a security system.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

22 views250 pages

Big Coding Y11

Uploaded by

keyaanstefan

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Available Formats

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You are on page 1/ 250

1 An array stores a collection of words. The array has the identifier data.

data = ["or", "and", "it", "when", "and", "or", "and", "it"]

A searching algorithm is used to find a word in the array data. The algorithm used to search for a word is
shown.

word = input("Enter a word to find")

found = False

for i = 0 to 7

if data[i] == word then

found = True

endif

next i

print(found)

Some words appear in the array more than once.

Refine the algorithm to:

• count the number of times a word appears in the array

• output this number.
For example, the algorithm should output 3 if the input is "and".

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2 OCR Drones flies goods around the country using drones.

A pilot is allowed to fly a maximum of 9 hours per day. The pilot code and the hours flown for each flight in one
day are stored in a 2D array of strings with the identifier journeys.

The data in journeys is shown.

The value of journeys[3,1] is "3.5".

Create a function, pilotValid(), that:

• takes a pilot code as a parameter

• uses the 2D array journeys to calculate the number of hours that the pilot has flown
• returns valid if the pilot has flown 9 hours or fewer or warning if the pilot has flown for more than 9 hours
• uses casting where needed.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or
• A high-level programming language that you have studied.

temp = 7

if temp < 10 then

print(temp)

endif

[1]

(b) value = 3

value = value - 1

print(value * 2)

[1]

4(a) OCR Drones flies goods around the country using drones.

A text file is used to store pilot’s codes and date of birth.

The text file is named pilots.txt. The contents of some of this file is shown:

JP670,17/05/1986
CC200,31/06/1980
SM720,01/04/1976
GC730,06/06/1978

Design an algorithm to:

• Ask the user to input a pilot code and a date of birth

• Write these inputs to the pilots.txt text file

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(b) Pilots are paid a set amount each day. Pilots also get an additional payment for each mile they have flown that
day. These payments are shown in the table.

Flying experience Pay per day Pay per mile

Fewer than 2 years £120.00 £0.45
2 years to 5 years inclusive £150.00 £0.65
More than 5 years £180.00 £0.85

For example, a pilot with 3 years’ experience who flies 100 miles in one day will receive a total of £215.00 pay.
This is calculated in the following way:

• £150.00 pay for the day

• £65.00 additional payment (£0.65 pay per mile x 100 miles)
• Add £150.00 and £65.00 together to get £215.00 total pay

(i) Complete the algorithm to:

• Calculate the total pay for the pilot for that day

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• A high-level programming language that you have studied.

experience = input(“Enter years of experience”)

miles = input(“Enter miles flown”)

totalPay = 0

[4]

(ii) The programmer decides to make a function to calculate the total pay for the pilot.
The function is called calculatePay().

The function takes the values for experience and miles as two parameters and returns the total pay for
the pilot.

Refine the algorithm to use this function and output the pay for the pilot.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• A high-level programming language that you have studied.

experience = input(“Enter years of experience”)

miles = input(“Enter miles flown”)

…………………… = calculatePay( ………………………… , …………………………)

print( totalPay )

[2]

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(c) A pilot’s flying experience is validated. An algorithm checks that the experience is between 0 and 20 years.

exp = input("Enter number of years")

if exp >= 0 and exp <= 20 then

print(True)

else

print(False)

endif

Complete this test plan for the algorithm.

Experience in years Type of test Expected output

Normal True
20 Boundary
32
[4]

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(d) A pilot code is automatically generated when a new pilot joins the company.

This algorithm generates a code for each pilot:

01 a = input("Enter first letter of first name")

02 b = input("Enter first letter of second name")
03 c = random(1,100)
04 while c < 100
05 c = c * 10
06 endwhile
07 pilotCode = a + b + str(c)
08 print(pilotCode)

Complete the trace table for the given algorithm.

Lines 01 to 03 have already been completed.

You may not need to use all rows in the trace table.

Line number a b c pilotCode Output

01 H
02 K
03 9

[4]

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5(a) A player enters a code at the beginning of a computer game. The code is three characters long.
The code sets the level of the game. The game has three levels.

A variable level is assigned a value based on the code entered.

(i) Write an algorithm that:

• asks the user to enter a three-character code

• repeats the previous step if the code is not 3 characters long
• if the code entered is SVA, assigns the value 2 to level
• if the code entered is UTV, assigns the value 3 to level
• assigns the value 1 to level if any other three-character code is entered.

[6]

(ii) When a player completes a level, they move to the next level.

Once level 3 is completed, the game starts again at level 1.

• takes the current level as a parameter

• works out the integer value of the next level the player moves to
• returns the integer value.

[3]

(iii) Complete the line of code to output the value returned from the function nextlevel() when the integer
value 3 is passed in as a parameter.

print(…………………….……………..….……..…..(…………………….…....……………..….))
[1]

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(b) The result of a computer game can be a win, a loss or a draw. The result is stored in a variable with the identifier
result.

(i) State why result cannot be stored using a Boolean data type.

[1]

(ii) Give a suitable data type for result. Explain your answer, showing how each result could be stored.

Data type

Explanation

[2]

(c) In a computer game, a player collects items. Each item has a score. The score for each item is stored using the
data type real.

State what is meant by the data type real.

[1]

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6(a) OCR Security Services need to identify the total number of seconds the sensors have been activated on a
specific date.

The data from the database table events is imported into the program written in a highlevel programming
language.

The program stores the data in a two-dimensional (2D) string array with the identifier arrayEvents

The data to be stored is shown in the table.

Date SensorID SensorType Length

05/02/2023 WS2 Window 38

05/02/2023 MS1 Motion 2
06/02/2023 DS3 Door 1
06/02/2023 MS2 Motion 3
06/02/2023 MS1 Motion 2
07/02/2023 WS1 Window 24
07/02/2023 DS1 Door 1

In this table, the value of events[1, 1] contains "MS1".

(i) An array can only store data of one data type. Any non-string data must be converted to a string before
storing in the array.

Identify the process that converts integer data to string data.

[1]

(ii) Write a program that:

• asks the user to input a date

• totals the number of seconds sensors have been activated on the date input
• outputs the calculated total in an appropriate message including the date, for example:
Sensors were activated for 40 seconds on 05/02/2023

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or
• A high-level programming language that you have studied.

(b) A program written in a high-level language is used to access the data from a database.
This program has a procedure, SaveLogs(), that stores the data to an external text file.

The procedure SaveLogs():

• takes the string of data to be stored to the text file as a parameter

• takes the filename of the text file as a parameter
• stores the string of data to the text file.

Write the procedure SaveLogs()

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You must use either:
• OCR Exam Reference Language, or
• A high-level programming language that you have studied.

[6]

(c) An alarm system has multiple sensors. Each type of sensor has a code. The code for each sensor is given in the
table:

Code Sensor
MS Motion sensor
DS Door sensor

A program is written to reset the sensors. The program:

• asks the user to enter the code for the sensor they want to reset
• calls the prewritten function CheckSensorCode() to check whether the code entered is a valid code
• the sensor number is read as input if the code is valid and the function ResetSensor() is called for the
sensor

01 sensorType = input("Enter code of the type of sensor to reset")

02 if(CheckSensorCode(sensorType)) then

03 sensorNumber = input(" Please input the number of the sensor to reset")

04 sensorID = sensorType + sensorNumber

05 ResetSensor(sensorID)

06 endif

(i) Give the line number where there is concatenation.

[1]

(ii) Give the identifier of a variable used in the program.

[1]

(iii) Identify the data type of the data returned by the function CheckSensorCode()

[1]

(iv) Give the line number that contains a function call.

[1]

(v) Identify two programming constructs that have been used in the program.

2 [2]

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(d) An alarm has an algorithm that decides whether to sound the alarm by checking the data that is stored in the
following three variables.

• SystemArmed
• DoorSensorActive
• WindowSensorActive

The alarm will only sound when the alarm has been activated and one or both of the door and window sensors
are activated. When the system needs to sound the alarm it calls the pre-written procedure SoundAlarm()

Write a program that checks the data in the variables and calls SoundAlarm() when appropriate.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or
• A high-level programming language that you have studied.

[4]

7 Write an algorithm to play a game with the following rules.

• the player is asked 3 addition questions

• each question asks the player to add together two random whole numbers between 1 and 10 inclusive
• if the player gets the correct answer, 1 is added to their score
• at the end of the game their score is displayed.

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8 OCR Security Services is a company that installs intruder alarm systems in commercial buildings.

The systems use a computer that is connected to the door sensors and window sensors.

The following data is stored in the system:

Data stored Variable identifier Example data

The user’s name UserName Admin123
A telephone number to call when the alarm is EmergencyPhoneNumber +449999999999
activated
Whether a door sensor is activated DoorSensorActive True
Whether a window sensor is activated WindowSensorActive True
A timer that counts, to the nearest second, DoorActiveTime 100
how long a door sensor has been activated
A timer that counts, to the nearest second, WindowActiveTime 100
how long a window sensor has been
activated
Whether the system is armed SystemArmed True
Whether the system is in test mode TestModeActive True

Below is a table showing some variables within the program.

Tick (✓) one box in each row to identify the most appropriate data type for each variable.

Variable Boolean Char String Integer Real

UserName
EmergencyPhoneNumber
DoorSensorActive
DoorActiveTime
[4]

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9(a) Charlie is developing an adding game. The rules of the game are:

• the player is asked 3 addition questions

Validating inputs can reduce errors when a program is being run.

Identify two methods of validation and explain how they can be used on this game.

Validation method 1

Use

Validation method 2

Use

[6]

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(b) Charlie has been told that the game will need to be tested before giving it to the players.

(i) Explain why programs should be tested before use.

[2]

(ii) Complete the table by naming and describing one type of test that should be used on Charlie's program
before releasing it.

Test type Description

[2]

(iii) Complete the table by identifying and describing two features of an IDE that can be used when testing a
program.

Feature Description

[4]

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10 A garden floodlight system uses inputs from sensors and switches to decide whether it should be turned on.
The table shows the inputs into the system and the meaning of each input value:

Letter Input device Input of 1 Input of 0

A Motion sensor Motion is detected Motion is not detected
B Light sensor Light levels indicate it is Light levels indicate it is
daytime nighttime
C Light switch The switch is turned on The switch is turned off

The floodlight (Q) is designed to be on (Q = 1) when the switch is turned on and the motion sensor detects
motion at nighttime.

Draw a logic diagram for the floodlight.

[3]

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11 An insertion sort is one type of sorting algorithm.

A student has written a pseudocode algorithm to perform an insertion sort on a 1D array names.

names = ["Kareem", "Sarah", "Zac", "Sundip", "Anika"]

for count = 1 to names.length – 1

pos = count

while (pos > 0 and names[pos] < names[pos – 1])

temp = names[pos]

names[pos] = names[pos – 1]

names[pos – 1] = temp

pos = pos – 1

endwhile

next count

Describe the purpose of the variable temp in the insertion sort pseudocode algorithm.

[2]

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12(a) This pseudocode algorithm totals all the numbers in the 0-indexed array scores

01 total = 0

02 for scoreCount = 1 to scores.length – 1

03 scores[scoreCount] = total + total

04 next scoreCount

05 print(total)

The function length returns the number of elements in the array.

The algorithm contains several errors.

Two types of errors in a program are syntax and logic errors.

Identify two logic errors in the pseudocode algorithm.

Write the refined line to correct each error.

Error 1 line number

Corrected line

Error 2 line number

Corrected line

[4]

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(b) State what is meant by a syntax error and a logic error.

Syntax error

Logic error

[2]

01 start = 3

02 do

03 print(start)

04 start = start - 1

05 until start == -1

06 print("Finished")

Complete the following trace table for the given algorithm.

Line number start Output

[3]

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(b) Three incomplete pseudocode algorithms are given with a description of the purpose of each algorithm.

Write the missing arithmetic operator for each algorithm.

(i) Outputting 12 to the power of 2.

print(12 ……………… 2)

[1]

(ii) Working out if a number is odd or even.

number = 53

if number ……………… 2 == 0 then

print("Even number")

else

print("Odd number")

endif
[1]

(iii) Finding the difference between two measurements.

measurement1 = 300

measurement2 = 100

difference = measurement1 ……………… measurement2

[1]

(c) The variables num1 and num2 store integers.

Write pseudocode to add the integers stored in num1 and num2. Store the result in a variable with the identifier
total

[1]

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14(a) A hotel has nine rooms that are numbered from room 0 to room 8.

The number of people currently staying in each room is stored in an array with the identifier room.

The index of room represents the room number.

Array room
Index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Data 2 1 3 2 1 0 0 4 1

The following program counts how many people are currently staying in the hotel.
for count = 1 to 8

total = 0

total = total + room[count]

next count

print(total)

When tested, the program is found to contain two logic errors.

Describe how the program can be refined to remove these logic errors.

[2]

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(b) Customers at a hotel can stay between 1 and 5 (inclusive) nights and can choose between a basic room or a
premium room.

A Basic room costs £60 each night. A Premium room costs £80 each night.

(i) Create a function, newPrice(), that takes the number of nights and the type of room as parameters,
calculates and returns the price to pay.

You do not have to validate these parameters.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• a high-level programming language that you have studied.

[4]

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(ii) Write program code, that uses newPrice(), to output the price of staying in a Premium room for 5 nights.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• a high-level programming language that you have studied

[3]

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(c) When a new booking is recorded, the details are entered into a program to validate the values. The following
criteria are checked:
• firstName and surname are not empty
• room is either “basic” or “premium”
• nights is between 1 and 5 (inclusive).
If any invalid data is found “NOT ALLOWED” is displayed.
If all data is valid “ALLOWED” is displayed.

(i) Complete the following program to validate the inputs.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• a high-level programming language that you have studied.
firstName = input(“Enter a first name”)

surname = input(“Enter a surname”)

room = input(“Enter basic or premium”)

nights = input(“Enter between 1 and 5 nights”)

stayComplete = False

(ii) Complete the following test plan to check whether the number of nights is validated correctly.

Test data Type of test Expected output

(number of nights)
2 ALLOWED
Boundary ALLOWED
Erroneous / Invalid NOT ALLOWED

15 Jack is writing a program to add up some numbers. His first attempt at the program is shown.

a = input(“Enter a number”)

b = input(“Enter a number”)

c = input(“Enter a number”)

d = input(“Enter a number”)

e = input(“Enter a number”)

f = (a + b + c + d + e)

print(f)

Jack decides to improve his program. He wants to be able to input how many numbers to add together each time
the algorithm runs, and also wants it to calculate and display the average of these numbers.

Write an algorithm to:• ask the user to input the quantity of numbers they want to enter and read this value as
input
• repeatedly take a number as input, until the quantity of numbers the user input has
been entered
• calculate and output the total of these numbers
• calculate and output the average of these numbers.

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16 Customers at a hotel can stay between 1 and 5 (inclusive) nights and can choose between a basic room or a
premium room.

A typical booking record is shown in the table:

firstName Amaya
surname Taylor-Ling
nights 3
room Premium
stayComplete False

(i) State the most appropriate data type for the following fields:

Nights

Room

[2]

(ii) Give the name of one field that could be stored as a Boolean data type.
[1]

(iii) Booking records are stored in a database table called TblBookings.

The following SQL statement is written to display all customer bookings that stay more than one night.

SELECT ALL

FROM TblBookings

IF Nights < 1

The SQL statement is incorrect.

Rewrite the SQL statement so that it is correct.

17 Jack is writing a program to add up some numbers. His first attempt at the program is shown.

a = input(“Enter a number”)

b = input(“Enter a number”)

c = input(“Enter a number”)

d = input(“Enter a number”)

e = input(“Enter a number”)

f = (a + b + c + d + e)

print(f)

Give two ways that the maintainability of this program could be improved.

[2]

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18 A linear search could be used instead of a binary search.

Describe the steps a linear search would follow when searching for a number that is not in the given list.

[2]

19(a) A fast food restaurant offers half-price meals if the customer is a student or has a discount card. The offer is not
valid on Saturdays.

The restaurant needs an algorithm designing to help employees work out if a customer can have a half price
meal or not. It should:

• input required data

• decide if the customer is entitled to a discount
• output the result of the calculation.

Design the algorithm using a flowchart.

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(b) The restaurant adds a service charge to the cost of a meal depending on the number of people at a table. If
there are more than five people 5% is added to the total cost of each meal.

Customers can also choose to leave a tip, this is optional and the customer can choose between a percentage of
the cost, or a set amount.

Identify all the additional inputs that will be required for this change to the algorithm.

[2]

The table identifies the three inputs to the computer system:

Input Value
A Is a student
B Has a discount card
C The current day is Saturday
The logic system P = (A OR B) AND NOT C is used.

(i) Complete the following logic diagram for P = (A OR B) AND NOT C by drawing one logic gate in each box.

(ii) A truth table can be produced for this logic circuit.

Describe the purpose of a truth table.

[2]

(iii) State how many rows (excluding any headings) would be required in a truth table for the logic expression:
P = (A OR B) AND NOT C
[1]

20(a) Write pseudocode to increment a value held in a variable score by one.

[1]

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(b) Tick (✓) one box in each row to identify whether the OCR Reference Language code given is an example of
selection or iteration.

OCR Reference Language code Selection Iteration

for i = 1 to 10
print(i)
next i

whilescore != 0
playgame()
endwhile

if playerHit() then
score = 0
endif

switch bonus:
case 0:
score = 9
case 1:
score = 7
case 2:
score = 5
endswitch
[4]

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21(a) OCRBlocks is a game played on a 5 × 5 grid. Players take it in turns to place blocks on the board.
The board is stored as a two-dimensional (2D) array with the identifier gamegrid

Fig. 6.1 shows that players A and B have placed three blocks each so far.

Fig. 6.1
The function checkblock() checks whether a square on the board has been filled. When checkblock(4,2)
is called, the value "A" is returned.

function checkblock(r,c)
if gamegrid[r,c] == "A" or gamegrid[r,c] == "B" then
outcome = gamegrid[r,c]
else
outcome = "FREE"
endif
return outcome
endfunction

Write an algorithm to allow player A to select a position for their next block on the game board.

The algorithm must:

• ask the player for the position of their block on the board
• use the checkblock() function to check if this position is free
• if the position is free, add the letter "A" to the position chosen in the gamegrid array
• if the position is not free, repeat the above steps until a free position is chosen.

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(b) When checkblock(-1,6) is called, an error is produced.

(i) State why this function call will produce an error.

[1]

(ii) Describe how validation could be added in to the checkblock() function to stop this error from occurring.

[3]

[1]

(d) Give the returned value when the following statements are called.

Function call Returned value

checkblock(2,1)
checkblock(3,0)
checkblock(2,3)
[3]

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22(a) A programmer declares the following variables.

first = "Computer Science"

second = "is great"

Strings can be concatenated (joined together) using the + operator. For example, print("Maths " +
second) will output Maths is great

Use string manipulation with the variables first and/or second to produce the following output.

(i) great

[1]

(ii) Computer

[1]

(iii) Science is great

[1]

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(b) State the output from the following lines of program code.

(i) print(first.length)

[1]

(ii) print(second.length DIV 3)

[1]

(iii) print(3 ^ 2)

[1]

23(a) Taylor is writing an algorithm to record the results of an experiment.

Taylor needs to be able to enter a numeric value which is added to a total which initially starts at 0.

Every time she enters a value, the total is output.

The algorithm repeats until the total is over 100.

For the next part of the experiment, Taylor needs to be able to enter 10 values and count how many of the
values are over 50, outputting this value once all values have been entered.

(i) Complete the following flowchart to implement this algorithm.

(ii) Write a pseudocode algorithm that uses iteration to allow Taylor to:

• enter 10 values
• count how many values are over 50

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• output the count of values over 50 after all 10 values are entered.

[5]

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(b) The input to the program could be an integer or real value.

(i) State what is meant by a real data type and give an example of this data type.

[2]

(ii) State what is meant by an integer data type and give an example of this data type.

[2]

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(c) Write an algorithm to implement Taylor’s requirements.

[6]

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24 A program is being created to convert the data capacity of a storage device into a different measure.

The function, calculate(), takes the measurement (e.g. gigabytes) and the number (e.g. 2) as two
parameters. It then returns the value in bits. The function returns –1 if an invalid measurement was entered.

Complete the function calculate

function calculate(.................................................., number)

if measurement = = "gigabytes" then

value = number * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 8

elseif measurement = = ".................................................." then

value = number * 1024 * 1024 * 8

elseif measurement = = ".................................................." then

value = number * 1024 * 8

elseif measure = = "bytes" then

value = number * ..................................................

else

..................................................

endif

return ..................................................

endfunction [6]

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25 The following names of students are stored in an array with the identifier studentnames.

studentnames = ["Rob", "Anna", "Huw", "Emma", "Patrice", "Iqbal"]

A school uses the array to call an attendance register every morning.

Write an algorithm using iteration to:

• display the name of each student one at a time from studentnames

• take as input whether that student is present or absent
• display the total number of present students and number of absent students in a suitable message, after all
student names have been displayed.

[6]

(i) Draw the logic diagram for the logic system P = A OR (B AND C)

[3]

(ii) Complete the truth table for the logic system P = NOT (A OR B)

A B P
0 0 1
0 1
1 0

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[4]
(b) DIV and MOD are both operators used in computing-related mathematics.

(i) State the value of 13 DIV 4

[1]

(ii) State the value of 13 MOD 4

[1]

27(a) The vending machine can be in one of three states: on, off or suspended. A user can change the state of the
vending machine by using the following algorithm.

newstate = input("Enter the new state : ")

switch newstate:

case "on":

statevalue = 1

case "off":

statevalue = 2

case "suspended":

statevalue = 3

default:

print("Invalid state")

endswitch

Rewrite the algorithm to perform the same actions using IF statements in place of the switch statement.

(b) The algorithm for one section of a vending machine program is shown in pseudocode.

if money >= price then

venditem()

giveChange(money – price)

else

print("Error – not enough money inserted")

endif

(i) Give the identifier of one variable used in the algorithm.

[1]

(ii) State how many parameters are passed into the giveChange() subroutine.

[1]

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(c) A vending machine has the following options available.

Item code Item name Price

A1 Crisps, bacon flavour £0.75
A2 Crisps, salted £0.75
B1 Chocolate bar £0.90
C1 Apple pieces £0.50
C2 Raisins £0.85

Users insert coins into the vending machine and then enter the two character item code of their selection. If the
user has inserted enough money, the vending machine will release the chosen item and output any change
required. If the user enters an invalid item code then a suitable error message is displayed.

Draw the vending machine algorithm in the part above as a flowchart.

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[5]
(d) When writing the program for the vending machine, maintainability was considered.

(i) Identify two ways that the program in the part above has been made more maintainable.

[2]

(ii) Give one additional way that the maintainability of the program can be improved.

[1]

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(e) The vending machine is tested before it is released.

(i) Explain the purpose of testing the vending machine.

[2]

(ii) Describe the difference between iterative testing and final testing.

[2]

(iii) Complete the following test plan for the vending machine.

Code entered Money inserted Expected result

B1 £1 Chocolate bar served, £0.10 change given
£0.85 Raisins served, no change given
C1 Error – not enough money inserted
C3 £0.75
[3]

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28 Dru writes the following program using a high-level language.

01 function newscore(a,b)
02 temp = a*b
03 temp = temp + 1
04 return temp
05 endfunction
06 score = 18
07 name = "Dru"
08 print (score)
09 print ("name")
10 print (newscore(score,2))
11 print (score)

The following table contains the program code for each line where this program outputs values.

State the values output by the program on each of the lines.

Line Program code Value output

08 print (score)

09 print ("name")

10 print (newscore(score,2))

11 print (score)
[4]

29(a) A program creates usernames for a school. The first design of the program is shown in the flowchart in Fig. 2.

For example, using the process in Fig. 2, Tom Ward’s username would be TomWa.

State, using the process in Fig. 2, the username for Rebecca Ellis.

[1]

(b) The program design is updated to create usernames as follows:

• If the person is a teacher, their username is the last 3 letters of their surname and then the first 2 letters of
their first name.
• If the person is a student, their username is the first 3 letters of their first name and then the first 2 letters of
their surname.

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(i) What would be the username for a teacher called Fred Biscuit using the updated process?

[1]

(ii) Write an algorithm for the updated program design shown in (i).

[6]

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30(a) A second program needs to perform the following tasks:

• Input a number from the user

• Double the number input and print the result
• Repeat bullets 1 and 2 until the user enters a number less than 0.

Write an algorithm for this program.

[5]

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(b) A program needs to perform the following tasks:

• Input two numbers from the user

• Compare both numbers and output the largest number.

Complete the pseudocode for this program.

num1 = input("enter first number")

num2 = input("enter second number")

.................. num1 > .................. then

.....................................

else

.....................................

endif
[4]

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31(a) Tick (✓) one box to identify the correct logic diagram for P = NOT(A AND B).

P = NOT(A AND B) Tick (✓) one box

[1]

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(b) Complete the truth table in Fig. 1 for the Boolean statement P = NOT(A AND B).

A B P

0 0 1

0 1 ..................

1 0 ..................

1 1 0

Fig. 1
[2]

32(a) OCR Tech is an online shop that sells electronics such as TVs and game consoles.

Customers can use a discount code to reduce the price of their purchase. Valid discount codes and their value
(in pounds) are stored in a global two-dimensional (2D) array with the identifier discount. The following table
shows part of this 2D array.

For example, discount[2,0] holds discount code BGF2 and discount[2,1] holds the discount of 15
pounds.

A function searches through the 2D array and applies the discount to the price. The price and discount code are
passed in as parameters. The algorithm design is not complete.

(i) Complete the design for the algorithm.

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function checkdiscount(price, code)
newprice = price
size = len(discount) – 1
for x = 0 to ....................
if discount[x,0] == ................ then
newprice = ................ – discount[................]
endif
next x
............................
endfunction

[5]

(ii) Identify two variables used in this function design.

[2]

(iii) Write a program that:

• asks the user for an item price and discount code

• uses the checkdiscount() function from part (i) to calculate the price of the item after any discount
has been applied
• repeats bullet points 1 and 2 until a price of 0 is entered
• outputs the total cost of all items entered, after any discounts have been applied.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or
• A high-level programming language that you have studied

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(b) An item is classified as "In demand" if OCR Tech have between 5 and 25 inclusive in stock.

A program is written that allows the user to input the current stock level and output whether the item is in
demand or not.

stocklevel = input("Enter stock level")

if stocklevel >= 5 or =< 25 then
print(Not in demand)
else
print(In demand)
endif

The program contains syntax and logic errors.

Refine the program to correct the errors and write the refined version of the program.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• A high-level programming language that you have studied

[5]

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(c) The following flowchart shows an algorithm to calculate the price of an item during a sale period.

(i) Complete the following test plan for the algorithm.

Price input Test type Expected price output

50 Normal

100 Boundary

150 Normal

200 Boundary

[3]

(ii) Rewrite the algorithm above.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• A high-level programming language that you have studied

[6]

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(d) Items for sale are stored in the database table tblStock. An extract of this table is shown.

ItemCode ItemName Price (£) Stock

GSC5 GameStation5 console 249.99 102
TV4K 4K Television 499.99 18
ABRR Audiobook reader 59.99 27
NAGC TV streaming stick 24.99 192
tblStock
Tick (✓) one box in each section to identify the correct SQL statement to select the item code and item name for
all items that have a price of £60 or over.
Tick (✓) one box

SELECT ItemCode AND ItemName

SELECT ItemCode, ItemName

SELECT ItemCode & ItemName

Tick (✓) one box

FROM tblStock

FROM table

FROM database

Tick (✓) one box

WHERE Price <= 60

WHERE Price > 60

WHERE Price >= 60

[3]

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33 A car dealership uses a computer system to record details of the cars that it has for sale. Each car has a make,
model, age and number of miles driven.

The car dealership sells electric cars, which require charging before they can be driven. Charging the battery by
1% takes 10 minutes.

For example, a battery has 80% charge. It would take 200 minutes, or 3 hours and 20 minutes to charge to
100%.

Write an algorithm that:

• asks the user for the current battery charge percentage

• outputs "full" for a battery currently at 100%
• calculates how long this battery would take to charge
• outputs this in hours and minutes.

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34(a) A cinema uses the following criteria to decide if a customer is allowed to see a film that has a 15 rating:

Customers have to be 15 years of age or older to see the film. They also need to either have a ticket or
have the money to buy a ticket.

The table shows the inputs to the system that will output whether the customer can watch the film.

Input Criteria (True / False)

A The customer is 15 or over
B The customer has a ticket
C The customer has the money to buy a ticket
Complete the following algorithm to output whether the customer is allowed to see the film or not.

A = input("Is the customer 15 or over?")

B = input("Does the customer have a ticket?")
C = input("Does the customer have money to buy a ticket?")

[3]

[2]
(c) The cinema has three screens: "Red", "Black" and "Yellow".

The function freeseats() counts how many seats are available in each screen. The name of the screen is
passed in as a string parameter and the number of free seats is returned as an integer.

Write code using the function freeseats() to find the number of seats available in screen Red and assign this
to a variable with identifier redseats.

[2]

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35 A car dealership uses a computer system to record details of the cars that it has for sale. Each car has a make,
model, age and number of miles driven.

The car dealership only sells cars that have fewer than 10 000 miles and are 5 years old or less.

(i) Write an algorithm that will:

• ask the user to enter the number of miles and the age of a car
• validate the input to check that only sensible values that are in the given range are entered
• output True if valid data has been entered or False if invalid data has been entered.

[5]

(ii) The validation routine from part (i) must be tested with normal, erroneous and boundary test data.

Identify suitable test data for each type of test.

Miles Age

Normal

Erroneous

[3]

(iii) Identify when iterative testing is performed.

[1]

36 A school uses a mobile phone app to allow parents to book appointments for parents’ evenings.

Parents must log in before they can use the system. They then choose to book a new appointment, view all
appointments already made or update their personal details. If parents choose to view their appointments, they
can either view them on-screen or print them off.

A structure diagram has been used to design the mobile phone app.

Write one letter from the following table in each space to complete the structure diagram.

Letter Task
A Book new appointment
B Check attendance of child
C Update personal details
D View appointments on-screen
E Log out of the system
F Print a paper copy of appointments

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37(a) A teacher writes an algorithm to store the name of the game a student plays each night (for example "OCR Zoo
Simulator").

variable.length returns the number of characters in variable.

variable.upper returns the characters in variable in upper case.

valid = false

while(valid == false)

gameName = input("Enter the game name")

if (gameName.length > 0) AND (gameName.length < 20)

gamesPlayed = gameName.upper

valid = true

print("Valid game name")

else

print("Game name is not valid")

endif

endwhile

The algorithm needs testing to make sure the IF-ELSE statement works correctly.

Identify two different pieces of test data that can be used to test different outputs of the algorithm. Give the
output from the program for each piece of test data.

Test data 1

Expected output

Test data 2

Expected output

[4]

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(b) A teacher researches the length of time students spend playing computer games each day.

The teacher asks students how long they spend completing homework. Students answer in minutes and hours
(for example 2 hours 15 minutes).

The teacher would like to create an algorithm that will display students’ inputs in minutes only.

(i) Identify the input and output required from this algorithm.

Input

Output

[2]

(ii) A program is created to convert hours and minutes into a total number of minutes.

The teacher wants to create a sub program to perform the calculation.

The program has been started but is not complete.

Complete the design for the program.

hours = input("Please enter number of hours played")

minutes = input("Please enter number of minutes played")
finalTotal = .................................................................................
print(finalTotal)
function ................................................................................
................................................................................
................................................................................
................................................................................
................................................................................
endfunction
[4]

(iii) The following flowchart outputs a message depending on how long each person has spent playing computer

Rewrite the flowchart as a program.

You must use either:
• OCR Exam Reference Language, or
• a high-level programming language that you have studied.

[4]

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(c) The following program uses a condition-controlled loop.

x = 15
y = 0
while x > 0
y = y + 1
x = x – y
endwhile
print(y)

Complete the trace table to test this program.

x y output

[4]

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(d) The teacher writes a program to add up and print out the total number of minutes student 2 played computer
games over 5 days (Monday to Friday).

total = 0
total = total + minsPlayed[2,0]
total = total + minsPlayed[2,1]
total = total + minsPlayed[2,2]
total = total + minsPlayed[2,3]
total = total + minsPlayed[2,4]
print(total)

Refine the program to be more efficient. Write the refined version of the algorithm.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• a high-level programming language that you have studied.

[4]

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(e) Data for one week (Monday to Friday) is stored in a 2D array with the identifier minsPlayed.

The following table shows part of this array, containing 4 students.

The teacher wants to output the number of minutes Dan (column index 3) played computer games on
Wednesday (row index 2). The following code is written:

print(minsPlayed[3,2])

Write program code to output the number of minutes that Stuart played computer games on Friday.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• a high-level programming language that you have studied.

[1]

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(f) The program should only allow values from 0 to 300 inclusive as valid inputs. If the data entered breaks this
validation rule, an error message is displayed.

(i) Complete the following program to output "Invalid input" if the data does not meet the validation rule.

You must use either:

• OCR Exam Reference Language, or

• a high-level programming language that you have studied.

mins = input("Enter minutes played: ")

if mins < 0 ..................... mins ..................... then

..................... ("Invalid input")

endif [3]

(ii) Complete the following test plan for the program in (i).

Test data Test type Expected result

25 Normal Value accepted
Invalid Invalid input
message displayed
Boundary
[3]

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(g) Tick (✓) one box to identify the data type you would choose to store the data and explain why this is a suitable
data type.

Data Type Tick (✓) one box

String
Integer
Real
Boolean

Explanation:

[2]

38(a) The area of a circle is calculated using the formula π × r2 where π is equal to 3.142 and r is the radius.

A program is written to allow a user to enter the radius of a circle as a whole number between 1 and 30, then
calculate and output the area of the circle.

01 radius = 0
02 area = 0.0
03 radius = input("Enter radius")
04 if radius < 1 OR radius > 30 then
05 print("Sorry, that radius is invalid")
06 else
07 area = 3.142 * (radius ^ 2)
08 print (area)
09 endif
Tick (✓) one box in each row to identify whether each programming construct has or has not been used in the
program.

Has been used Has not been used

Sequence

Selection

Iteration

[3]

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(b) Identify two variables used in the program.

[2]
(c) Explain, using examples from the program, two ways to improve the maintainability of the program.

[4]

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39(a) A program uses a file to store a list of words that can be used in a game.

A sample of this data is shown in Fig. 3.

crime bait fright victory nibble loose

Fig. 3

A second sample of data is shown in Fig. 4.

amber house kick moose orange range tent wind zebra

Fig. 4

Show the stages of a binary search to find the word zebra using the data shown in Fig. 4.

[4]

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(b) Show the stages of a bubble sort when applied to data shown in Fig. 3.

[4]

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40(a) OCR Land is a theme park aimed at children and adults. Entrance tickets are sold online. An adult ticket to OCR
Land costs £19.99, with a child ticket costing £8.99. A booking fee of £2.50 is added to all orders.

One ride in OCR Land has a minimum height of 140 cm to ride alone or 120 cm to ride with an adult.

Create an algorithm that:

• asks the user to input the height of the rider, in centimetres

• if needed, asks if they are riding with an adult
• outputs whether or not they are allowed to ride
• repeats this process until 8 people have been allowed to ride.

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[8]

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(b) OCR Land keeps track of the size of queues on its rides by storing them in an array with the identifier
queuesize. It uses the following bubble sort algorithm to put these queue sizes into ascending numerical order.

01 swaps = True
02 while swaps
03 swaps = False
04 for p = 0 to queuesize.length-2
05 if queuesize[p] > queuesize[p+1] then
06 temp = queuesize[p]
07 queuesize[p] = queuesize[p+1]
08 queuesize[p+1] = temp
09 swaps = True
10 endif
11 next p
12 endwhile

(i) Explain the purpose of the Boolean variable swaps in this bubble sort algorithm.

[2]

(ii) Explain the purpose of lines 06 to 08 in this bubble sort algorithm.

(iii) Describe one way that the maintainability of this algorithm could be improved.

[2]

(iv) Give the names of two other sorting algorithms that could be used instead of bubble sort.

[2]

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(c) A list of valid discount codes is shown below.

[NIC12B, LOR11S, STU12M, VIC08E, KEI99M, WES56O, DAN34S]

(i) State one reason why a binary search would not be able to be used with this data.

[1]

(ii) Give the name of one searching algorithm that would be able to be used with this data.

[1]

(d) OCR Land regularly emails discount codes to customers. Each discount code includes a check digit as the last
character.

(i) Give one benefit of using a check digit for the discount code.

[1]

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(e) A function, ticketprice(), takes the number of adult tickets and the number of child tickets as parameters. It
calculates and returns the total price to be paid.

(i) Use pseudocode to create an algorithm for the function ticketprice().

(ii) Tick (✓) one box to identify the data type of the value returned from the function ticketprice(), justifying
your choice.

Data type of returned value Tick (✓) one box

Integer
Real
Boolean
String

Justification

[2]

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41(a) Complete the truth table for the following logic gate.

A B Q
0 0 0
0 1 1
0
1

[4]
(b) The symbol ^ is used for exponentiation.
Give the result of a^b when a = 3 and b = 2.

[1]

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42(a) Elliott plays football for OCR FC. He wants to create a program to store the results of each football match they
play and the names of the goal scorers. Elliott wants individual players from the team to be able to submit this
information.

The number of goals scored in each football match is held in an array called goals. An example of this array is
shown.

goals = [0, 1, 3, 0, 4, 5, 2, 0, 2, 1]

Elliott wants to count how many matches end with 0 goals.

Complete the following pseudocode for an algorithm to count up how many matches with 0 goals are stored in
the array and then print out this value.

01 nogoalscount = 0
02 for count = 0 to (goals.length-1)
03 if goals[…………………………] == 0 then
04 nogoalscount ……………………………………………………
05 endif
06 next count
07 print(……………………………………………)
[3]

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(b) Describe two examples of defensive design that should be considered when developing this program.

[4]

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43(a) Louise writes a program to work out if a number entered by the user is odd or even. Her first attempt at this
program is shown.

01 num = input(“enter a number”)

02 if num MOD 2 >= 0 then
03 print(“even”)
04 else
05 pritn(“odd”)
06 endif
The program contains a syntax error on line 05.

(i) State what is meant by a syntax error.

[1]

(ii) Give a corrected version of line 05 that fixes the syntax error.

[1]

(b) The program contains a logic error on line 02.

(i) State what is meant by a logic error.

[1]

(ii) Give a corrected version of line 02 that fixes the logic error.

[1]

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44(a) A programmer creates an algorithm using a flow chart.

Complete the table to give the output when each of the following set of values are input into the algorithm as X
and Y.

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Input value of X Input value of Y Output
15 10
6 5
2 3
12 2

[4]
(b) Write this algorithm using pseudocode.

[6]

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45 Victoria is writing a program using a high level language to display the meaning of computer science acronyms
that are entered. The code for her first attempt at this program is shown below.

01 a = input(“Enter an acronym”)
02 if a == “LAN” then
03 print(“Local Area Network”)
04 elseif a == “WAN” then
05 print(“Wide Area Network”)
06 ……………………………………………………………………………………………
07 ……………………………………………………………………………………………
08 endif
(i) Complete the code above to print out an “unknown” message if any other acronym is entered by the user. [2]

(ii) Describe what is meant by a “high level language”.

[2]

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46(a) Using pseudocode, write an algorithm that will use a count-controlled loop to print out the numbers 1 to 10 in
ascending order.

[3]

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(b) For each of the pseudocode algorithms shown below, tick the appropriate box to show whether they will loop
infinitely or not.

Pseudocode Will loop infinitely Will not loop infinitely

01 x = 0
02 while True
03 print x
04 endwhile
01 x = 0
02 while x < 10
03 print x
04 endwhile
01 x = 0
02 while x < 10
03 print x
04 x = x + 1
04 endwhile
01 y = 5
02 for x = 1 to y
03 print x
04 next
[4]

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47(a) Functions and procedures are both examples of sub programs.

(i) Describe one difference between a function and a procedure.

[2]

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(ii) Describe two benefits to a programmer of using sub programs.

[4]

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(b) A library gives each book a code made from the first three letters of the book title in upper case, followed by the
last two digits of the year the book was published.

For example, “Poetry from the War”, published in 2012 would be given the code POE12.

(i) Complete the following pseudocode for a function definition that will take in the book title and year as
parameters and return the book code.

01 function librarycode (title, ………………………………………………)

02 parta = title.subString (0, ………………………………………………)
03 partb = year.subString (2, 2)
04 ……………………………………………… parta.upper + partb
05 endfunction
[3]

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(ii) Use pseudocode to write an algorithm that does the following :

• Inputs the title and year of a book from the user.

• Uses the librarycode function above to work out the book code.
• Permanently stores the new book code to the text file bookcodes.txt

[6]

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48(a) A programmer has written an algorithm to output a series of numbers. The algorithm is shown below:

01 for k = 1 to 3
02 for p = 1 to 5
03 print (k + p)
04 next p
05 next k
06 m = 7
07 print m * m

(i) Give the first three numbers that will be printed by this algorithm.

[1]

(ii) State how many times line 03 will be executed if the algorithm runs through once.

[1]

(b) Identify two basic programming constructs that have been used in this algorithm.

[2]

(i) Describe what is meant by a variable.

[2]

(ii) Identify two variables that have been used in the algorithm above.

[2]

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49 OCR town are holding an election with three candidates (A, B and C). An electronic voting booth will be used to
allow people to vote.

Write an algorithm that:

• Allows voters to enter either A, B or C.

• Keeps track of how many times each candidate has been voted for.
• As soon as one person has finished voting, allows the next person to vote.
• At any point allows the official to type in “END”, which will print out the number of votes for each candidate
and the total number of votes overall.

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50(a) The logic diagram below (Fig. 2) shows a system made up of two connected logic gates.

Fig.2

Draw the logic diagram represented by Q = AV¬B

[2]

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(b) (i) Label the names of the two gates on the diagram above. [2]

(ii) Complete the truth table below to show the output from this logic system.

A B Q
0 0
0 1
1 0
1 1
[4]

51(a) OCR High School uses a computer system to store data about students’ conduct. The system records good
conduct as a positive number and poor conduct as a negative number. A TRUE or FALSE value is also used to
record whether or not a letter has been sent home about each incident.

An example of the data held in this system is shown below in Fig. 1:

StudentName Detail Points LetterSent

Kirstie Homework forgotten −2 FALSE
Byron Good effort in class 1 TRUE
Grahame 100% in a test 2 FALSE
Marian Bullying −3 TRUE

Fig. 1

© OCR 2024. You may photocopy this page. 117 of 250 Created in ExamBuilder
A single record from this database table is read into a program that uses an array with the identifier
studentdata. An example of this array is shown below:
studentdata = [“Kirstie”, “Homework forgotten”, “–2”, “FALSE”]

The array is zero based, so studentdata[0] holds the value “Kirstie”.

Write an algorithm that will identify whether the data in the studentdata array shows that a letter has been
sent home or not for the student. The algorithm should then output either “sent” (if a letter has been sent) or “not
sent” (if a letter has not been sent).

[4]

© OCR 2024. You may photocopy this page. 118 of 250 Created in ExamBuilder
(b) The data shown above in Fig. 1 is stored in a database table called Conduct.

(i) Write an SQL statement to select the StudentName field for all records that have negative Points.

[3]

(ii) State the wildcard that can be used in SQL to show all fields from a table.

[1]

• StudentName

• Points

• LetterSent [3]

END OF QUESTION PAPER

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

1 Declares variable to store the count 4 Example answer :

(before the for loop) (AO3 2c) search = input("Enter a word")
Initialises variable to zero count = 0
Increments variable by 1 each time the for i = 0 to 7
word is found if data[i] == search then
Outputs count value count = count + 1
next i
print(count)

Allow answers that completely rewrite the

algorithm as long as points on left met.

Total 4

2 One mark per bullet point to max 6 6 Example answer :

(AO3 2b) function pilotValid(pilotCode)
Function header pilotValid() with total = 0
(at least one) parameter status = ""
Checks array element [i,0] for each for i = 0 to 5
item… if journeys[i,0] ==
…calculates total pilotCode then
…casting to float / real temp =
Checks if 9 hours or fewer float(journeys[i,1])
Returns a value total = total + temp
…returns "warning" and "valid" endif
correctly next i
if total > 9 then
status = "warning"
else
status = "valid"
endif
return status
endfunction

Do not allow casting to integer for BP4,

data shows some journeys have decimal
places.

Allow FT for BP5 if attempt made at

calculation.
Allow FT for BP7 if value is output instead
of returned.

Total 6

3 a 7 1 Correct Answer Only

(AO3 1)

b 4 1 Correct Answer Only

(AO3 1)

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Total 2

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

4 a One mark per bullet point 4 Award BP4 for implicit closing of file (e.g.
(AO3 2b) using with… in Python)
Ask the user for two inputs and
store/use these Example answer :
Open pilots.txt (for write/append) dronepilotData =
Write both inputs to opened text file open("pilots.txt")
Close text file pilotCode = input("enter code")
dob = input("enter date of
birth")
dronepilotData.writeLine(pilotC
ode, dob)
dronepilotData.close()

Allow data to be written either by simply

writing both values or by concatenating into
one string with a separating comma.

b i Attempt at using selection 4 Example answer :

Calculates pay correctly for pilots with (AO3 2b)
less than 2 years experience experience = input(“Enter years
Calculates pay correctly for pilots with of experience”)
2 to 5 years experience. Must include miles = input(“Enter miles
both 2 and 5. flown”)
Calculates pay correctly for pilots with
more than 5 years experience totalPay = 0
if exp <2 then
totalPay = 120+(0.45*miles)
elseif exp <=5 then
totalPay = 150+(0.65*miles)
else
totalPay = 180+(0.85*miles)
end if
print(totalPay)

FT for BP4 only where a reasonable

attempt at calculating pay has been made.

ii totalPay 2 totalPay =
(experience, miles) // (miles, (AO3 2c) calculatePay(experience, miles)
experience)

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

c One mark per bullet point 4

(AO3 2c)
Any value between 0 and 20 (e.g. 4)
True Experience Type of test Expected
Invalid // erroneous // sensible in years output
alternative
4 Normal True
False
20 Boundary True
32 Erroneous/Inval False
id

d 1 mark per row 4 Ignore additional lines that do not affect

(AO3 1) outcome.
c = 90 on line 05 FT for missing or incorrect line numbers.
c = 900 on line 05 FT for output based on incorrect tracing of
pilotCode = HK900 on line 07 loop.
HK900 output on line 08

Line a b c pilotCode Output

number
01 H
02 K
03 9
05 90
05 90
0
07 HK900
08 HK900

Total 18

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

5 a i 1 mark per bullet point 6 Example answer :

(AO3 2b) level = 0
Input code from user and store/use code = ""
Repeat for non-three character codes while code.length != 3 then
Check for one code… code = input("enter a 3
…and set level appropriately character code")
Check for and set level for 2nd code endwhile
Set level to 1 for any other 3 character
code switch code :
case "SVA":
level = 2
case "UTV":
level = 3
default:
level = 1
endswitch

alternative example answer

level = 0
code = ""

while code.length != 3 then

code = input("enter a 3
character code")
endwhile
if code == "SVA" then
level = 2
elseif code == "UTV" then
level = 3
else
level = 1
endif

ii 1 mark per bullet point 3 Example answer :

(AO3 2b) function nextlevel(oldlevel)
function nextlevel() defined with at if oldlevel == 3 then
least one parameter return 1
returns parameter plus 1… else
… except for if parameter is 3, then return oldlevel + 1
returns 1 endif

end function

Accept correct use of MOD for BP2 and 3.

Allow FT for BP3 if value output /

calculated but not returned.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii print(nextlevel(3)) 1 Allow other logically correct answers

(AO3 2b)

b i Boolean has two possible values / True 1 The results are words and not Boolean
or False // Result has three possible (AO2 1a) values.
values // result has more than two
options

ii 1 mark for data type, 1 mark for matching 2 Allow other sensible explanation that
justification. (AO2 1a) shows candidate has considered how each
of the three states could be stored.
String…
…can store "win", "loss" or "draw" //
equivalent
Char…
…can store "W", "L" or "D" // equivalent
Integer / Real…
…can store 0, 1, 2 // equivalent

c number with decimal places / fractional 1 Do not accept examples on their own.
part (AO1 1a)

Total 14

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

6 a i 1 mark for: 1 Accept type casting Do not accept

(AO3 2a) conversion. Do not accept examples of
Casting / cast casting.

Examiner’s Comments

The use of the term "casting" to convert

one data type to another is now well known
and understood by candidates. This is
given and referred to in the J277
specification and is essential knowledge.

ii 1 mark each to max 6 6 BP2 can be achieved either by iteration

(AO3 2b) accessing each event or manually
Input date and store in variable / use repeating code to access each event. Must
directly be 0 to 6, not 1 to 7.
Access all seven (indexes 0 to 6)
events in array // loop for each event in Allow reference to events (table given)
array or arrayEvents (2D array) in answer as
Attempt at selection… long as used consistently.
…to compare date input against date
in array (element 0) BP2 loop allow off by one errors (Python),
…adding length (element 3) from looping to array length or array length – 1.
array to the total if dates match. Allow for each item in array or any
Outputting calculated total and date in other suitable loop.
appropriate message(s) at the end
BP4 and BP5 allow array reference as
either column major or row major.

Output can either be once at the end or on

every iteration, as long as it is output at the
end.

Only give output mark if attempt made to

calculate total within the algorithm.

Do not penalise capitalisation or minor

misspellings of variable names.

Example answer 1

total = 0
date = input("Please enter
date")
for count = 0 to
events.length-1
if events[0, count] == date
then
total = total +
events[3,count]

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

endif
next count
print("There were " + total + "
events on " + date)

Example answer 2

total = 0
date = input("Please enter
date")
for item in events:
if item[0] == date then
total = total + item[3]
endif
next count
print("There were " + total + "
events on " + date)

Examiner’s Comments

The final question in Section B is expected

to be a high demand question.

The techniques required (iteration through

a 2D array, selection, keeping a running
total of times) are within the specification
but it is acknowledged that the level of
challenge was high.

Examiners were instructed to give marks

for an attempt at a solution (as with
previous questions).

For this question marks were given for:

any attempt at selection

any solution that accessed each
element in the given array, even if this
was via a manual process.

Therefore, many candidates gained

multiple marks for an attempt that only
partially solved the problem.

A significant number of candidates were

able to create a solution that fully met the
requirements of the question. This was
often done in an elegant and efficient
manner.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

This is extremely pleasing and shows

excellent understanding and significant
experience of practical programming.

Exemplar 3

Exemplar 3 shows a high scoring

response. A date has been asked for as
input which has then been used to
compare to each element at position 0 in
the array.

Where any of these match, the total

variable is updated to keep a running total
of the corresponding element at position 3
in the array.

After each element has been checked, the

total and date are output in a suitable
message.

This is not the only method by which a

response could be given full marks but is
perhaps the most common.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b 1 mark each 6 Must be clear that answer is a procedure

(AO3 2b) definition, do not credit calling procedure
Define procedure SaveLogs… for BP1. Allow function definition.
…with two valid parameters
Open file (for write/append) … If parameters are later overwritten, do not
… using the file name passed in as credit BP2 but FT for BP4 and 6.
parameter
Write data to file… Closing text file does not need reference to
…using the data passed in as file name/object – e.g. “close file” is
parameter enough. However, if given reference must
Close file be correct.

If code given outside of procedure, do not

give BP4 and BP6

Allow FT for multiple occurrences of same

mistake (e.g. not using filename correctly
for open and close)

Example answer

procedure SaveLogs(data,
filename)
logFile = open(filename)
logFile.writeLine(data)
logFile.close()
endprocedure

Examiner’s Comments

This question proved to be challenging for

many candidates. The question combined
defining a procedure with the use of text
files.

The tasks required were partially

decomposed in the bullet points. A
candidate attempting these in order would
have achieved a significant number of
marks.

Candidates could also have achieved

numerous marks for a partial solution (e.g.
defining a procedure that didn't use text
files or writing to a text file outside of a
procedure) and the mark scheme was
deliberately constructed to credit these
responses.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Full marks were often given where

candidates appear to have had practical
experience of these two techniques.

Exemplar 2

Exemplar 2 shows a response that scored

full marks. The procedure has been
defined with multiple parameters which are
then used to open the file and to write the
data. The candidate has also achieved the
bullet point 7 on the mark scheme (closing
the file) but this wasn’t necessary in this
case.

c i 1 mark for 1
(AO3 1) Examiner’s Comments
Line 04
Concatenation is the process of joining
strings together. In OCR Exam Reference
Language, this is done using the + symbol.
Line 04 joins together sensorType and
sensorNumber, assigning the
concatenated result to the variable
sensorID.

ii 1 mark from 1 Do not penalise case, spacing or minor

(AO3 1) misspellings.
sensorType
sensorNumber Examiner’s Comments
sensorID
The vast majority of candidates are
confident with identifying variable
identifiers, such as sensorNumber. Small
errors in spelling or spacing were not
penalised. Candidates should be
encouraged to be accurate with their
namings, particularly if these are already
given to them in the question.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii 1 mark for 1 Ignore minor misspelling.

(AO3 1)
Boolean Accept Bool.

Examiner’s Comments

Many candidates found this question

challenging. The question relies on
understanding of how selection statements
operate. The answer of Boolean can be
inferred from how the function return value
is used.

This use of Boolean values in selection

statements also caused confusion in the
previous J276 specification. It would be
beneficial for centres to cover this
specifically. More detail is given in the
misconception box below.

Misconception

Where Boolean values are used in

selection, there is no need to compare this
to a True or False value. Line 02 uses an
IF statement based on the return value
from a function CheckSensorCode().
Because the function returns a Boolean
value, the IF statement is valid. Looking at
another example, if the variable x is
Boolean, then both of the following would
be valid:

if x == True then…
if x then…

In both cases, if the value of x is True, the

code underneath would be executed. The
second version (without comparing a
Boolean value to True or False) is more
elegant.
However, both would be accepted as
responses in an examination.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iv 1 mark from 1
(AO3 1) Examiner’s Comments
Line 01
Line 02 The program code given contains two
Line 03 explicit calls to functions. There is one
Line 05 function call on line 02 for
CheckSensorCode() and one function
call on line 05 for ResetSensor().
However, many programming languages
(including Python) implement input as a
function and so examiners were instructed
to also give credit where candidates
identified lines 01 or 03.

v 1 mark each 2 Ignore minor spelling errors / differences

(AO3 1)
Selection Do not accept examples (e.g. IF)
Sequence
Examiner’s Comments

The three programming constructs given in

the specification are selection, sequence
and iteration.

Sequence and selection are used within

this program.

There is no use of iteration in the given

program.

Surprisingly for an AO1 question, this

proved relatively challenging for candidates
with many identifying other features of the
code, such as inputs, function calls or
variables.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

d 1 mark each: 4 Selection could be done using IF

(AO3 2b) statement, case statement or any other
Attempt at using selection / condition sensible valid method.
controlled loop
Checking if system armed // while Allow reference to AlarmActivated or
system armed equivalent instead of SystemArmed
If Door Sensor active OR Window
Sensor active (both checks required) Ignore any inputs or modification of
calling SoundAlarm correctly variables.

Allow True / False as strings. Allow

checking against strings (e.g. if
SystemArmed == “active”)

Allow checking armed/disarmed for BP2

and BP3

Only award BP4 if SoundAlarm correctly

called / not called in every situation. If
issues on previous lines (e.g. lack of
brackets where needed) means this is not
the case, do not award BP4.

Checking could be done by evaluating

variable directly (if SystemArmed) or by
comparison (if SystemArmed ==
True)

Example answer 1

if SystemArmed then
if DoorSensorActive then
SoundAlarm()
else if WindowSensorActive
then
SoundAlarm()
endif
endif

Example answer 2

while SystemArmed then

if DoorSensorActive then
SoundAlarm()
else if WindowSensorActive
then
SoundAlarm()
endif

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

endif

Example answer 3

if SystemArmed and
(DoorSensorArmed or
WindowSensor) then
SoundAlarm()
endif

Note – above example needs brackets,

if SystemArmed and
DoorSensorArmed or WindowSensor
then

is not logically valid for this scenario (will

sound alarm when not armed if window
sensor is active)

Example answer 4

if SystemArmed and
DoorSensorArmed
SoundAlarm()
else if SystemArmed and
WindowSensorArmed
SoundAlarm()
endif

Examiner’s Comments

Many responses achieved highly on this

question. The question asks for a simple
program to be written that checks the given
variables and calls the given procedure
when necessary.

Examiners were instructed to be generous

with the first mark, crediting any use of
selection or condition-controlled iteration.
Responses may therefore have been
rewarded for an attempt at this question
even if their solution was not fully
functional.

Centres should encourage candidates to

attempt each question for precisely this
reason; it is typical that a small number of
marks are allocated to attempting a

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

solution on many programming questions

for J277/02.

A significant number of responses were

given 3 out of 4 marks as they
misunderstood the role of operator
precedence in their solution; this is detailed
in the "misconception" box below.

Misconception

Where multiple conditions are used in

selection, these have an order of
precedence very much like BIDMAS does
in mathematics; an AND operator will
always take precedence over an OR
operator. A NOT operator (not used in this
question) would have even higher
precedence.

This can cause problems in candidate

responses. A common candidate response
was:

if SystemArmed AND
DoorSensorActive OR
WindowSensorActive then
SoundAlarm()

However, because the AND operator takes

precedence, the first check done here is if
the system is armed and the door sensor is
active. The result of this is then evaluated
with an OR operator to check if the window
sensor is active.

This results in the alarm sounding if the

window sensor is active, even if the system
is not armed. This was clearly not the
candidate's intention.

To fix this, candidates could have either:

put brackets/parentheses around the

Door OR Window section of their
response

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

written the response as separate

checks. This could have been done in
multiple ways, including nested if
statements or repeated checks.

Exemplar 1

Exemplar 1 shows one way that full marks

are achieved on this question. The
candidate has used nested if statements
to check if the system is armed, and if true,
then checking if either sensor has been
activated. The SoundAlarm() procedure is
only called if both if statements evaluate to
True.

Total 23

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

7 1 mark each to max 6 6 No need to cast data to string/integer.

(AO3 2b)
Initialise / declare score (to zero) If random numbers chosen, BP3 must use
before use, outside of any loop these. If no random numbers chosen, allow
Generates 2 random numbers between manually setting values
1 and 10
Inputs answer from user displaying BP6 can be awarded for either a loop
suitable numbers repeating 3 times or the same code written
Checks if input is correct answer… out 3 times
… if correct adds 1 to score
Repeats BP2 to 5 three times (for BP5 can be given FT if sensible attempt at
bullet points attempted) BP4
Outputs score after reasonable
attempt at counting Do not award BP6 if same numbers used
for every question. Must pick new values
each time.

Do not penalise potential off by 1 errors for

looping (Python) or random number
generation

Example answer

score = 0
for count = 1 to 3
num1 = random(1, 10)
num2 = random(1, 10)
ans = input("What is” +num1 +
" + " + num2 + "?")
if ans = num1 + num2 then
score = score + 1
end if
next count
print("You scored " + score)

Examiner’s Comments

As this question appears in Section A,

candidates are free to respond in any
suitable way, including using flowcharts,
structured English, pseudocode or a high-
level language.

The majority of high scoring responses

used a high-level language consistently.

Where flowcharts or structured English

were used, responses needed to clearly
show the steps to be taken and not simply

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

repeat the question to achieve marks.

The given question is already decomposed

for candidates and many were able to use
these bullet points to build a solution that
achieved the majority of marks available.

Many responses used random number

generation and iteration to create an
elegant response that met all mark points.
This was pleasing to see and it is
extremely encouraging that candidates can
use techniques such as these where
appropriate without being prompted.

Other responses manually repeated asking

the required questions; on this occasion,
these were also credited and could have
achieved full marks.

Where a mistake was made in one section

(such as with iteration), examiners were
instructed to use FT (follow through) where
possible. This allowed candidates to score
marks in later sections if their responses
were logically constructed. This is to be fair
to candidates so that mistakes are only
penalised once in any given question.

A significant number of responses did not

access many marks in this question. This
would suggest that more practical
programming time in lessons would be
beneficial.

Total 6

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

8 1 mark for each row 4 No mark if more than 1 tick on a row.

(AO3 2a)
Allow other indications of choice (e.g.
cross) as long as clear.
Variable Boolea Ch Str Integ Re
n ar ing er al
UserName ✓
EmergencyP ✓
honeNumber
DoorSensor ✓
Active
DoorActive ✓
Time

Total 4

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

9 a 1 mark for method, 1 mark to max 2 for 6 Validation must be applied to the rules of
each use (4 AO2 the game as given; do not accept uses
1b) related to input not asked for (e.g. names,
e.g. (2 AO1 passwords, etc).
1a)
Range check Do not accept uses that simply repeat the
… checks upper/max / lower/min / name of the check (e.g. “range check,
boundaries checks a range of numbers”)
… make sure the players answer /
input is between sensible limits (e.g. 20 For range check, values must be sensible
or less, between 2 and 20 inclusive) // (e.g. 1 to 50), and allow input of 2 to 20. Do
not negative not allow 1 / 10 (answer could be over
…by example of program code this).

Type check For length check, must be clear that the

… making sure the data inputted is of string version of the data input is being
the correct data type checked to award use marks (e.g.
… make sure answer / input is an characters not digits).
integer (or equivalent e.g. whole
number) Accept alternative names or descriptions
(e.g. existence check, boundary check) but
Presence check name of check must be sensible.
… making sure a value is inputted / not
blank Mark each answer as a whole, ignore
… reference to answer / input method/use headings.
…by example of program code
Do not accept defensive design elements
Length check (e.g. input sanitisation, authentication)
… limit number of characters // check
maximum / minimum string length Examples of program code can be actual
… answer / input must be 1 or 2 code (e.g. if inp>=2 and inp<=20) or
characters identification of technique (e.g. “use IF
…by example of program code statement / Case statement to limit values
to between 1 and 20”). Do not accept code
Format check just showing casting.
… making sure the data inputted
follows a set pattern Examiner’s Comments
… checking answer / input consists of
only 1 or 2 numeric digits Responses which focused on the explicit
…by example of program code link to the game described in this question
tended to do well.
Look up / table check
… making sure the data inputted is one The stronger responses stated a validation
from an allowed set of values method and linked the use of the validation
… checking that answer / input is one method to the game. For example, a
of [2, 3…20] inclusive requirement of the game is that two
…by example of program code random numbers between 1 and 10 are
picked. It is sensible to suggest that
validation ensuring the total is between 2

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

and 20 could be implemented. Further

discussion relating to how this could be
done, even as far as suggesting sensible
high-level code that could be used would
have developed the response.

Some candidates gave examples of

validation which did not clearly link to the
game. Generic examples were partially
credited. Explicit links to the game were
required in order to gain all marks
available.

Misconception

Input validation applies to values input by

the user. In this case, the requested input
is the sum of two numbers, each of which
are between 1 and 10. It is not necessary
to validate the random number generation
(as this has not been input) and it would be
inappropriate to limit user inputs to
between 1 and 10; the total could easily be
(for example) 8 + 6 = 14.

Where candidates suggested validating

inputs to allow between 1 and 10, not all
marks available were given due to this
misconception.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b i 1 mark each to max 2 2 Allow answers that explain what would

(AO1 1b) happen if not tested (e.g. “there might be
Check the program works (as bugs”)
intended)
meets user requirements. Examiner’s Comments
gives the correct output / result
Find / detect / check for errors / bugs Testing as a process could be done for
Check the program does not crash // is many reasons. The mark scheme attempts
robust // executes / runs to credit as many sensible explanations for
To try and break the program // this as possible. This includes testing to
destructive testing find errors, checking for robustness and
Test for / improve usability / user checking against user requirements.
experience / performance // check user Furthermore, fixing errors that are found is
feedback is suitable also credited as this could form part of the
Allow any errors to be fixed // make testing process.
changes / improvements as a result of
testing The majority of responses demonstrated
Ensure no problems / issues fixed an understanding of this and achieved
when released. highly.
Defensive design considerations /
anticipating misuse / so cannot be
misused

ii 1 mark for name, 1 mark for matching 2 Allow other sensible descriptive names for
description (1 AO1 testing.
1a)
e.g. (1 AO2 Description must match test type.
1b)
Final / terminal testing… Must be a description and not just an
… Completed at the end of example, but example may support
development / before release. description.
… to test the product as a whole.
Do not accept descriptions that simply
Iterative / incremental testing… repeat type of test without further
…completed during development. clarification (e.g. “boundary, testing the
…after each module is completed. boundary”).
… test module in isolation
Allow :
Normal testing…
…test using data that should be Black box testing…
accepted // …testing without access / knowledge
…test that is expected to work / pass of a system’s workings.

Boundary / Extreme testing… White box testing…

…test using data that is on the edge of …testing with access / knowledge of
being acceptable / unacceptable. system’s workings.
…test highest / lowest value
Allow other sensible / valid types of testing.
Invalid / Erroneous testing…
…test using data that should be Do not accept examples of validation (e.g.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

rejected / is not acceptable / causes an type test, range check)

error
“data that is not expected” is NE for
invalid/erroneous unless clarified.

Examiner’s Comments

The J277 specification lists iterative and

final/terminal testing as test types.
However, many candidates interpreted this
question as asking about test data (such
as normal or erroneous data). Where
candidates described the use of test data
and link it to expected outcomes, this was
credited by examiners.

Other types of suitable testing that do not

appear on the J277 specification (such as
white box/black box testing, alpha/beta
testing) were also accepted.

Assessment for learning

The J277 specification states the minimum

content that candidates are expected to
know and understand at GCSE level.
However, it is possible for teachers to go
beyond this.

For example, iterative and final/terminal

testing are stated in the specification.
However, there are other types of testing.
Other technically correct responses will be
accepted by examiners even if they do not
appear in this specification.

Another example is sorting algorithms.

Merge sort, bubble sort and insertion sort
appear in the specification. However, when
candidates have been asked to name
sorting algorithms, previous mark schemes
credit other valid responses (such as quick
sort, selection sort or bogo sort).

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii 1 mark for feature 4 Allow other sensible names for features.
1 mark for matching description (AO2 1b)
e.g. Description must add more than is given in
the identification of the feature to be
Translator / compiler / interpreter … awarded. For example, “keyword
… convert to low-level/machine code highlighting, highlights keywords” is 1 mark
…allow program to be executed / run for the feature only.
…produce executable file (only for
compiler) If compiler and interpreter given as two
…stops execution when error found distinct features, allow both (with suitable
(interpreter only) descriptions). Do not allow translator and
compiler/interpreter.
Run-time environment / output
window… Description must match feature.
…allows program / code to be run /
executed “finding errors” is NE for description of
…shows output of the program / code error reporting.

Error reporting / diagnostics Allow sensible references to AI where

… identify location/detail of errors appropriate. Sensible description of use
…suggests fixes needed.

Debugger … Allow other sensible features of an IDE

…find errors (e.g. line numbering, auto indent, collapsed
blocks, etc) with suitable description.
Stepping …
… execute/run the program line by line For text editor / error diagnostics /
debugger, allow other sensible features
Variable watch… listed as features in the mark scheme as
… see the contents/data held in description (e.g. “text editor, provides
variables pretty printing”, “debugger, provides
stepping”)
Break points …
… will allow the program to stop at a Examiner’s Comments
chosen / set position
This question was generally well answered
Text/code editor… with a variety of features given. The
…allows program code to be written / question specifically asks about features
entered / changed used when testing a program. Therefore,
…allows errors to be fixed features such as debugging tools, stepping
and variable watch windows were very
Pretty printing // keyword highlighting… common responses.
… allows keywords / variables to be
coloured / identified However, more general responses were
also accepted, such as text editors,
Keyword completion // syntax translators, and keyword completion.
suggestion… These could all potentially be used when
…suggests code/syntax when first part editing programs after errors had been
entered. identified.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Less successful responses tended to be

descriptions that simply repeated the name
of the feature given. For example
"debugging tools, to allow debugging"
would gain 1 mark for the feature
identification but not the description.

Total 14

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

10 1 mark each, max 2 if not fully correct 3 Shapes of logic gates must be correct.
circuit. (AO3 2a) NOT gate must include circle for inversion.
No other gates should include circle.
NOT B
AND gate with A / C as one direct AND gates must have two different inputs,
input… NOT gate must have one input. All gates
…Second AND gate with other must have one output.
(unused) A / C as direct input and
output of previous stage as other input Correct system will always have NOT B
and two other AND gates correctly joined.
Fully correct circuit is any of :
Accept alternative systems that produce
Q = (A AND NOT B) AND C the correct output.
Q = A AND (NOT B AND C)
Q = (A AND C) AND NOT B Accept (BOD) three input AND gate for
BP2 and BP3 if used correctly.
See examples below :
OK if inputs/outputs not joined up to
A/B/C/Q as long as intention clear.

If lines cross on diagram, give BOD.

If (A AND C) AND NOT B drawn, allow

NOT B as first input for BP3.

Examiner’s Comments

This logic question is based around a

typical outdoor light system. The majority
of candidates were able to show
understanding that both the switch (input
C) and the motion sensor (input A) need to
be triggered for the light (output Q) to be
on. However, some candidates missed the
description that this only occurs at
nighttime. Input B is the light sensor and so
a NOT gate is required on this input to fulfil
this requirement.

Given that AND gates generally have two

inputs and this system uses three inputs,
two AND gates were required. The mark
scheme credits any and all arrangements
of these to reach the correct output.

Examiners were also instructed to credit

use of a 3 input AND gate.

Total 3

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

11 1 mark each 2 Do not allow answers that clearly refer

(AO2 1b) storing the position / index (or any other
stores/holds out of context data) for BP1; it is the name
data/value/name/names[pos] itself that is being stored, not the position.
…so (value) can be changed / If unclear, allow BOD.
swapped / moved / overwritten /
inserted e.g. do not allow “holds the values of the
…without being lost. index / holds value for position of the
will be assigned to names[pos-1] name”.

Allow FT for subsequent points.

Examiner’s Comments

This question was an excellent

discriminator in terms of candidate
achievement. Many responses correctly
described the temp variable as storing the
name so that it could be overwritten during
the process of swapping values. Partial
credit was given for responses simply
commenting on it storing data, as this is
essentially the purpose of any variable.

However, credit was not given where

candidates discussed storing a
position/index, as this was not the case;
the pos variable is used as the index of the
array. The content of this array index (a
name) is stored in the temp variable.

Where responses are open to

interpretation, the mark scheme attempts
to credit as many of these as possible.
However, incorrect responses (such as
reference to the position here instead of
the name) are not credited.

Total 2

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

12 a Line number 4 1 mark for each line number correctly

(AO3 2c) identified.
02 1 mark for each correction. Correction
must match line number.
Correction
If wrong line number, do not mark
for scoreCount = 0 to correction. If no line number, mark
scores.length - 1 correction only.

Line number Do not penalise if response removes –1

from scores.length as long as it starts
03 at 0.

Correction Do not penalise potential off by 1 errors for

looping (Python).
total = scores[scoreCount] +
total Do not penalise case or minor spelling
total = total + errors as long as intention is clear.
scores[scoreCount]
total += scores[scoreCount] Allow description of change that would be
made (e.g. “change 1 to 0”)

First correction is fixing indexing error so

element 0 is included. This could be done
on line 03 e.g. scores[scoreCount-1].
Second correction is fixing addition of total.

If both errors fixed on line 03, full marks

should be given. e.g.
total = total +
scores[scoreCount-1]

Examiner’s Comments

This proved to be a relatively challenging

question for many candidates. This
question relied on an understanding of the
term "logic error".

Two errors were present:

line 02 (where the count-controlled

loop ignored element 0 in the array)
line 03 (where the total was incorrectly
calculated and stored).

Many responses identified at least one of

the line numbers containing the error. Far
fewer were able to successfully fix the

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

errors satisfactorily.

Examiners were instructed to be generous

in interpreting potential fixes. The errors in
either case could have been fixed using
OCR Exam Reference Language (as
presented) or using any other sensible
form. Responses using programming
syntax were credited, as were those who
simply used English, e.g. “change the 1 to
a 0 on line 02”.

Instructions were also included in the mark

scheme to allow full marks for candidates
who fixed the errors in one step on line 03.

b 1 mark each: 2 Question asks for a definition. Examples

Syntax error (AO1 1a) may strengthen the response but are not
acceptable by themselves.
Error in the rules/grammar (of the
program language). Do not allow “error/problem in the code,
Program does not (fully) run / translate does not work / does not do what
/ execute / start (BOD) designed/intended to do” for either, this
applies to both.
Logic error
“Error in the syntax” or “error in the logic”
Produces incorrect / unexpected are NE even with examples
result/output
Program runs/does not crash Examiner’s Comments

This question was answered extremely

well by most candidates. These candidates
correctly defined the terms given.

Candidates must understand that an

example is not the same as a definition.
For example, a misspelling of a command
such as print would of course be a
syntax error but this is not a definition;
many other issues would cause a syntax
error.

Other incorrect responses included generic

responses that could apply to either term,
for example: "a mistake in the program" or
"where the computer doesn't understand
the code".

Total 6

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

13 a 1 mark each: 3 Ignore lines 02 and 05 in answer unless

(AO3 2c) these change or output any values.
Start is set to 3 on line 01 and 3 is
output on line 03. Candidate may repeat start value when
2, 1 and 0 are output on next 3 unchanged, this is acceptable.
iterations with start updated to 2, 1, 0,
-1 on correct line numbers. Penalise incorrect or missing line numbers
Finished is output on line 06 or additional output once only then FT.
This includes where variable change and
output appear on the same line.

-1 must not be output for BP2

Penalise missing or incorrect output once

only for BP1 and FT for missing or
incorrect output for BP2.

Finished may be with or without quotes.

Ignore case or minor spelling error.

Max 2 marks if any incorrect output or

changes to start.

Do not accept calculated values of start

(e.g. 3–1)

Examiner’s Comments

This question assessed candidates’ ability

to trace through and understand the steps
taken by an algorithm. This also tested
their understanding of condition-controlled
loops. Many responses were very
successful with this and achieved full
marks.

Mistakes tended to be with identifying the

line number where each change occurred
or outputting values that were not actually
output (e.g. -1).

Examiners were instructed to only penalise

a misunderstanding once. Where (for
example) line numbers were incorrect, this
would still have allowed 2 out of 3 marks to
be achieved.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b i print(12 ^ 2) 1 Accept ** or other sensible operator that

(AO2 1a) indicates raising to a power.

If pseudocode operator given, must be a

single word/symbol (e.g. pow), not
containing spaces.

ii if number MOD 2 == 0 then 1 Accept % or other sensible operator that

(AO2 1a) indicates modulus

If pseudocode operator given, must be a

single word/symbol (e.g. modulo), not
containing spaces.

iii difference = measurement1 - 1 Accept other sensible operator that

measurement2 (AO2 1a) indicates subtraction.

If a pseudocode operator given, must be a

single word/symbol (e.g. minus), not
containing spaces.

c total = num1 + num2 1 Allow other logically valid responses that

(AO3 2b) result in total storing the correct value.
Accept other suitable assignment
operators (e.g. ← )

e.g.
total = sum(num1, num2)

total = num2 + num1

x = num1 + num2
total = x

Ignore any values given to the variable.

Ignore capitalisation and minor misspelling.
Ignore superfluous code that does not
affect outcome.

Examiner’s Comments

Candidates appear to be getting more

confident at answering simple
programming/pseudocode questions such
as this. The majority of responses included
code written to produce the required
outcome. The use of multiple steps was
allowed.

Total 7

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

14 a For loop changed to include 0 2 Allow loop changed to 0 to 8 or 0 to 9

total = 0 moved to before loop starts / (AO3 2c) (Python)
removed
Do not accept moving total outside loop,
NE (could be moved to after loop which
would still be a logic error). Do not accept
move to top of loop.

Accept corrected code shown.

Accept reference to count variable limits for

BP1.

Examiner’s Comments

This question acted as an excellent

discriminator. The majority of candidates
identified and fixed the problem with the
array (starting at 0 rather than the 1 given).
Fewer candidates were able to identify and
fix the issue relating to the total being set
to zero for each iteration.

A number of candidates identified this

second issue but were either not precise
enough with their response (suggesting
that the line could be moved but not stating
where it should be moved to) or did not
attempt to go beyond the simple
identification.

Candidates should be clear that this

question required detail of how the
program could be refined to fix problems,
not just to identify problem(s).

b i Function header for newPrice… 4 BP1 must be clear that a new function is
…taking (at least) two parameters (AO3 2b) being defined. E.g. function / def
…correctly calculates price based on keyword. Allow FT for subsequent marks if
parameters (if present) within function not present.
…/
… returns this calculated price Ignore any code outside attempt at function
definition.

Ignore additional parameters. Ignore inputs

or additional code as long as these do not
overwrite parameters or affect operation of
function.

If inputs used instead of parameters, FT for

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

BP3. Allow use of else for second room

type in BP3.

Attempt at calculation needed to award

BP4. Must return (not output) value. Return
can be done e.g. in VB by assigning to
function name (e.g. newPrice = price)

e.g.

function newPrice(nights,
room)

if room == “basic” then

if room== 60 * nights then

elseif room == “premium”

then

price = 80 * nights

endif

return price

endfunction

Examiner’s Comments

Defining functions appeared to be a

concept that candidates did not fully
understand.

Where a candidate did not attempt to

define a function and instead simply
calculated the price needed, very few (if
any) marks were available.

Successful responses could have been

constructed from any suitable function
definition keyword such as function
(OCR ERL, VB, JavaScript, etc), def
(Python) or others. Answers in C#, Java or
other languages referring to methods were
also accepted.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

ii Call function newPrice… 3 Order of parameters not important

…with (“premium”, 5) as (AO3 2b)
parameters “premium” must use string delimiters (e.g.
… Output returned value “quotes”)

e.g.

print(newPrice(“premium”, 5))

x = newPrice(5, “premium”)

print(x)

Do not allow function definitions for BP1

Ignore capitalisation of newPrice

Candidate could store returned value in a

variable and then print this, or store
parameters in variables before passing in -
these are all acceptable

Ignore any superfluous code given

Do not credit answers where newPrice is

overwritten prior to use.

Ignore spaces. Allow function call if

brackets missing (e.g. newprice instead
of newprice() )

Examiner’s Comments

Even if candidates were not able to create

a function, this question was independent
to (i) and so marks were available for
simply using the function to output a value.

Candidate found this question challenging.

Many candidates called the function but
most did not understand that the room type
was a string and so required string
delimiters (e.g. quotation marks) around
the parameter.

Where candidates defined local variables,

assigned the values needed to the
variables and then passed these into the
function call were accepted.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

c i Checks that both firstname and 5 Must have some attempt at all three
surname are not empty… (AO3 2a) checks to give output mark(s). Check for
Checks that room is either “basic” or nights must check both upper and lower
“premium”… limits.
Checks that nights is between 1 and
5 (inclusive)… Iteration can be used as validation if input
…Outputs “NOT ALLOWED” (or repeatedly asked for until valid answer
equivalent) if any of the 3 checks are given.
invalid (must check all three)
…Outputs “ALLOWED” (or Do not accept logically incorrect Boolean
equivalent) only if all three checks are conditions such as if firstname or
valid (must check all three) surname == “”

Note : output marks are given for if entire Do not accept ≥ or ≤ for >=, <=. Ignore
system produces the correct output. For capitalisation
example, If a user enters a valid name and
room but an invalid number of nights, the e.g.
system should say “NOT ALLOWED” (or
equivalent). If this works and produces the valid = True
correct response no matter which input is if firstname == “” or surname
invalid, BP4 should be given. == “” then
valid = False
The same process holds for the valid end if
output - if (and only if) three valid inputs if room != “basic” and room !=
results in an output saying “ALLOWED” (or "premium" then
equivalent), BP5 should be given. Do not valid = False
give this if ALLOWED is printed when (for endif
example) two inputs are valid and one is if nights < 1 or nights > 5
invalid. then
valid = False endif
For any output marks to be given, a if valid then
sensible attempt must have been made at print(“ALLOWED”)
all three checks. These may not be else
completely correct (and may have been print(“NOT ALLOWED”)
penalised in BPs 1 to 3) but should be endif
enough to allow the FT marks for output.
BP1 to 3 can check for valid or invalid
inputs. . Pay particular attention to use of
AND / OR. Only give marks for output if
these work together correctly.

Example above shows checking for invalid

data. Checks for valid data equally
acceptable Examples shown below:

if firstname != “” and surname

!= “”
if room == “basic” or room ==
“premium”

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

if nights >= 1 and nights <= 5

Examiner’s Comments

This question stretched the understanding

of even highly-achieving candidates and it
was not uncommon to see low scoring
responses.

Misunderstanding of Boolean operators

(AND and OR) within selection (IF)
statements was something that affected a
lot of candidate responses.

As this question was in Section B,

candidates needed to respond in OCR
Exam Reference Language or a high-level
language. Responses must be logically
correct to gain the marks. As each check is
two individual checks that both need to
pass, responses can quickly get relatively
complicated.

As can be seen from the mark scheme,

advice and examples were given to
examiners to make sure that candidates
who were able to successfully navigate this
logic chain were credited.
Misconception

Checking whether a room is either basic or

premium can be done in multiple ways.
Candidates can either check for the
positive (i.e. check that it is either basic or
premium) or check that for the negative
(i.e. check whether it is something else).
However, there are many common errors
that were seen :

IF room == “basic” or
“premium” is incorrect as the
second part of the statement is not
evaluated against anything. This was
perhaps the most common mistake.
IF room == “basic” or room ==
“premium” is correct and checks for
validity.
IF room == basic or room ==

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

premium is incorrect as the lack of

string delimiters means that basic and
room would be treated as variables
rather than strings.
IF room != “basic” or room !=
“premium” is also incorrect. This
checks for invalid input but because or
is used, only one condition needs to be
True for the whole statement to be
True. This means that if basic is
entered, it would be classed as invalid
(as it isn’t premium) and vice-versa.
There is no way for any entry in this
example to be classes as valid.
IF room != “basic” and room
!= “premium” is correct. This
checks for invalid inputs but needs
both conditions to be True.

The same explanation follows for the other

two necessary checks.

Exemplar 3

This exemplar shows a fully correct

response. The candidate checks for invalid
responses and correctly uses Boolean
operators to check multiple criteria at each
step. If any check returns True, “Not
allowed” is printed and the program ends.
Efficient use of if … else … means that
the next check only proceeds if the
previous check returns False.

If all three checks return False, the final

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

else is triggered to print “Allowed”.

It must be noted that this is only one way of

achieving full marks. An equivalent
program that checks for valid responses at
each turn would also be possible.
Candidates should be encouraged to use
whatever structure they feel is sensible. If a
response can logically be followed then it
will achieve high marks.

ii Normal 3 Allow other descriptions that mean normal

1 or 5 (not 0 or 6 as says allowed) (AO3 2c) (e.g. valid / typical / acceptable)
Any numeric value except 1 to 5 // any
non-numeric input (e.g. "bananas”) Test data Type of test Expected
(number of
nights) output
2 Normal ALLOWED
1 // 5 Boundary ALLOWED
e.g. 7 Erroneous/In NOT
valid ALLOWED
Examiner’s Comments

This question was answered well by the

majority of candidates.

Total 17

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

15 input and stores/uses value with 6 e.g.

message (AO3 2b)
attempt at repeating… (AO3 2c) num = input(”Enter how many
… correctly repeats number of times numbers”)
given as input
… correctly take number as input for x = 1 to num
within loop and calculates total of these
numbers temp = input(”Enter a
… correctly calculate an average number”)
(total/num)
Output both total and average total = total + temp

next x

print(total)

print(total / num)

If flow chart used, correct shapes needed.

Allow tolerance of 1 with number of loops

for BP3 with for loops

BP1 requires input with a message (can be

two statements, e.g. print and then input or
combined. Input must be stored or used.

BP3, 4, 5 must be logically correct to be

credited Ignore non-initialisation of total

BP 5 can be given as FT as long as an

attempt has been made at working out a
total within the loop.

BP6 can be given as FT long as attempt

made at total and average (not necessarily
in a loop)

Examiner’s Comments

As this question appeared in Section A,

candidates are free to respond in any
suitable way, including using flowcharts,
structured English, pseudocode or a high-
level language. The majority of candidates
who scored highly tended to use a high-
level language consistently.

The question is already decomposed for

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

candidates and many were able to use

these bullet points to build a solution that
achieved the majority (or all) marks
available.

Where mistakes were made, these tended

to be with repeating code. For example,
many candidates repeated the process of
adding values up without repeatedly asking
for a new number (and therefore
continually adding the same number).

Other candidates used condition-controlled

iteration to repeat the process but did not
make sure that the condition being
evaluated ever returned a False value,
therefore repeating infinitely.

Where a mistake was made in one section

(such as with iteration), examiners were
instructed to use FT (follow through) marks
where possible if later sections were
logically constructed. This made sure that
marks could be given where appropriate.

A few candidates were not able to access

many of the marks available in this
question, suggesting that they would
benefit from more practical programming
time in lessons.

Total 6

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

16 i Integer 2 Accept other valid data types from high-

String (AO3 2a) level languages (e.g. byte, short for
integers)

Do not accept descriptions (e.g. “whole

number”, “text”). Do not accept
“character(s)” for string.

ii stayComplete 1 Ignore spaces or misspelling as long as

(AO3 2a) recognisable.

Examiner’s Comments

These questions tested candidates’

knowledge of data types and it was clear
that this knowledge was well understood.
The majority of candidates were able to
correctly identify suitable data types in
section (i) and identify stayComplete as
the field that would be stored as a Boolean
data type.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii SELECT FirstName, Surname, 4 Order of fields for BP1 not important but
Nights, Room, StayComplete // (AO3 1) must show all fields and be separated by
SELECT* (AO3 2c) commas.
FROM TblBookings
WHERE Ignore capitalisation and spacing. Spelling
Nights > 1 // Nights >= 2 // must be correct. Ignore quotes around
Nights BETWEEN 2 AND 5. numeric values or field/table names.

Allow other logically valid SQL statements.

Check with TL if required.

Ignore reference to stayComplete or

other valid SQL code that would not affect
output.

Max 3 if in wrong order or if includes any

extra invalid code

Examiner’s Comments

This question tested candidates’ ability to

refine and rewrite incorrect code given to
them. It is important to note that although
the SQL statement as a whole is incorrect,
not all components are incorrect; in this
case, the FROM clause is correct and
candidates who made no change to this
line were credited.

SELECT ALL is invalid SQL and should

have been written to instead include all
fields from the table, separated by commas
SELECT * was equally accepted as a
suitable response.

IF is not a valid SQL keyword and needs

to be replaced with WHERE. The criteria for
this statement was also incorrect. The
comparison symbol is incorrect and should
read Nights > 1.

Most candidates gained some marks on

this question. The most common response
corrected the criteria and not modifying the
FROM clause.

Total 7

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

17 Any two bullet points for one mark each: 2 Do not accept indentation (no code to
(AO2 1b) sensibly indent in this example)
Add comments
Name variables sensibly “Use a subroutine” is not enough. Must be
Put into subroutine / procedure / clear that existing code will be put into a
function new subroutine.
Use loop / iteration
Examiner’s Comments

This question asked about maintainability.

It was important that a candidate’s
response referred to the code given.

“Give two ways that maintainability of a

program could be improved” is a different
question than the one asked.

Because of this, responses that were

accepted must genuinely improve the
maintainability of the program shown. One
very common wrong response was
indentation; although this would be useful
generically, there was no code presented
that would benefit from being indented.

Many candidates were able to give

responses such as use of comments and
sensibly named variables that would
genuinely improve the given program.
Where candidates described putting the
given code inside a newly defined
subroutine. This response was credited.
However some responses simply said “use
a subroutine”. This was not enough.

Total 2

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

18 1 mark each 2 2nd bullet point must cover both ideas of

(AO1 1b) checking all of the values AND being done
Starting with the first value in order.
checking all values in order
“Checks each value” / “one by one” / “step
by step” by itself is NE, does not say in
order.

Do not accept “repeat until value found” for

BP2 (question says number is not in the
list)

“Checks each value from beginning to end”

implies order so gets both BP1 and BP2.

Examiner’s Comments

Responses to this question generally

lacked precision.

The question specifically asks about

searching for a number that is not in the
list. However, many candidates discussed
stopping when the value had been found.
This is clearly not possible given the
scenario.

Many responses discussed checking each

number but did not state whether this
would be in a particular order. Some
candidates discussed checking values
randomly, or even from the right down to
the left.

For this questions, candidates may have

known that a linear search starts at the left
most number and then checks each value
in the list in order until reaching the end of
the list. However, few responses stated
this or anything close to this.

This level of precision (and conversely, not

assuming that steps are obvious) should
be encouraged within GCSE Computer
Science.

Total 2

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

19 a Start and end/stop with all boxes 5

connected, no boxes that do not lead (AO3 2a)
to another box (no arrows needed)
Input three variables using
parallelogram shape
Checks all three criteria (day, student,
discount card) using diamond shape(s)
with two lines from each
…Outputs “full price” with correct
conditions using parallelogram shape
…Outputs “half price” with correct
conditions using parallelogram shape

Guidance for correct outputs

Conditions Outcome
Not Saturday and Half price
(either a student or
has a discount
card).
Saturday or (not a Full price
student and doesn’t
have a discount
card). Question asks for a flowchart. Answers as
pseudocode, high level language or other
Saturday Student Discount Outcome forms are not acceptable 9 (NAQ).
Card
N N N Full price BP 4 and 5 only to be awarded if all
N N Y Half price decisions ensure correct output and clear
what the decisions are . FT for incorrect
N Y N Half price
shapes used or no inputs as long as
N Y Y Half price decisions are logically correct. Must
Y N N Full price attempt all three decisions.
Y N Y Full price
Allow calculation of half price / full price
Y Y N Full price instead of message but this must still be
Y Y Y Full price output.

Inputs / decisions may be presented as

individual or combined boxes but must still
store as three variables.

Penalise lack of parallelogram for

input/output once only then FT

BOD parallelogram shapes if not sure

whether input or output as long as context
is clear (e.g inputs at start, outputs at end)

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Examiner’s Comments

Most candidates who answered this

question were comfortable using the
correct flowchart symbols listed in the
specification. A mark was available for
including suitable start / end symbols and
connecting all other symbols, so even
candidates who may struggle should feel
confident of being able to access some
marks.

Marks were dropped when responses did

not include suitable inputs to the algorithm.
The first bullet point in the question stem
was clear that these were required.

Candidates achieving lower scores tended

to group decisions so that any processing
was removed (such as “can they have a
discount?”). More successful responses
decomposed the problem and used a
succession of smaller decisions (“do they
have a discount card?”, “are they a
student?”, “is it Saturday?”). These
decisions then point towards the correct
outputs.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b Number of people (at the table) // 2 Ignore additional inputs that would be
whether there are more than 5 people (AO32a) sensible, such as cost of the meal.
or not
Choice between percentage and value Accept inputs in form of pseudocode / high-
// actual value of both percentage, level language.
value
Max 1 if other irrelevant inputs given.

"Whether to leave a tip or not” or "Amount

of tip” NE for BP2. Must address both the
percentage and value of tip if asked for.
BOD "type of tip” for BP2

Examiner’s Comments

This question type is new to the J277

specification and asked candidates to list
inputs that will be required as part of the
planning stage for an algorithm. Successful
candidates were able to identify the raw
data needed from the user in order to be
able to solve the problem.

Unsuccessful responses tended to simply

rewrite the question or miss out key
information.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

c i A OR B 3 1 mark per gate. Correct symbols must be

NOT C (AO2 1b) used.
AND gate
NOT gate must have circle for inversion,
OR and AND must not have a circle

Mark the shape of each gate, not the name

written if given. Ignore any writing / notes.

Lines do not have to be drawn or joined up,

but if they are, gates must have the correct
number of inputs/outputs. Penalise once
then FT.

Examiner’s Comments

This question was answered extremely

well. Candidates were familiar with the
logic symbols required for each gate.

A few candidates missed the circle from

the NOT gate symbol (which turned this
into a buffer instead) or added a circle to
the AND and OR gates. This turned them
into NAND and NOR gates. These logic
gates are not on the GCSE specification,
but are covered at A Level. Teachers may
find it beneficial to briefly discuss these in
order to anticipate mistakes like these.

A small number of candidates drew

indistinct logic gate symbols and named
them instead, such as a rectangle with
AND written in; this was not credited with a
mark.

ii To show all possible inputs (to the logic 2 For 2nd BP, must be clear that the output is
circuit)… (AO1 1b) linked to the input values given.
…and the associated/dependent output
(for each input) “All possible combinations of inputs and
outputs” gains the first mark (all possible
inputs) but not the second.

“The output for each possible input” gains

both marks

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Examiner’s Comments

It is clear that candidates have

experienced and used truth tables with
logic circuits. However, the majority were
not able to describe the truth table’s
purpose with precision.

A truth table defines the expected outputs

for a logic circuit depending on the inputs
given. Furthermore, the truth table covers
all possible permutations of inputs.

A logic circuit with three inputs (A,B and C)

will have 8 possible rows in a truth table to
cover the 8 possible ways that True and
False values for three inputs can be
arranged.

Misconception

The number of rows in a truth table

depends on the number of inputs. The
number of rows can be given by 2x, where
x is the number of inputs. Therefore, a truth
table with 3 inputs would have 23 rows, or
2 × 2 × 2 = 8 rows.

Exemplar 1

Here the candidate has achieved both

marks available; it is clear that every
variation of input is included in the truth
table and the output is very clearly linked to
these inputs.

iii 8 // eight 1 Accept other answers that equate to 8 (e.g.

(AO2 1a) 23)

Total 13

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

20 a score = score + 1 // score 1 Allow other logically correct answers that

+=1 // score++ (AO3 2b) result in score increasing by one and being
overwritten. Do not accept score + 1 /
score = +1

Accept valid structured English answers

that refer to score increasing and
overwriting the existing value by one. e.g.
“score becomes/equals score plus one”

Ignore any superfluous code that does not

affect the outcome

Examiner’s Comments

Most candidates were able to temporarily

add one to the value of score (by using
code such as score + 1). Fewer were
able to assign this new value to the
variable of score and therefore fully answer
the question. Answers such as score =
score + 1, score++ or score +=
1 were all accepted, as were any longer
responses that used intermediate
variables. As long as the value of score
ended up being incremented by one,
examiners were instructed to give credit.

Assessment for learning

One notable response that was not allowed

was score =+1. This statement assigns the
value of ‘positive 1’ to score, overwriting
the previous value held.

This is a good example of the precision

required to gain marks. Candidates with
practical programming experience are
more likely to recognise this.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b 1 mark per correct row 4 No mark given if both boxes in a row

(AO2 1b) ticked.

OCR Reference Selecti Iteratio Accept any response (ticks, crosses, etc)
Language code on n that clearly indicates candidate’s choice.
for i = 1 to 10 ✓

print(i)
Examiner’s Comments
next i
whilescore != 0 ✓
Candidates appeared to struggle with this
playgame() question. In particular the use of
switch/case was not well understood. This
endwhile may be because some high-level
if playerHit() ✓ languages such as Python have not
then traditionally supported this. The recent
update to Python 3.10 introduces this
score = 0 construct. Centres who use Python may
want to consider upgrading their
endif installation to allow practical
implementation of the switch/case
switch bonus: ✓
construct.
case 0:

score = 9

case 1:

score = 7

case 2:

score = 5

endswitch

Total 5

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

21 a Input two position values separately 6 If flowchart / structured English, do not

calls checkblock() function⋯ allow simple repeat of question.
⋯with input parameters Example answer
⋯ returned value used in selection loop = True
If free, stores “A” to correct index of while loop
gamegrid array (FT for incorrect row = input(“enter row”)
selection) col = input(“enter column”)
Loops until free position chosen if checkblock(row,col) ==
“FREE” then
gamegrid[row,col] = “A”
loop = False
endif
endwhile

b i Parameter values outside index range / 1 Answer must refer to either array or
larger than 4 / smaller than 0 // -1, 16 is gameboard / grid / block
not a valid block

ii Use selection / IF / Switch-Case / 3 Allow equivalent checks (e.g. <5, between

range check 0 and 4) for BP2
⋯check that parameters are >=0 and Allow reference to r and c as parameters.
<= 4⋯ BOD handle error for BP3 (e.g. repeat until
⋯Return error code if invalid // set valid)
outcome to error Answer must be a description, code by
itself is NAQ

c Returns a value // passes back a value 1

d Function call Returned value 3 Do not accept “blank” or any other returned
value for third call.
checkblock(2,1) B
checkblock(3,0) A Ignore case and spelling as long as
checkblock(2,3) FREE recognisable.

Total 14

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

22 a i second.substring(3,5) 1 Ignore print / lack of print. Allow other

suitable methods of string manipulation as
long as variables used.

Allow any valid method that extracts

rightmost 5 or 6 characters of second
variable.

ii first.substring(0,8) 1 Ignore print / lack of print. Allow other

suitable methods of string manipulation as
long as variables used.

Allow any valid method that extracts

leftmost 8 or 9 characters of first
variable.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii first.substring(9,7) + “ ” + second 1 Ignore print / lack of print. Allow other

“Science ” + second suitable methods of string manipulation as
first.substring(9,7) + “ is great” long as variables(s) used.

Allow alternative concatenation symbols

(e.g. & or .). Allow concatenation functions

Must have correct spacing in outcome.

Examiner’s Comments
This question was asked candidates to use
string manipulation to output specific words
or sentences from given values. The mark
scheme given shows answers using
substring() which is the method given
in the specification pseudocode guide.

Candidates are able to use any valid string

manipulation techniques from any relevant
high-level language or any sensible
pseudocode. For example, where the
variable second contains the string “is
great”, the output “great” could be
produced with right(second, 5) ,
second[3:], or any other sensible
manipulation.

Examiners attempted to be very generous

with their marking of this question.
However, candidates generally appeared
to be unfamiliar with substring operations.

Misconception

String manipulation can join together

(concatenate) strings using the + sign.
However, the – sign cannot be used to
remove values from strings; it would not be
appropriate to expect that is great –
is would give “great”.

b i 16 1

ii 2 1

iii 9 1

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Total 6

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

23 a i Count = 0 5
Output Count
All non-decision boxes and YES from
decision boxes linked in a sequential
fashion from Start to End.
NO from first decision box linked to
skip over increment of count
NO from second decision box linked
back to INPUT

Ignore superfluous instructions as long as

they do not affect the outcome of the
algorithm.

BOD misspelling of Count as long as it is

recognisable
Ignore capitalisation.

Examiner’s Comments

This question asked candidates to

complete a flowchart for an experiment.
Many candidates were able to gain some
marks for:

• initialising the 'Count' variable

• outputting this at the end
• repeating if 10 values had not been
asked.

Some candidates did not complete the

flowchart. They did not successfully join
the elements together correctly from top to
bottom.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Only high achieving candidates were able

to correctly decide where the NO output
from the first decision box should lead to.
The correct response was to skip over the
increment but then complete the second
decision.

AfL

The use of flowcharts to communicate

algorithms should be taught as an
alternative to pseudocode and students
assessed on the logical flow expressed in
these.

ii 1 mark per bullet point, max 5 5 Example answer

count = 0
Initialises a count variable to 0 for x = 1 to 10
asks user for an input value = input(“enter a
Check if input is over 50⋯ value”)
⋯ increment count variable if True if value > 50 then
Repeats BP 2 and 3 (if present) until count = count + 1
10 numbers have been entered endif
Outputs count once 10 numbers have next x
been entered print(count)

Response must be in pseudocode as per

question, flowcharts or structured English
are NAQ.

Examiner’s Comments
This question utilised similar understanding
to this part, but utilised the loop in a
different way.

This time, the algorithm was required to

repeat a set number of times and so a
count-controlled loop would be most
appropriate. Many candidates did this
successfully and were credited for their
answers.

Where candidates used condition-

controlled loops or other methods (such as
recursive calls to a function), these were
also credited as long as they were logically
correct.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

The loop had to repeat 10 times to be

correct. Benefit of doubt is given where
languages such as Python are used, where
defining this precisely could be ambiguous.

A small number of candidates attempted to

write out the algorithm ten times which did
not meet the requirements of the question.

AfL

Centres should be encouraged to teach

about iteration using both count-controlled
and condition-controlled loops, comparing
and contrasting the use of these for various
situations. Rewriting a count-controlled
loop to use a condition instead (and
therefore manually incrementing the
counter variable) is a relevant challenge for
students.

b i Number with a decimal / fractional part 2 One mark for definition, one mark for
Suitable example (e.g. 17.24) example
Do not accept float as definition
Allow fractions as example

ii Whole number // number with no 2 One mark for definition, one mark for
decimal / fractional part example
Suitable example (e.g. 17)

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

c Initialises (total) as 0 (outside loop if 6 Example answer total = 0

present) while total <=100
Inputs a number and stores the value x = input(“Enter a number”)
Adds the input to the total (initialised in total = total + x
BP1 if present) print(total)
Prints the total endwhile
Iterates over BP2-4 (if present)⋯
⋯until total is over 100 Examiner’s Comments

This part required candidates to implement

an algorithm. The algorithm takes a
numerical input, adds it to a total and
repeats this until the total is over 100.

Most candidates were comfortable with

basic input and output of values. Many
candidates were able to attempt to
implement a loop. Fewer candidates were
familiar with how to continually add to a
total.

A number of candidates did not appear to

appreciate that while print(total + x)
may display the sum of the two variables, it
does not add the values together and then
store them.

Misconception

print(total + x) will output the sum

of the two variables without changing
either. Instead total = total + x (or
in some languages, total += x ) will
modify the variable total, which can then be
printed if needed.

Total 20

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

24 1 mark for each completed statement 6 Allow singular/plural, ignore case/spelling

function calculate(measurement,
number)
if measurement = "gigabytes"
then
value = number * 1024 *
1024 * 1024 * 8
elseif measurement =
"megabytes" then
value = number * 1024 *
1024 * 8
elseif measurement =
"kilobytes" then
value = number * 1024 * 8
elseif measure = "bytes" then
value = number * 8
else
return -1 // value = -1
endif
return value
endfunction

Total 6

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

25 Use of iteration (any use) … 6 BP 2 and 3 may be met together with

…loops for each item in array // loops 6 suitable input statement. Both dependent
times AO3 on attempt at iteration.
…to print out each item in 2b(6)
studentnames BP5 not dependent on correct previous
…input attendance parts.
Add up/calculate students present and
absent BP6 needs reasonable attempt at totalling
…Outputs present and absent (in present and absent figures.
suitable message)
Ignore non-initialisation of counter
variables.

Flowcharts are acceptable but must show

how to solve the problem, not simply
repeat the question.

Example algorithm
present=0

absent=0

for i = 0 to (studentnames.length) -1

print(studentnames[i])

attendance=input("absent or present?")

if attendance=="present" then

present=present+1

else

absent=absent+1

endif

next i

print ("Present students: " + present)

print ("Absent students: " + absent)

Examiner’s Comments
Question (c) asked candidates to write an
algorithm to:

1. Call an attendance register from a given

array.
2. Count and output how many students
were present and absent.

It was pleasing to see candidates

decompose the problem and tackle each
part to build a full solution.

The bullet points given in the question

served as a scaffold.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Where one section was incorrect, other

marks could be given.

A number of candidates attempted to use a

FOR…IN loop to iterate over the given
student array.

FOR…IN is not listed in the specification but

is an entirely suitable way to approach the
problem. Where this was logically sound,
full marks were available.

Other candidates used FOR…NEXT loops

or WHILE loops in conjunction with the
length of the array. Again, marks were
given where the solution was logically
sound.

Marks were more limited for those

candidates who did not attempt any sort of
loop, but some were still able to be given
where appropriate.

AfL

Centres should be encouraged to connect

together content within the specification, so
that rather than teaching arrays in isolation,
they could perhaps be combined with
iteration to be able to count up or total
values in an array, or apply this to how
searching and sorting algorithms work.
Where this is done on a regular basis,
questions such as 6(c) perhaps become
less daunting for candidates.

OCR support

Appendix 5f of the current J276

specification covers the pseudocode guide
for this examination. Candidates do not
need to use this in their responses but they
should be aware of this as questions will
be presented using this format.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

For the new J277 specification, this has

been replaced by OCR Exam Reference
Language. This is detailed from page 25
onwards.

Total 6

26 a i 1 mark per bullet point 3 Shape must be accurate

B AND C AO1
OR gate with two inputs, one of which 1b(3)
is A
…correct connection of these two
gates with no additional gates /
connections

ii 1 mark per bullet point 4 CAO

Correct completion of A and B inputs AO1

as 1 1 1b(1) A B P
0 output for 01 input
0 0 1
0 output for 10 input AO2
0 output for 11 input 1b(3) 0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 0

b i 3 1 CAO

AO1
1b(1)

ii 1 1 CAO

AO1
1b(1)

Total 9

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

27 a 1 mark per bullet 5 Accept alternative error messages.

Variable names must not include obvious
Input from user AO3 spaces.
Check IF input value is “on”… 2b(5)
… if so, assign 1 to statevalue BP3 dependent on BP2. BP2 and BP4
Correct assignment of 2 for “off” and 3 must be a logical comparison using IF and
for “suspended” with correct state and not just the CASE statement. NE to simply
IF replace CASE with IF.
Correct logical check (else) to output
“invalid state” if no state set Penalise each error once then apply FT.

e.g.
newstate = input("Enter the new state : ")

if newstate == "on" then

statevalue = 1

elseif newstate = "off" then

statevalue = 2

elseif newstate = "suspended"

statevalue = 3

else

print("Invalid state")

endif

Examiner’s Comments
Question (f) asked candidate to rewrite an
algorithm that used switch/case to
perform the same actions but using IF
statements. It was clear that many
candidates did not understand the use of
switch/case. Some languages (such as
Python) do not include support for these. It
is important that these constructs are still
taught.

OCR support

Appendix 5f of the GCSE Computer

Science specification covers the
pseudocode guide for this examination.
Candidates do not need to use this in their
responses but they should be aware of this
as questions will be presented using this
format.

The current specification is available here :

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

https://www.ocr.org.uk/images/225975-spe
cification-accredited-gcse-computer-
science-j276.pdf

b i money 1 Must be an identifier, not description.

price Ignore case.
AO1
1b(1)

ii one 1 Examiner’s Comments

Question (b)(i) was answered very well.
AO2 However, (b)(ii) was only answered
1b(1) correctly by a small proportion of
candidates. These were also the
candidates who generally went on to
achieve high marks on this paper.

The question asked candidates to state

how many parameters are passed into the
function from the line giveChange(money
– price). Two variables are inside the
brackets. Candidates did not recognise this
as a calculation.

This calculation would be completed before

the function call. Only the result is passed
into the function as the parameter. This
means that the correct answer is one. Most
candidates gave the (incorrect) answer of
two.

Misconception

Where a sub program (function or

procedure) has multiple parameters
passed into it, there will be separated by
commas – for example
testfunction(x,y). A subprogram with
a calculation as a parameter will pass the
result of this calculation into the sub
program.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

c 1 mark per bullet 5 Reasonable attempt at BP1 needed for

credit BP2, 3 and 4 Ignore other additional
Checking if money>=price… AO3 code.
…decision (diamond shape) used 2b(5)
…venditem() and BP3 and BP4 must follow on from
giveChange(money-price) if True/False // Yes/No decision to be
True/Yes credited.
…output an error if False / No
Terminator used to start and end the Subroutines names and parameters must
program and all paths terminated be correct. Ignore missing brackets on
venditem.

Examiner’s Comments
Question (c) asked candidates to draw
flowchart and this was done particularly
well. Many candidates changed the given
pseudocode algorithm into a well-defined
process that covered the same steps as
the pseudocode.

A typical answer for this question would be

good to use for centres when teaching
about using flowcharts. Candidates who
use flowcharts for algorithm answers are
often not specific enough with the steps
required. This gives answers that are
generic or high-level. The structure of this
question is a good example of the level of
detail required.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

d i 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2

Indentation // whitespace AO2

Appropriately named variables / 1b(2)
identifiers
Modularisation / use of subroutines

ii Comments 1
Use of constants
AO2
1b(1)

e i 1 mark per bullet to max 2 e.g. 2 Allow two any suitable examples for two
marks
Check the program meets the user AO1
requirements 1b(2) BOD “find errors”, “find bugs” for BP2
Check the program works (as
intended) // detect logic / syntax errors “fix errors” by itself is one mark (BP4)
Check the program does not crash
(under invalid entry) // check error
messages are suitable
…allow these errors to be fixed
…make sure there are no problems
when released
Any suitable example related to the
vending machine e.g. gives correct
change

ii 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2 Do not accept just “repeatedly testing” for
iterative
Iterative is during development // AO1
repeatedly testing after/while making 1b(2) BOD “iterative testing tests
changes modules/sections”
Final is when the development is
(almost) complete // done after iterative
testing

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii Code Money Expected result 3 For £0.49 accept any value <£0.50. Must
entered inserted be a specific value, not a description.
AO3
2b(3) Accept any suitable error message for
invalid selection
C2

£0.49
(or any
value less
that £0.50)
Invalid
Selection
(or any suitable
error message)

Total 22

28 Line Program code output 4 Examiner’s Comments

08 print (score) 18 Question (a) gave candidates pseudocode
AO2 (including a function) and were asked to
09 print ("name") name 1b(4) state the output values from various lines.
10 print (newscore 37 Most candidates were able to do this for
(score,2)) more simple output. Fewer candidates
completed the function call and return
11 print (score) 18
values accurately.

Many candidates struggled to differentiate

between name (as an identifier for a
variable) and “name” (as a string).

Misconception

print(“name”) will output the literal

string “name” to the screen”.

print(name) will print the contents of the

variable with identifier name.

Total 4

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

29 a RebEl 1 Correct Answer Only (allow any case)

(AO2 1b)

b i uitFr 1 Correct Answer Only (allow any case)

(AO2 1b)

ii Taking firstname, surname and teacher 6 1 mark for each correct bullet to a
or student as input (AO3 2b) maximum of 6.
Checking IF role is teacher/student
(using appropriate selection) If used, a flowchart should represent the
For teacher ...Generating last 3 letters bulleted steps in the answer column.
of surname using appropriate string
manipulation
...Generating first 2 of letters of
firstname and adding to previous
For student.... correctly calculating as
before
Correct concatenation and output

e.g.
Ask the user to input the data, store in
variables firstname, surname and role.
Check whether the role entered is teacher.
If it is, join the right 3 most letters in
surname with the left 2 letters in firstname.
Store this in username.
If it is not teacher, join the left 3 letters from
firstname with the left 2 letters from
surname. Store this in username. Output
the value in username.

Total 8

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

30 a use of condition controlled loop (while 5 e.g. 1

or do/until)… (AO3 2b) store 10 in number
…checking condition of number larger while number is greater than or equal to 0
than or equal to 0 do the following:
Input number from user within loop (FT Take input from the user, store in number
if no loop) Multiply number by 2
multiply number input by 2… Output number
….output value in number
e.g. 2
while number >= 0
number = input()
output(number * 2)
Ignore non-initialisation of value used in
condition for loop.

b • if 4 Allow equivalent pseudocode expressions

• num2 (AO3 2b) Variables must not have speech marks
• print (num1) around them
• print (num2)

Total 9

31 a 1 Correct Answer Only

(AO1 1b)

b 2 1 mark for each correct answer in table

A B P (AO1 1b)
‘True’ or ‘T’ are also credit worthy.

Total 3

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

32 a i One mark per bullet point, in the correct 5 e.g.

place
function checkdiscount(price,
size // len(discountcodes-1) code)
code newprice = price
price // newprice size = len(discount)-1
[x,1] // [x][1] for x = 0 to size
return newprice // if discount[x,0] == code
checkdiscount = newprice then
newprice = price –
discount[x,1]
endif
next
return newprice
endfunction

ii One mark per bullet point, maximum 2 2 Do not penalise capitalisation

marks
Accept price, code, discount
newprice
size
x

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii asks for price and discount code to be 6 High-level programming language / OCR
input Exam Reference Language response
…passes both to the checkdiscount() required
function as parameters…
...stores / uses returned value Do not accept pseudocode / natural
calculates total of all prices language.
entered/returned
repeats until 0 is entered as price BP3 allow total of prices entered as FT if
outputs calculated total candidate does not achieve BP2

e.g.

total = 0
do
price = input("Enter a
price")
code = input("Enter a
discount code")
newprice =
checkdiscount(price, code)
total = total + newprice
until price == 0
print(total)

alternative example

total = 0
price = 1
while price != 0
price = input("Enter a
price")
code = input("Enter a
discount code")
total = total +
checkdiscount(price, code)
endwhile
print(total)

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b One mark per bullet point 5 High-level programming language / OCR

Exam Reference Language response
checking both values (e.g. or changed required
to and if appropriate)
if statement in correct format (e.g. Do not accept pseudocode / natural
checking against stocklevel for language.
each condition)
if statement uses correct e.g.
comparisons (e.g. >= and <=)
print statements in correct position stocklevel = input("Enter stock
print statements include string level")
delimiters (e.g. speech marks) around if stocklevel >= 5 and
both string outputs stocklevel <= 25 then
print("In demand")
else
print("Not in demand")
endif

alternative example

stocklevel = input("Enter stock

level")
if stocklevel > 5 or stocklevel
> 25 then
print("Not in demand")
else
print("In demand")
endif

As a matter of principle, a candidate who

refines the program to work fully but in a
different format to that specified should
gain full marks.

c i One mark if two correct, two marks if four 3

correct, three marks if all correct.

Price input Test type Expected

price output
50 Normal 50
100 Boundary 100
150 Normal 130
200 Boundary 180
250 Normal 210

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

ii One mark per bullet point 6 High-level programming language / OCR

Exam Reference Language response
Input and store price required
Check if price is > 200…
…if true, reduce price by 40 Do not accept pseudocode / natural
Check if price is >100 and not >200… language.
...if true, reduce price by 20
Output price BP3 and BP5 only to be given if sensible
check for price being over the appropriate
threshold. BP4 must check that price is
both larger than 100 and not larger than
200; do not give mark for simply checking
price is larger than 100. This may be
implicit (e.g. using elseif).

e.g.
price = input("enter price")
if price > 200 then
price = price – 40
elseif price > 100 then
price = price - 20
endif
print(price)

d One mark per correct choice 3 Accept other markings that indicate a
choice has been made (e.g. a cross, etc)
SELECT ItemCode, ItemName
FROM tblStock
WHERE Price >=60

Total 30

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

33 1 mark per bullet, max 6 6 Allow output of 0 hours 0 minutes if full.

Allow answers referencing decimal parts
Inputs the current battery charge (e.g. 0.8 = 80%)
percentage BP5 can be attempted in many ways (e.g.
Outputs “full” if 100% DIV and MOD, repeated division, etc)
Calculates the amount to charge Allow FT for BP6 if reasonable attempt at
Calculates the time in minutes… conversion for BP5 has been given.
…converts to hours and minutes
Outputs the time in hours and minutes e.g.
charge = input("enter battery
charge")
if charge == 100 then
print(“full”)
else
time = (100-charge) * 10
hours = time DIV 60
mins = time MOD 60
print (hours, mins)
endif

Total 6

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

34 a Logically compares A AND // correct 3 A = input("Is the customer 15

nested IF or over?")
…B OR C // correct sequential IF B = input("Does the customer
Output in both cases (with attempt at have a ticket?")
selection). C = input("Does the customer
money to buy a ticket")
if A AND (B OR C) then
print ("allowed")
else
print ("not allowed")
endif

Accept answers where inputs are given as

strings e.g :

if A == “Yes” AND (B == “Yes”

OR C == “Yes”) then
print ("allowed")
else
print ("not allowed")
endif

b OR gate with two inputs // AND gate 2

with two inputs
Diagram as shown in guidance with no
additional gates

c freeseats called with "Red" 2 redseats = freeseats("Red")

…returned value assigned to variable
redseats “Red” must use suitable string delimiters
(e.g. speech marks) if directly passing the
string. Do not penalise case.

Total 7

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

35 i 1 mark per bullet, max 4 5 BP2 and 3 must check for both ends of
range – must check that input data is not
Miles and age input separately negative.
Checks for valid mileage
Checks for valid age Allow FT for BP4 if already penalised
Checks both are greater than / greater under BP2 and/or 3 and output is
than equal to zero otherwise correct.
…correctly outputs both True and
False e.g.

miles = input("enter miles

driven")
age = input("enter age of car")
valid = True
if miles > 10000 or miles < 0
then
valid = False
elseif age > 5 or age < 0 then
valid = False
endif
print(valid)

ii 1 mark per row, max 3 3 Specific data must be given, not a

description
Normal : miles (0 – 9,999), age (0 - 5) e.g.
Erroneous: miles (less than 0, larger
than 9,999), age (less than 0 / more
than 5) // non-numeric data
Boundary : miles (-1/0 / 9,999 / Miles Age
10,000), age (-1/0 / 5/6)
Normal 7,000 3
Erroneous 12,000 7
Boundary 10,000 5

iii During development // whilst writing the 1

program // before development is
complete.

Total 9

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

36 1 mark per bullet, max 4 4 D, F may be swapped around.

C e.g.
A
D/F
F/D

Total 4

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

37 a 1 mark per bullet 4 Mark test data first, both must meet
(AO3 2c) different criteria. Then mark output for
Test data either 0 or less characters, or each.
20 or more characters
Stating correct output
Test data between 1 and 19 characters
(inc)
Stating correct output

b i Input 2 Enter text here.

(AO3 2a)
Number of hours and minutes

Output

Number of minutes

ii Program calls function correctly using 4 hours = input("Please enter

hours and minutes variables (AO3 2a) number of hours played")
Parameters used appropriately
Calculation is computed accurately minutes = input("Please enter
Final total is returned suitably number of minutes played")

finalTotal = totalMins(hours,
minutes)

print (finalTotal)

function
totalMins(hours,minutes)

total = hours + mins * 60

return total

endfunction

1Parameters named in function must be

used within the function itself
2Does not matter if function uses
different names to those declared in
main program
3Return must be included with the
correct local variable for total

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii Takes input from the user 4 High-level programming language / OCR
Compares if input is larger than 120… (AO3 2b) Exam Reference Language response
…if true, outputs "You played required
games for too long!"
…if false, outputs "You are under Do not accept pseudocode / natural
your time limit!" English.

Example algorithm given below

minutes = input("Enter minutes

played")
if minutes > 120
print "You played games for
too long!"
else
print "You are under your
time limit!"
endif

Accept alternative (but suitable) output

messages.

Accept logical comparison of input less

than or equal to 120 and appropriate
True/False statements.

c 4 one mark for first row

(AO3 2c)
one mark for row 2 and 3

one mark for rows 4, 5, and 6

one mark for the correct output (the only

value in the output column, in any position)

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

d Initialises total as 0 and prints out total 4 High-level programming language / OCR
the end (as per original program) (AO3 2c) Exam Reference Language response
Uses iteration, e.g. FOR, WHILE required
…that repeats 5 times
…correctly adds up values using loop Do not accept pseudocode / natural
index English.

e.g. MP1 must have appropriate identifier, =

total = 0 and then the numeric 0
for x = 0 to 4 MP2 must have for or while
total = total + MP3 must have the for stopping condition
hoursplayed[2, x] 4/5
next x MP4 must have the same identifier for MP1
console.writeline(total) and equal and + to add the data in the
array (using either [x,y] or [x][y]. This
e.g. could be total = total + …. Or
total = 0 total += ….
for x in range (0, 4)
total += hoursplayed[2][x]
next x
print (total)

e.g.
total = 0;
for (int x = 0; x <= 4; x++){
total = total +
hoursplayed[2][x];
}
System.out.println (total);

e print (minsPlayed[0,4]) 1 High-level programming language / OCR

(AO3 2b) Exam Reference Language response
required

Do not accept pseudocode / natural

English.

print may be a suitable output command

word that could be found in a HLL e.g.
print (Python), console.writeline
(VB), cout (C++)

The array elements may be accessed

together [0,4] (VB.NET) or separately
[0][4] (Python)

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

f i or 3 High-level programming language / OCR

>300 // >= 301 (AO3 2b) Exam Reference Language response
print required

Do not accept pseudocode / natural

English.

MP2 do not accept ‘greater than’, must use

the HLL syntax > or >=
MP3 must be a suitable output command
word that could be found in a HLL e.g.
print (Python), console.writeline
(VB), cout (C++)

ii Suitable invalid test data (i.e. > 300, 3

e.g. 350) (AO3 2c)
Suitable boundary test data (e.g. 0,
300)
"Value accepted" or equivalent if
boundary data 0 or 300 // "Invalid input
displayed" or equivalent if boundary
data -1 or 301

g Integer (1)… 1 One mark for appropriate data type

(AO3 2a) identified.
…number of seconds not important (1) 1
… level of accuracy not needed so (AO3 1) One mark for appropriate justification
round to nearest minute (1) linked to the data type chosen.
…using a decimal to store seconds
(0-60) is not appropriate (1)

Real (1)…

… number of seconds may be

important (1)
… allows parts/fractions to be stored
over integers (1)

Total 31

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

38 a HAS been used 3

HAS been used (AO2 1b)
HAS NOT been used

b radius 2 1 mark per bullet up to a maximum of 2

area (AO1 1b) marks.

c 1 mark for naming the example and 1 mark 4

for an example related to that method (AO2 1b)

E.g

Comments/annotation…
…E.g. any relevant example, such as
line 4 checks the input is valid

Indentation…
…E.g. indenting within IF statement

Using constants…
…E.g. π

Total 9

39 a Comparing zebra to orange 4 1 mark per bullet (multiple ways through,

Greater, so split and take right side (AO2 1b) marks awarded for appropriate comparison
Further comparison (1 or 2 depending and creation of sub groups).
on choices made)
Correct identification of zebra using
methodology above

e.g.

compare zebra to orange

greater, split right

compare to wind

greater, split right

compare to zebra

b 4 1 mark for each row from rows 2–5. Allow

(AO2 1b) multiple swaps in one stage, where it is
clear that a bubble sort has been applied.

Total 8

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

40 a 1 mark per bullet to max 8. 8 Answers can be in any suitable format

AO3 2b (including pseudocode, flowchart, etc). If
Input height (8) flowchart used, accept any sensible
Accepts riders > / >= 140 with suitable shapes.
message
Rejects riders < / <= 120 with suitable Do not penalise for lack of initialisation of
message variables.
Checks if height between 120 and
140… Loop must repeat until 8 riders allowed, not
… If True, input whether accompanied just loop 8 times.
… Suitable output message for True
AND False Do not credit asking whether accompanied
Correctly counts number of riders in all if in the wrong place.
cases of being allowed to ride (do not
penalise candidates for counting or not Condition for BP4 may be 120 < h <
counting accompanying adults) 140
Attempt to loop based on 8 riders
allowed Example algorithm
riders=0
while riders <8
input height
if height >= 140 then
output “allowed”
riders = riders + 1
elif height >=120 then
input withadult
if withadult == “yes”
output “allowed”
riders = riders + 1
else
output “not allowed”
end if
else
output “not allowed”
end if
endwhile

Examiner’s Comments

This question asked candidates to create

an algorithm for checking the heights of
riders on a theme park ride.

The algorithm was decomposed for

candidates using bullet points and many
candidates had a solid attempt at
completing this.

Most candidates were able to ask for the

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

input of a rider’s height, although some

candidates struggled to use (or missed out)
either the assignment operator or the
INPUT (or equivalent) command. A line of
pseudocode that simply printed out ‘enter a
height’ is not the same logically as an input
and was not credited.

Where an input was taken and

comparisons made, these were generally
well attempted.

Examiners worked logically through the

code and credit was given for checking for
the three types of riders (over 140 and so
can ride alone, between 120-140 and so
need to ride with an adult, under 120 and
so cannot ride) and giving the right output
to each rider.

There were many different valid and invalid

attempts at this but logically, if each type of
rider would have produced the right output
then this should have been credited. The
mark scheme provides an exemplar
answer, but a wide range of responses
were accepted.

Many candidates did not attempt to repeat

the algorithm until 8 riders had been
allowed to ride and so were unable to
access these marks. However, several
higher ability candidates thought even
more deeply about this and wrote
algorithms that added two riders if
someone was riding with an adult; this was
a valid thought and so was credited as
well.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Exemplar 6

Exemplar 6 shows a well organised

response that gained full marks. Each
check is completed in order, with ELIFs
and ELSE used efficiently to make sure
that logically correct comparisons are
made. The loop works correctly and
repeats until 8 riders have been allowed to
ride. This is a very good example of the
sort of response needed to achieve highly.

b i 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2 The variable records whether a swap has
AO2 1b taken place; it does not perform the swap.
Flag / record whether a swap has (2)
taken place or not Examiner’s Comments
checked as condition to decide
whether to repeat This question presented candidates with
an algorithm for a bubble sort and asked
them to explain the purpose of the Boolean
value swaps.

This proved to be a very tough question,

with the majority unable to explain its use
as a flag to store whether a swap had
taken place during that pass, and then
further as a condition to check whether to
repeat lines 03 to 11.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Many candidates understood, perhaps

through the name given to the variable,
that it was involved in swapping something,
but many said that the variable itself made
the swap, which is logically incorrect.

Some candidates seemed to not

understand the while loop on line 02.

Misconception

A while loop, as its name suggests,

repeats while a condition is True.

For example, while x>5 will repeat while

the condition x>5 is evaluated to be True.

However, if the condition given is itself a

Boolean value, then no evaluation is
necessary, and the True of False nature of
this condition is used to decide whether to
repeat or not.

In this question, swaps is a Boolean value.

The line while swaps is logically

equivalent to the more verbose and
unnecessary while swaps == True

Exemplar 5

The above response shows a typical

answer where the candidate has not quite
understood the process undertaken by the
bubble sort algorithm; swaps is set to True
when a swap has occurred and not, as this
candidate suggests, that the swap occurs
because of the variable being set.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

ii 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2 Do not accept “sorts numbers”

AO2 1b
Swaps.. (2) “swaps numbers” meets BP1. Explanation
…values of queuesize[p] and of which values in the array are swapped
queuesize[p+1] meets BP1 and BP2.
…when queuesize[p] is larger than
queuesize[p+1] Do not accept direct word for word
using a temporary variable //doesn’t repetition from the program (e.g. temp =
overwrite numbers //explanation of queuesize[p] ) , question asks for an
process explanation.

Explanation of temporary variable must be

logically correct.

Examiner’s Comments

This was another question where

candidates struggled to explain clearly the
purpose of a specific part of the given
algorithm.

Lines 06 to 08 dealt with swapping two

values over. Simply identifying that swap
takes place and which numbers are
swapped was sufficient to achieve both
marks here, but the majority were unable
to successfully do this.

A mark could also have been given for

explaining that the two numbers were not
directly swapped over, but that a temporary
value was used as an intermediary.

Many candidates provided answers that

were entirely different from this. In some
cases, candidates attempted to simply
translate each line into structured English.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iii 1 mark per bullet to max 2. 2 Mark first answer only

AO2 1a
Comments (1) Do not accept indentation (already done)
… to enable programmers to AO2 1b
understand the purpose of each line / (1) Accept “show what each line does” for
section comments.
…by example (e.g. on line 4 add the
comment…) Examiner’s Comments

Naming variables sensibly Maintainability is obviously well understood

… to enable programmers to by centres and students, with many
understand the purpose of each students giving very pleasing answers to
variable this question.
…by example (e.g. change identifier p
to …) Commenting and the need for comments
was perhaps the most popular answer.
Modularise
…to allow reuse / makes easier to test It was nice to see modularisation
/ reduces errors discussed also, although a number of
…by example (e.g. create as a students were unable to explain what they
function) meant by this and how it could be applied
to the code given.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

iv 1 mark per bullet to max 2. 2 Accept “insert”. Do not penalise spelling.

AO1 1a
Insertion (sort) (2) Do not accept bubble sort (given in
Merge (sort) previous questions)

Do not award searching algorithms

Allow other valid sorting algorithms.

(e.g. quick sort, heap sort, shell sort,
selection sort, radix sort, bucket sort, tim
sort, comb sort, pigeonhole sort, etc.)

Examiner’s Comments

This question was answered extremely

well by candidates and shows that the
prescribed sorting algorithms are covered
in centres and their names retained well by
candidates.

Merge sort and insertion sort are the two

other algorithms covered in the
specification and these were the two most
popular answers given by candidates.
However, credit was also given to many
other valid sorting algorithms and it is
pleasing to see that centres or candidates
are interested in going beyond the confines
of the specification to investigate
algorithms such as Quick sort (which
appears in the A Level specification) and
even Bogo sort. This additional learning is
to be applauded.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

c i Not in order / sorted 1 Mark first answer only

AO2 1b
(1) Examiner’s Comments

This question required candidates to

understand that one of the pre-requisites of
a binary search is that the data must be in
some form of order. Where this was
understood, candidates were able to
identify that the data presented was not in
order and so could be searched using this
algorithm.

Extremely common wrong answers

included that only numeric data could be
used or that data had to be in binary.

Misconception

A binary search can be carried out on non-

numeric data.

If the data is ordered in some way (e.g.

alphabetically) then this algorithm will be
able to efficiently find data.

ii Linear (search) 1 Mark first answer only

AO1 1b Allow other valid searching algorithms as
(1) long as they work on an unsorted list (e.g
front and back search)

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

d 1 mark per bullet to max 1 1 Mark first answer only

AO2 1b
Check that the code is valid / real (1) Examiner’s Comments
Check it has been entered / sent /
received correctly. This question asked candidates to give a
Makes it harder for people to make up benefit of using a check digit for a discount
discount codes code that had been emailed out to
customers.

A check digit is used to make sure that

data has been transmitted, received or
entered correctly into a computer system
and so answers around this point were
expected.

Where candidates went further and said

that this therefore meant that discount
codes could not be falsified or made up,
this was accepted as the same main idea.

A very common wrong answer was so that

the discount code could not be used again
or was somehow unique to each user,
showing a lack of understanding as to the
use of check digits in computer systems.

e i 1 mark per bullet to max 6 6 Bullet points 3, 4, 5 can be awarded even if

AO3 2b no mention of a function / parameters (for
Function ticketprice() defined (6) example, if candidate has inputted the
… that accepts two parameters and number of tickets needed.
has no other inputs
Works out total ticket price for adult (eg Do not award return value if no attempt at
adult * 19.99) a function. Return mark can be given if a
Works out total ticket price for children good attempt made at calculating the total,
(eg child * 8.99) even if this is incorrect.
Adds on correct booking fee
Returns the calculated value. Allow 2.50 booking fee to be per order or
per ticket

Ticket prices must be stored appropriately

if needed.

example algorithm

function ticketprice(numadult,
numchild)
price = (numadult * 19.99) +
(numchild * 8.99) + 2.50
return price
end function

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Allow alternatives in high level languages

(e.g. def in Python).

Allow return as assigning the value to the

name of the function (VB syntax)

Examiner’s Comments

This question assessed not only whether

candidates could create an algorithm to
calculate a ticket price using the
information given, but also whether this
could be done as a function.

Many candidates were able to achieve the

first part of this well, but only a small
number even attempted to create this in
the form of a function with parameters
passed in.

Most candidates chose to ask for inputs

during the algorithm instead of passing
parameters and were therefore only able to
achieve a maximum of 3 marks out of 6.

Misconception

A function should not take input directly

from the user; instead, values required
should be passed in as parameters.

Equally, when the required calculations are

completed the value should not be printed
out but returned.

Using parameters and returned values in

this way makes a function truly reusable.

Exemplar 3

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Exemplar 3 shows a response that

successfully covers all of the points
required by the question and therefore
achieves 6 marks.

Exemplar 4

The response above shows a response

that only managed to gain 2 marks, for the
calculation of the total price for adults and
the total price for children.

There is no attempt to use a function and

the input/outputs are done through inputs
and print statements rather than
parameters passed and a value returned.

In addition, the booking fee was not

correctly added to the overall price as the
assignment statement is the wrong way
around.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

ii 1 mark per bullet to max 2 2 Allow String only if matching justification

AO2 1a shows understanding (e.g. £ sign attached,
Real… (1) message returned alongside value).
…Returned value may not be a whole AO2 1b
number / may have a decimal point in (1) Examiner’s Comments

The majority of candidates answered this

well, with Real being chosen because of
the potential need to use decimal places in
the value returned as the main correct
answer.

Where candidates had justified the use of a

string (because the returned data would
include currency symbols or other text) this
was also credited.

Total 28

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

41 a 1 mark per missing bit 4 Accept T / True

AO2 1b
A B Q (4) Examiner’s Comments
0 0 0
0 1 1 This question asked candidates to
1 0 1 complete a truth table for an OR logic gate,
1 1 1 with the correct answer being all 1s.

This relatively simple question firstly

assessed whether candidates understood
the use of truth tables in general, with half
the marks being given for the inputs,
regardless of the gate.

Secondly, this question assessed whether

candidates understood the outputs given
by an OR gate with these inputs.

As expected, the majority of candidates

were able to gain full marks for both of
these areas.

b 9 1 Correct answer only

AO1 1b Do not accept 32 or 3 x 3
(1)
Examiner’s Comments

Exponentiation is covered in the

specification in section 2.4, Computational
logic under the subheading ‘applying
computing-related mathematics’.

Approximately half of all candidates did not

understand the use of this symbol, even
when the meaning was given in the
question.

The most common incorrect answer was to

treat exponentiation as synonymous to
multiplication.

Total 5

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

42 a 1 mark per bullet to max 3 3 Correct answer only.

AO3 2b
count (3) Accept alternatives to adding 1 to variable
= nogoalscount + 1 (e.g. += 1 / ++)
nogoalscount
Penalise spelling once only, FT for further
mistakes. Do not penalise case.

Accept sensible messages printed out

alongside nogoalscount

Examiner’s Comments

This question assessed whether

candidates were able to complete an
algorithm to count the number of times that
the value 0 appeared in a given array.

The first blank to be filled in tested

candidates’ understanding of the use of a
for loop counter to access each index in an
array sequentially; this was not answered
successfully by many candidates and
perhaps shows a lack of understanding.

The next blank was more successfully

answered and required candidates to
increment the variable by 1 which could
have been done in several ways, all of
which were accepted.

Finally, the simplest and most commonly

correct answer simply required candidates
to print out the value of the variable.

b 1 mark per bullet, mark in pairs. Max 2 per 4 Mark first answer only in each section
point. AO2 1a
(2) For validation, allow one example of a type
e.g. AO2 1b of validation (e.g. type check, range check)
(2)
Input sanitisation e.g. question so allow other sensible
…cleaning up input data / removing examples such as audit logging, encryption
unwanted data of data
…by example (e.g. removing special
characters / preventing SQL injection) Do not allow “data is correct” as expansion
for validation – validation checks that data
Validation is sensible or follows rules, NOT that it is
…checking whether input data should correct.
be allowed / is sensible / follows criteria
…by example (e.g. goals cannot be Planning for contingencies and anticipating

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

less than 0) misuse are not examples by themselves,

but discussion of these may fit under other
Verification points – e.g. input sanitisation, validation.
… checking whether data has been
entered correctly Examiner’s Comments
…by example (e.g. double entry /
visual check) This question asked candidates to describe
two examples of defensive design that
Authentication should be considered when developing the
…ensuring only allowed / authorised program for OCR FC.
users can gain access
…by example (e.g. usernames It was clear that large numbers of
/passwords) candidates did not understand the term
‘defensive design’ and gave wide ranging
Maintainable code answers that linked topics as wide as
…to allow other programmers to decomposition to defensive tactics in
understand the code football.
…by example(e.g. comments,
indentation, meaningful variable Where this topic was understood, the most
names) common answers given were those listed
in the specification of input sanitisation,
validation and authentication.

Misconception

Defensive design is listed in the

specification under section 2.3 ‘Producing
robust programs’.

It is the deliberate act of anticipating how

users could misuse a system, either
unintentionally or maliciously and then
attempting to reduce these opportunities.

Examples of defensive design in Computer

Science include authentication (e.g. by
asking for a username and password
before allowing access to a system and
input sanitisation (removing unexpected
characters from user input).

Total 7

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

43 a i 1 mark per bullet to max 1 1 Do not accept examples of syntax error

AO1 1b (e.g. misspelling).
An error in the grammar of the program (2)
// error that breaks the rules of the
programming language Examiner’s Comments
Contains an error but will not run /
translate / execute This question asked candidates to state
the meaning of the term ‘syntax error’.

To be successful, candidates needed to

show examiners that they knew how a
syntax error differed from other types of
errors and so answers such as ‘when code
does not work’ were not precise enough.

A very common incorrect answer here was

to explain what caused the syntax error in
this code or to give general examples of
things that would cause syntax errors (e.g.
‘a misspelling of a word’) and not to give
the wider answer of an error that breaks
the grammatical rules of the programming
language.

Exemplar 2

In Exemplar 2, for example, the response

given by the candidate above could equally
apply to logic errors and is therefore
assessed to be too vague. This was given
0 marks.

AfL

Candidates should make sure that they

read questions carefully to ascertain
whether a contextual basis is required in
their answer.

‘What is meant by a syntax error’ is a very

different question than ‘what caused the
syntax error in this code’.

Examiners mark against a given mark

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

scheme and even when candidates show

understanding, this can only be credited if
the question on the paper has been
answered.

ii print(“odd”) 1 Must include quotes (single or double). Do

AO2 1b not penalise spelling mistakes in message.
(1) Accept sensible alternatives to “odd”
Accept alternatives for print / output as
long as spelling is accurate

Examiner’s Comments

This question was answered extremely

well as the majority of candidates were
able to identify and fix the misspelling of
the keyword ‘print’ in their answer.

The small number of candidates who did

not manage to successfully answer this
question tended to try to expand their
answer beyond simply fixing the error.
They then introduced new errors or
unnecessary code. Where additional code
was given, if it logically worked then this
was accepted.

b i 1 mark per bullet to max 1 1 Do not accept examples of logic errors.

AO1 1b
An error that results in incorrect output (1) Examiner’s Comments
/ unexpected result
Contains an error but still runs / doesn’t This question asked candidates to state
crash the meaning of the term ‘logic error’.

To be successful, candidates needed to

show examiners that they knew how a
logic error differed from other types of
errors and so answers such as ‘when code
does not work’ were not precise enough.

Successful answers conveyed the idea of

incorrect output without stopping the
execution of the program.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

ii if num MOD 2 == 0 then 1 Important point is that >= is changed to ==

AO3 2b or =.
if num MOD 2 = 0 then (1) Accept alternatives that produce the same
result (e.g. <=0, <1, !=1, etc.)

Ignore any casting (e.g. using int() to

convert to a number)

Accept other minor changes to the line as

long it logically works.

Accept versions of MOD from high level

languages (e.g. Python : if num % 2 ==
0)

Examiner’s Comments

The logic error present in the program was

that any number entered would print out
‘even’ because line 02 checked if num MOD
2 was greater than or equal to 0 rather
than simply equal to 0. This could be fixed
by replacing the greater than comparison
with an = (or == ).

Few candidates achieved this, suggesting

a lack of confidence either with the MOD
operator or the program as a whole.

Total 4

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

44 a 1 mark per bullet to max 4, 1 mark per row 4 Correct Answer Only
AO2 1b
10 (4) Do not accept “X”, “Y”, etc.
6
6 Examiner’s Comments
2
This question required candidates to follow
through the given algorithm and decide on
the value that would be output given a set
of input values.

Most candidates were able to complete this

successfully for at least some values.

Where mistakes were made, these tended

to be with the last set of values and the
decision as to whether 12 is less than 12,
which should be evaluated to be False.

Candidates gained a good understanding

of this algorithm through this question
which was then intended to lead onto the
next question.

b 1 mark per bullet to max 6. 6 Question specifically asks for pseudocode.

AO3 2b
Inputs two value (as X and Y) (6) Outputs should only be given if they occur
Compares if X is larger than Y… with the right condition(s).
…Outputs Y*X only when False
Compares if X is less than 12… Example algorithm
…Outputs X only when True and X
>Y input x
…Outputs Y only when False and X input y
>Y if x > y then
if x < 12 then
print x
else
print y
end if
else
print y*x
end if

Variables do not have to be called x and y.

Accept equivalent comparisons (e.g. if X

<= Y)

Allow FT for outputs from incorrect

comparisons where a sensible attempt has

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Please note how mark bullet points match been made.

up to the flowchart given in the question.

BP1 is for taking both inputs

BP2 and 4 are for correct comparisons of

variables. This may be done in alternative
ways (e.g. X<=Y, X>=12, etc)

BP3, 5 and 6 are for the correct outputs in

the right place.

If the answer logically works to produce the

correct output, it should be marked as
correct.

Examiner’s Comments

This question asked candidates to

translate the given flowchart into
pseudocode. It should be noted that no
specific format for pseudocode is
expected; candidates may use any code-
like format that they choose as long as this
conveys the logical intention of the
solution.

Large numbers of candidates achieved full

marks on this question and candidates who
explored the whole of the algorithm were
likely to do very well.

By comparison, candidates who attempted

to convert each box of the flowchart into
lines of pseudocode strictly from top to
bottom often fell foul of the False outcome
from the first decision being in the wrong

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

place.

The most common issue here was a lack

of understanding that the opposite of X>Y
is not simply X<Y; this does not cater for X
being equal to Y. Where candidates put X
<=Y or equivalent, this was accepted.

This logical issue was also frequently

repeated on the second decision for X<12.

Exemplar 1

In Exemplar 1, the candidate has logically

hit every point from the flowchart and
converted this successfully into
pseudocode. This response achieved 6
marks.

Total 10

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

45 1 mark per bullet, max 2. 2 Accept logically correct equivalents for else
(e.g. elseif a!=“LAN“ and/or a
!=“WAN“). Do not allow elseif on its
else own
print (“unknown”)
Accept other keywords for print (e.g.
“output”) as long as the intention is clear.

Accept other messages as equivalent to

“uknown” (e.g. “not known” / “error”))

Message to be printed must be in quotes.

Allow “else then”.

Examiner’s Comments

Most candidates were able to complete line

07 successfully, with an output/print of an
acceptable ‘unknown’’ message being all
that was required. Line 06 required
candidates to understand that the message
on line 07 should be printed out where the
conditions in lines 02 and 04 were both
false; the simplest way of achieving this
was an ELSE (or equivalent). Where
candidates put more logically complex
statements, these were successful if they
were logically correct. However, many
candidates struggled with this.

Misconception
To compare the contents of a variable
against two possible values, it is incorrect
to use :
• if a!=‘WAN’ or ‘LAN’
In the example above, the comparison of a
against ‘WAN’ is logically correct, but it is
unclear what ‘LAN’ is being compared
against.
A logically correct way to achieve the same
thing would be :
• if a!=‘WAN’ and a!=‘LAN’

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

1 mark per bullet, max 2. 2 Allow examples of keywords (eg IF / ELSE

/ WHILE) as 2nd bullet point.

aimed at humans//understandable by
humans / programmers Do not award marks for naming languages
English like structure / syntax such as Java , Python, etc.
Must be
translated/compiled/interpreted (before
it can be run) Do not award marks for stating what a high
Allows programmer to deal with the level language isn’t (i.e. describing what
problem instead of considering the low level code is).
underlying hardware // an abstraction
from the hardware // hardware Do not allow “easy to use”
independent // portable
Do not allow ‘has to be converted’ without
into what i.e machine code etc.

Examiner’s Comments

This question was answered well by many

candidates, with responses relating to the
use of English-like keywords but needing
to be translated before the processor could
execute it being the most popular. A
minority of candidates confused ‘high-level’
with ‘difficult’ and gave incorrect answers
regarding it being too hard to programmers
to use. The opposite is in fact true, with
‘high-level’ referring to the level of
abstraction away from the underlying
hardware.

Very few answers were seen that in any

way discussed this abstraction or
portability between different processors.
Hopefully centres will become more
confident with the delivery of the subject
and so more complex and technically
complete answers will be seen across all
questions from high ability candidates.

Total 4

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

46 a 1 mark per bullet, max 3. 3 Example algorithm

FOR loop used for i = 1 to 10

That outputs the counter variable print i
loops 10 time next

Do not accept WHILE loop for first mark,

although other marks can be accessed.

No need for next

If candidate manually increments counter

within FOR loop, do not award bullet point
3.

Accept pseudocode that suggests looping

10 times, even if this may not function
correctly in a specific language.

Examiner’s Comments

Very few candidates achieved full marks

on this question, mainly due to a lack of
understanding of what a count-controlled
loop is – this is defined by example in
appendix 5f of the specification. Many
candidates used a condition controlled
(WHILE) loop and although the condition
was set to be a comparison of a variable
which was incremented on every iteration,
this was still condition controlled and
therefore did not achieve the first mark.
However, where this met the requirement
of the question, the other marks were
achievable.

A FOR loop is truly count-controlled and so

was able to achieve full marks. However,
some candidates then went on to manually
increment the counter variable inside the
FOR loop which is at best not necessary
and at worst harmful to the correct
operation of the loop. These candidates did
not therefore achieve full marks.

Examiners were instructed to be generous

this time where answers were slightly
ambiguous because of the way that certain

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

high-level languages (such as Python)

handle count-controlled iteration. Centres
should be aware that Python is only one of
many suitable high-level languages and
that it is perhaps best practice to introduce
candidates to overall concepts before
looking at how these are implemented in
the centre’s language of choice. Where
possible, if candidates were able to use
multiple high-level languages during the
course of their learning, this would be
extremely beneficial.

b Will loop Will not 4 1 mark per row.

infinitely loop infinitely
✓ More than one tick in a row = 0 marks for
✓ that row.
✓
✓ Examiner’s Comments

It was thought that candidates of all

abilities would be able to attempt this
question, with iteration possibly a relatively
simple topic. Many candidates showed a
lack of understanding on this question, with
far fewer receiving full marks than perhaps
was expected. Again, perhaps candidates
have had fewer opportunities to experience
programming on screen than would be
expected. Understanding of basic
programming constructs and their
application is certainly something which
centres would do well to focus on.

Total 7

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

47 a i 1 mark per bullet, max 2. 2 Allow “does not” for second mark if
intention is clear (ie if it is obvious that the
“not” refers to not returning a value).
Function returns a value
Procedure does not return a value Allow discussion of how returned value in a
function can be used (e.g. to assign to a
variable or to use this returned value in
some way).

ii 1 mark per bullet, max 4. Mark in pairs. 4 Maximum of two benefits with expanstions
to be marked as per question.
e.g.

Breaks down / decomposes /

modularises the problem / program // Allow other sensible expansions.
structures the program
…making it easier to design/create/test Allow expansions which cross over to other
…each subroutine can be tested benefits (e.g. breaks down the problem / to
separately make it easier to maintain).

Reuse code (in different programs) Allow “can be called multiple times”
…quicker to develop (new) programs
…build on existing work / use of a Allow “file size is smaller”.
library of subroutines
Do not allow “more efficient” without further
Avoid repetition of code (in the same explanation.
program)
…makes program shorter / smaller
… subprogram called instead of
copying/pasting. Examiner’s Comments
… quicker to develop (new) programs
Although candidates had struggled on the
Easier to maintain previous questions to demonstrate that
…as code is easier to understand/read they could use functions, a much larger
…as code is shorter number were able to describe why
subprograms such as functions are
Easier to debug beneficial. This demonstrates that
…as code is shorter candidates do understand this in theory but
…same bugs will not have been copied may not perhaps have had the practical
to other areas of the program. programming time in lessons to apply this
on screen. For example, a common correct
Work can be split up in a team answer frequently given was that code did
not have to be copied and pasted multiple
…to suit developers’ skill set times but could instead be called from
…to work on different subprogram at other parts of the program, but candidates
the same time / develop separately then did exactly the opposite of this when
asked to use a function themselves.
Allows for abstraction / removes
complexity A good number of candidates were also
…subprograms can be used by able to describe other potential benefits,

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

programmers who do not need to such as making the code easier to

understand how they work. maintain and debug or allowing work to
split up between programmers of different
skill sets.

Centres should be aware of the command

word given in questions and match this up
to the number of marks allocated; in this
case, ‘describe’ two benefits for 4 marks
means that short single sentence answers
area unlikely to hit sufficient points on the
mark scheme to be given full marks. The
command words that will be used
consistently in examinations are shown in
appendix 5e of the specification.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b i 1 mark per filled gap, max 3 3 Ignore capitalisation.

01 function librarycode(title, Allow librarycode = for 3rd mark – this is an

year) equivalent in some languages for returning
02 parta = title.substring(0, a value (eg. Visual Basic).
3)
03 partb = year.substring(2, 2)
04 return parta.upper + partb
05 endfunction
Examiner’s Comments

Responses to this question were mixed.

The majority of candidates were able to
decide on the correct passing of year as a
second parameter; this had to be
specifically year and nothing else as this
identifier was referred to later in the
algorithm.

Fewer candidates were able to correctly

decide that three characters were required
from the title; this was often not completed
as expected as subString is listed in
appendix 5f of the specification as a string
handling tool that could be used in the
examination and a full example of its use is
also given on line 03.

Even fewer candidates understood that a

function must return a value, this being the
answer to line 04. The most common
incorrect answer here was candidates
attempting to print / output the book code
rather than return it. A mark was given if
they assigned the return value to the name
of the function (e.g. librarycode =
parta.upper + partb) as this is a valid
method of returning a value in some high-
level languages such as Visual Basic.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

ii 1 mark per bullet, max 6 6 Example algorithm

Input title and year from user title = input(“enter title”)

Open bookcodes.txt year = input (“enter year”)
Call the librarycode() function… code = librarycode(title, year)
… with the two parameters that match myFile =
input values openWrite(“bookcodes.txt”)
… write out code obtained to the text myFile.writeLine(code)
file MyFile.close()
Close text file
Note, pseudocode shown above is an
example – candidates may answer very
differently, but award marks if intention can
be seen.

Bullet points 3,4 and 5 could be done in

one line:
myFile.writeLine(librarycode(ti
tle, year))

Do not award bullet point 3 if candidate is

defining the function rather than calling it.

Allow bullet point 2 (opening text file) if

correctly referred to during write operation.

Bullet point 3 must include brackets () to

signify it is the function being called or
indication that is being called.

Examiner’s Comments

This question was answered extremely

poorly by candidates and shows a lack of
understanding of the use of functions (and
subroutines in general). Where candidates
scored highly here, it was a very good
indicator that they would score highly
across the paper as a whole.

The majority of candidates were able to

access the first mark for inputting the two
requested values. However, a significant
number did not make it clear that the value
inputted had to be stored somewhere*
(typically in a variable). Therefore although
x = input(‘enter a title’) was
OK, simply stating input(‘enter a

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

title’)was too vague to achieve the

mark. Another common misunderstanding
was that both values could be input at the
same time; a variable will only ever store
one value and so asking for both in one go
is unlikely to achieve the marks.

* Where higher ability candidates showed

an understanding of how to do this
differently, e.g. using the input value as the
argument to pass into the function, this
was of course credited by examiners.

However, the bigger misconception was

around the use of pre-existing functions.
One of the benefits of subroutines is that
code can be modularised and re-used
without requiring programmers to copy and
paste code if they require it multiple times.
Perhaps the most common student answer
for this question was to write out the code
from the function again to try to calculate
the book code. This was not what was
required from the question and shows a
fundamental lack of understanding of the
use of functions.

Marks were given for calling the existing

function, passing in the values previously
input and then writing the returned code to
the text file. The vast majority of
candidates achieved none of these marks.

Other independent marks were given for

opening and closing the text file and a
pleasing number of candidates were able
to do this successfully.

Misconception
Functions modularise code; they can be
written once and used multiple times in a
program. If a pre-written function is given
as part of a question and candidates are
told to use it, they will NOT be credited for
simply copying and pasting the code inside
the function to use; this shows a lack of
understanding.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Exemplar 3

In the exemplar above, the candidate has

successfully input two values from the
user. They have then called the pre-
existing function librarycode() with the
values previously input as arguments (in
parenthesis). This will return a value which
is stored in the variable bookCode. The
correct text file is then opened, the
returned value is written to the text file and
then the file is closed. This response
covered everything required from the
question and so is credited with full marks
[6 out of 6].

Exemplar 4

In the exemplar above, the candidate has

successfully input two values from the
user. However, they then misunderstand
the purpose of a function and instead of
calling this, re-write out the function code.
Note that there is no call to this function,

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

which could have made it correct; the

assumption is that the candidate thinks
they must place the code here for it to run,
which is incorrect.

The candidate does gain a mark from

opening the text file but they cannot get the
mark for writing to it (as no book code was
ever calculated) and they do not close the
file. This response gained two out of six
marks and is typical of the average
candidate answer.

Total 15

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

48 a i 2,3,4 1 All three numbers needed in the correct

order (with no other numbers) for mark.

Examiner’s Comments

The majority of candidates seemed to

understand the use of count-controlled
loops to repeat sections of an algorithm,
which was pleasing. However, the vast
majority were then unable to apply this to
nested loops, understanding that the inner
loop completes fully for each iteration of
the outer loop. The correct answer for a(i)
of 2, 3, 4 (with k remaining as 1 but p being
1 then 2 then 3) was only seen in
candidates who generally achieved highly
overall on the paper. Question part a(ii)
tests the same understanding and so
approximately the same number of
candidates understood that the given lines
would repeat 15 times in total.

ii 15 1 Accept 3 × 5

Examiner’s Comments

The majority of candidates seemed to

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b 1 mark per bullet, max 2 2 Ignore spelling.

Sequence Do not allow examples (eg FOR loop /

Iteration / loops / repetition WHILE loop)

Examiner’s Comments

Programming constructs are defined in

section 2.2 (‘Programming techniques’) of
the specification. These are given as
sequence, selection and iteration. In the
algorithm given in the question, sequence
and iteration were both used and so
candidates were credited if they gave
either of these two answers, with loops
being accepted as an alternative to
iteration. Centres are encouraged to
ensure that all of the specification is
covered with candidates and that keywords
from the specification are highlighted in
lessons as appropriate.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

c i 1 mark per bullet, max 2 2 Do not accept “will change” for bullet point
4.

A (name/identifier for a) memory Do not allow “holds/stores something” or

location “holds/stores information” for bullet point 2.
used to (temporarily)
holds/contains/stores data / value // is
assigned a value
that can be changed / possible to Do not accept name / identifier without
change (while the program is running) reference to a memory location. Do not
accept “a value given a name” or
equivalent.

Examiner’s Comments

This question was pleasingly answered

relatively well, perhaps because of similar
questions regarding variables and
constants in question on the previous
GCSE Computing specification. It was
pleasing how many candidates were able
to relate variables to an identifier given to a
memory location, showing a good
understanding of a basic Computer
Science concept. A mark was given quite
generously for the ability for a variable to
be ‘changed’, but candidates should be
aware that ideally their answer should
make reference to the value stored being
able to be changed, not the variable itself
changing somehow.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

ii 1 mark per bullet, max 2 2 Ignore capitalisation.

k Correct answer only. Do not allow other

p code in answer.
m

Examiner’s Comments

There were actually three variables in use

(k, p and m) and so any two of these were
able to be given to achieve full marks. This
question was answered very well by the
majority of candidates, with most achieving
2 marks. A common incorrect answer was
to give full lines of pseudocode as the
variable, e.g. ‘m = 7’ or ‘next k’. In this case
it was impossible to decide whether the
candidate understood which part of their
response was the variable and so no mark
was given. As with question 1b(ii),
candidates should be encouraged to look
at the command word in the question (in
this case ‘identify’) and make sure that
their response is suitable.

Total 8

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

49 1 mark per bullet, max 6. 6 Example algorithm

Initialisation of A, B and C as zero.

Allows input (of anything) from the user
Incrementing A, B and C depending on acount = 0
input acount = 0
Repeats bullet points 2 and 3 bcount= 0
…stopping only when “END” is entered ccount= 0
Prints out all 3 individual counts and vote = ““
prints calculated total count while vote != “END”
vote = input(“enter A, B or
C”)
if vote == “A” then
acount = acount + 1
elseif vote == “B” then
bcount = bcount + 1
elseif vote == “C” then
ccount = ccount + 1
end if
endwhile
print acount
print bcount
print ccount
print acount+bcount+ccount

Do not penalise for missing initialisation of

variable used in the while loop or total (if
used)

Comparison with value inputted MUST be

a string (e.g. if vote == A) is incorrect
as A here is a variable, not a string.

Answer can be any recognised algorithm –

pseudocode, flowcharts, structured
English, etc. Mark on whether the bullet
points on the left hand side have been met.
Does not have to match algorithm above.

4th bullet point (repeat) can be given for

any sensible attempt at iteration.

Use professional judgement on where

loops end (WHILE / END WHILE or
indentation).

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Examiner’s Comments

This question required candidates to write

an algorithm (which could equally have
been pseudocode or a flowchart) to count
how many votes three candidates received
in an election. The essential elements of
the algorithm were given as bullet points to
help candidates to decompose the
problem.

The majority of candidates attempted to

allow the user to input their choice and
then increment a counter variable based
on this choice. However, for many
candidates, the response provided was not
logically correct and so did not achieve all
of the marks available. One typical problem
was the comparison missing the required
quotation marks (or similar) around the
literal string value, so while if vote ==
‘B’ checks the value of the variable vote
against the string ‘B’, if vote == B
instead compares two variables. Other
common issues included candidates
mixing up the left and right side of an
assignment operation (e.g. c = 1 is not
the same as 1 = c) or overwriting the
value of their counters rather than
incrementing them (e.g. a = 1 rather than
a = a + 1 or a +=1).

Many candidates stopped at this point with

relatively few even attempting to use
iteration (or other methods) to ensure that
further votes could be counted. Where this
was attempted, it was pleasing to see
candidates understanding condition
controlled loops to successfully end when
required.

The final criterion was to print the number

of votes for each candidate and the
number of votes overall. Many candidates
successfully completed the first part of this
but completely missed out even an attempt
at the second part even though it appears
to be relatively straightforward; centres
should encourage candidates to carefully
read the questions and check their

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

answers for completeness.

Examiners saw many answers which used

alternative techniques (such as storing the
vote counts in an array, or achieving
repetition by use of subprograms) and
where these were logically correct they
were able to achieve full marks.

Exemplar 6

This response gained 3 marks. The

candidate successfully takes an input from
the user and stores this in the variable
vote [1 mark]. This is then compared
against string values ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’,
incrementing the appropriate value [1
mark]. The counter variables have
previously been initialised to zero [1 mark].
There is some attempt to loop on the very
last line, but this is weak and would have
the effect of re-initialising the counter
values back to zero every time and so is
incorrect. The candidate attempts to print
the three variables but misses off
outputting the total vote count (which would
have just been A+B+C).

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Exemplar 7

This response achieved 5 marks, just 1

mark short of the maximum. The three
counter values are initialised [1 mark] and
user input successfully taken and stored in
a variable [1 mark]. This input is then
compared against A, but the lack of
quotation marks (or equivalent) around A
means that this is a variable (which has
been defined on the very first line),
meaning that the comparison being
undertaken is effectively ‘is the user input
equal to zero?’, which is incorrect.
However, there is a loop present around
the relevant instructions [1 mark] and this
does repeat until the user enters ‘END’ [1
mark] (the initial error of missing the
quotation marks on comparisons being
followed through and only penalised once),
at which point the values of A, B, C and the
total are all output [1 mark]. It is pleasing to
see that the candidate also includes some
basic input validation, although this is not
asked for in the question and so cannot be
credited.

Total 6

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

50 a 1 mark per bullet, max 2 2 First mark can be awarded if candidate has
either a NOT gate from B, or an OR gate
with two inputs anywhere in their answer.

Second mark is only awarded of the logic

system as shown is given with no other
additional gates.

Correct logic diagrams needed for OR and

NOT, including circle on NOT. Use
professional judgement. Ignore labelling.

OR gate with two inputs // NOT gate on No need to label Q output.

B input
Logic system as above with no other Examiner’s Comments
gates, with labelled inputs of A and B.
Boolean symbols and notations that may
be used in examinations are shown in
appendix 5f of the specification.
Candidates will never be expected to use
these symbols in their own responses
(AND, OR and NOT are perfectly
acceptable) but they must be aware of how
questions on papers may be written.

For this question, it was obvious that some

groups of candidates did not understand
the symbols in the question and so were
not able to provide a suitable response.
However, it was pleasing to see that this
was not at all the majority and that large
numbers of candidates were able to not
only understand the question but also
provide a correct or partially correct
response.

Where responses were incorrect, a

common mistake was to utilise the NOT
gate after the output from the OR gate
when in fact the NOT gate should be
applied to the input from B before this
feeds into the OR gate. Another common
mistake was to forget to label up inputs as
A and B, therefore not allowing the
examiner to award the mark for the NOT
gate on the correct input.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b i 1 mark per bullet, max 2 2 Allow Boolean notation.

AND / conjunction
NOT / negation

ii A B Q 4 1 mark per row

0 0 1
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0

Examiner’s Comments

Candidates and centres are obviously

extremely comfortable with the use and
understanding of logic gate symbols. The
vast majority of responses on part (i)
achieved 2 marks. The most common
incorrect answer was to mix up AND and
OR for the first gate. For part (ii),
candidates were able to apply their
knowledge successfully with the majority of
all candidates achieving 4 marks. This
topic has been covered successfully by
centres and that this work is reflected in
examination responses.

Total 8

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

51 a 1 mark per bullet, max 4 4 Example algorithm

• Selection(IF) used if studentdata[3] == “TRUE”

• Comparing studentdata[3]… then
• …with “TRUE” or “FALSE” // print “sent”
TRUE or FALSE else
• Correct outputs (“sent” and “not print “not sent”
sent”) end if

Bullet point 3 can only be awarded If an

attempt is made at identifying
studentdata (e.g. with the wrong index
or no index). Do not allow simply
comparing anything with True / False.

Bullet point 3 can be implicit.

Capitalisation not important.

“Sent” and “not sent” do not have to be

exactly this – can be alternative message
conveying same idea.

Examiner’s Comments

This question was generally well

answered, at least in part, by candidates of
all abilities. The use of selection (IF) is
obviously well understood and this,
together with the linked multiple outcomes
of outputting ‘sent’ or ‘not sent’ were the
most commonly credited mark points.
However, despite the question providing
very specific guidance on how to access
the array, many candidates did not even
attempt to do this.

Where the array was accessed correctly, a

common mistake was to access the wrong
element, usually index 4 rather than index
3. Arrays in questions on this specification
will always be zero based and this fact was
also given in the question by means of an
example. Candidates should be
encouraged to read all parts of a question
before beginning to attempt it.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

Exemplar 1

In the above exemplar response, the

candidate has achieved full marks by
accessing the correct element in the array
and using this to decide if the letter should
be sent.

Exemplar 2

In the above exemplar response, the

candidate has not attempted to access the
array at all, instead asking the user to input
a value; this does not do what is required
and so is only given 2 of the 4 marks (for a
valid use of selection and outputting a
message correctly).

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

b i 1 mark per bullet, max 2 if not in correct 3 Capitalisation does not affect the mark.
order or additional statements given. Spellings of fields, tables must be correct.

SELECT StudentName Ignore brackets. Ignore quotes around

FROM conduct StudentName, Conduct or Points. Mark
WHERE Points < 0 quotes around 0 in WHERE clause as
incorrect.

StudentName must not include space

Accept <= –1 or equivalent for 3rd bullet

point.

Examiner’s Comments

Despite ‘the use of SQL to search for data’

being listed under section 2.2 of the
specification, the vast majority of candidate
answers showed a lack of understanding of
SQL in general. It was common to see
incorrect answers that attempted to use
pseudocode to respond to this and a large
number leaving this question blank. Where
candidates did use the keywords of
SELECT, FROM and WHERE answers
were much more successful. The SQL
keywords and terms that candidates are
required to know are listed in appendix 5f
of the specification.

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

ii / star / asterisk 1 Wildcard () must be clearly identified as

the answer.

Do not allow any other SQL statements

alongside this unless this is given as an
example.

Examiner’s Comments

As with the previous question, where

candidates were familiar with SQL and
understood the term ‘wildcard’, this
question was answered successfully.
However, the majority of candidates did not
appear to be confident with either of these
and so gave answers more suited to
algorithm questions.

Candidates should also be encouraged to

provide answers which match the keyword
in the question; in this case ‘state’’ means
to give a specific name, value or other brief
answer without explanation. The wildcard
in question (an asterisk / * ) was
sometimes surrounded by other SQL code
and so it was impossible to tell whether the
candidate understood which part of this
was the wildcard.

A small number of candidates incorrectly

identified ‘%’ as the wildcard; although this
would be a valid wildcard in the WHERE
clause, it is not used to select all fields
from a table.

SQL coverage
Appendix 5f of the specification lists all of
the SQL keywords and wildcards that
candidates are required to understand.
This is available from http://www.ocr.org.uk

Question Answer/Indicative content Marks Guidance

c 1 mark per bullet, to max 3 3 Accept text / varchar for string. Do not
accept character.
Do not accept number/numeric for integer
String Accept yes/no, true/false for Boolean.
Integer / Int
Boolean
Examiner’s Comments

This question was answered very well by

the majority of candidates, with most
achieving full marks. Where candidates did
fail to do well, it tended to be through a
misunderstanding of the term ‘data type’,
leading the answers such as ‘Kirstie’ or -3.

Total 11

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