Elements of Computational Thinking | OCR A-Level Computer Science (H446)

Elements of Computational Thinking

78 questions
5 subtopics
Component 02: Algorithms and programming
Component 02

Elements of Computational Thinking is examined on component 02 of OCR Computer Science, Algorithms and programming.

78 recall questions across 5 subtopics.

Sample questions from Elements of Computational Thinking

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The 5 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Thinking abstractly	Recall questions on abstraction and why it is needed, representational abstraction and generalisation, layers of abstraction, abstract data types, models that discard the wrong detail, devising abstract models, and abstraction compared with decomposition.	17
Thinking ahead	Recall questions on identifying inputs and outputs, preconditions and who checks them, caching and its benefits, drawbacks and replacement policies, caching recursive calculations, and the benefits and risks of reusable program components.	20
Thinking procedurally	Recall questions on decomposition of large problems, components of a problem and of a solution, top-down stepwise refinement and structure charts, the order of steps, sub-procedures and their interfaces, and cohesion and coupling.	14
Thinking logically	Recall questions on decision points, logical conditions and boundary errors, the order conditions are evaluated in, separate if statements versus else if chains, pre-test and post-test loops, dry running decisions, and non-exhaustive conditions.	13
Thinking concurrently	Recall questions on concurrency and parallelism, identifying tasks that can run at once, parallel image filters and merge sort, Amdahl's law, overheads and contention, race conditions, deadlock, testing concurrent code, and data and task parallelism.	14

Elements of Computational Thinking is 78 of the 1,549 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £9

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.