Advanced Higher Computing Science

What will I study?

The course comprises three areas of study.

Software design and development

You will:

• develop knowledge, understanding, and advanced practical problem-solving skills in software design and development, by using appropriate software development environments

• develop object-oriented programming and computational-thinking skills by analysing, designing, implementing, testing, and evaluating practical solutions and explaining how these modular programs work

• use your knowledge of data types and constructs to create efficient programs to solve advanced problems.

Database design and development

You will:

• develop knowledge, understanding, and advanced practical problem-solving skills in database design and development, through a range of practical tasks, using SQL to create and query relational databases

• apply computational thinking skills to analyse, design, implement, test, and evaluate practical solutions, using a range of development tools

• apply interpretation skills to tasks involving some complex features in both familiar and new contexts.

Web design and development

You will:

• develop knowledge, understanding, and advanced practical problem-solving skills in web design and development, through a range of practical and investigative tasks

• apply computational-thinking skills to analyse, design, implement, test, and evaluate practical solutions to web-based problems, using a range of development tools including HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and PHP.

• You will apply interpretation skills to tasks involving some complex features in both familiar and new contexts.

How will I be assessed?

Course assessment

The course assessment consists of two components totalling 135 marks:

• Component 1: question paper worth 55 marks

• Component 2: project worth 80 marks.

The question paper has three sections. Section 1 is mandatory and you have the option of completing either Section 2 or Section 3:

• Section 1: Software design and development - 35 marks

• Section 2: Database design and development - 20 marks

• Section 3: Web design and development - 20 marks.

For the project component you will be asked to design, develop, implement, test and evaluate a digital solution to a complex problem and demonstrate advanced skills in computer programming. The project must be based on either: software design and development; database design and development; or web design and development.

Both the question papers and the project are set and externally marked by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

The grade awarded is based on the total marks achieved across course assessment.

The course assessment is graded A-D.

Digital Learning Platform

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