OCR GCSE J277 Computer Science specification: every spec point and its video lesson
5of 30 spec points have a lesson out now
30have a lesson planned
Spec text is our short form of the board's statement. Always check the board's own specification.
| Spec | Statement | Lesson | YT search phrase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1.1OCR J277 | Architecture of the CPU | The CPU and the von Neumann model | ScholaFly CS04-02 |
| The registers: MAR, MDR, PC and Accumulator | ScholaFly CS04-03 | ||
| The fetch-execute cycle | ScholaFly CS04-04 | ||
| 1.1.2OCR J277 | Explain how clock speed, cache size and number of cores affect CPU performance, individually and in combination. | What makes a CPU fast | ScholaFly CS04-05 |
| 1.1.3OCR J277 | State the purpose and typical characteristics of an embedded system and give examples. | Embedded systems | ScholaFly CS04-06 |
| 1.2.1OCR J277 | Primary storage (memory) | RAM, ROM and types of memory | ScholaFly CS05-01 |
| Cache | ScholaFly CS05-02 | ||
| Virtual memory | ScholaFly CS05-03 | ||
| 1.2.2OCR J277 | Secondary storage | Secondary storage: magnetic, solid state and optical | ScholaFly CS05-04 |
| Choosing the right storage | ScholaFly CS05-05 | ||
| 1.2.3OCR J277 | Units | Why computers use binary | ScholaFly CS01-01 |
| Bits, bytes and the units of storage | ScholaFly CS02-01 | ||
| Working out the size of a text file | ScholaFly CS02-05 | ||
| Working out image and sound file sizes | ScholaFly CS03-04 | ||
| 1.2.4OCR J277 | Data storage - Numbers | Denary to binary and back | ScholaFly CS01-02 |
| Denary and hexadecimal | ScholaFly CS01-04 | ||
| Binary and hexadecimal | ScholaFly CS01-05 | ||
| Binary addition | ScholaFly CS01-06 | ||
| Overflow | ScholaFly CS01-07 | ||
| Binary shifts | ScholaFly CS01-08 | ||
| Character sets and ASCII | ScholaFly CS02-02 | ||
| Character codes run in order | ScholaFly CS02-03 | ||
| Unicode | ScholaFly CS02-04 | ||
| How an image is stored | ScholaFly CS03-01 | ||
| How sound is stored | ScholaFly CS03-03 | ||
| 1.2.5OCR J277 | Explain why compression is needed and compare lossy and lossless compression. | Why we compress data | ScholaFly CS03-05 |
| 1.3.1OCR J277 | Networks and topologies | Cloud storage | ScholaFly CS05-06 |
| LAN, WAN and PAN | ScholaFly CS07-02 | ||
| What makes a network fast | ScholaFly CS07-04 | ||
| Network topologies | ScholaFly CS07-05 | ||
| The hardware that builds a network | ScholaFly CS07-06 | ||
| Client-server and peer-to-peer | ScholaFly CS07-07 | ||
| The Internet, DNS and hosting | ScholaFly CS07-08 | ||
| 1.3.2OCR J277 | Wired and wireless networks, protocols and layers | Wired and wireless | ScholaFly CS07-03 |
| What a protocol is | ScholaFly CS08-01 | ||
| The four-layer TCP/IP model | ScholaFly CS08-02 | ||
| IP addresses and MAC addresses | ScholaFly CS08-03 | ||
| Standards | ScholaFly CS08-04 | ||
| Encryption across a network | ScholaFly CS08-05 | ||
| 1.4.1OCR J277 | Threats to computer systems and networks | Malware | ScholaFly CS09-02 |
| Social engineering | ScholaFly CS09-03 | ||
| Brute force, denial of service and SQL injection | ScholaFly CS09-04 | ||
| 1.4.2OCR J277 | Explain how penetration testing, anti-malware, firewalls, user access levels, passwords, encryption and physical security limit or prevent named attacks. | Protecting systems, networks and data | ScholaFly CS09-07 |
| 1.5.1OCR J277 | Operating systems | What an operating system does | ScholaFly CS06-02 |
| 1.5.2OCR J277 | State the purpose of utility software and describe encryption software, defragmentation and data compression. | Utility software | ScholaFly CS06-03 |
| 1.6.1OCR J277 | Ethical, legal, cultural and environmental impact | The impacts of digital technology | ScholaFly CS17-01 |
| The law: Data Protection, Computer Misuse, Copyright | ScholaFly CS17-05 | ||
| Open source and proprietary licences | ScholaFly CS17-07 | ||
| 2.1.1OCR J277 | Explain abstraction, decomposition and algorithmic thinking and use them to define and refine a problem. | Decomposition and abstraction | ScholaFly CS10-02 |
| 2.1.2OCR J277 | Designing, creating and refining algorithms | Inputs, processing and outputs | ScholaFly CS10-03 |
| Flowcharts | ScholaFly CS10-04 | ||
| Pseudocode | ScholaFly CS10-05 | ||
| Trace tables | ScholaFly CS10-07 | ||
| Syntax, logic and runtime errors | ScholaFly CS14-07 | ||
| 2.1.3OCR J277 | Searching and sorting algorithms | Linear search | ScholaFly CS11-01 |
| Binary search | ScholaFly CS11-02 | ||
| Bubble sort | ScholaFly CS11-04 | ||
| Merge sort | ScholaFly CS11-05 | ||
| Insertion sort | ScholaFly CS11-06 | ||
| 2.2.1OCR J277 | Programming fundamentals | Sequence, selection and iteration in an algorithm | ScholaFly CS10-06 |
| Variables, constants and assignment | ScholaFly CS12-01 | ||
| Arithmetic operators, DIV and MOD | ScholaFly CS12-04 | ||
| Relational operators | ScholaFly CS12-05 | ||
| AND, OR and NOT in a condition | ScholaFly CS12-06 | ||
| Loops: count-controlled and condition-controlled | ScholaFly CS12-07 | ||
| Putting the statement types together | ScholaFly CS12-08 | ||
| 2.2.1e-precOCR J277 | Apply the order of precedence in a compound condition: NOT before AND, AND before OR. | AND, OR and NOT in a condition | ScholaFly CS12-06 |
| 2.2.2OCR J277 | Data types | Data types | ScholaFly CS12-02 |
| Casting | ScholaFly CS12-03 | ||
| 2.2.3OCR J277 | Additional programming techniques | Arrays, one and two dimensional | ScholaFly CS13-01 |
| Records | ScholaFly CS13-02 | ||
| Working with strings | ScholaFly CS13-03 | ||
| Reading and writing files | ScholaFly CS13-04 | ||
| Random numbers | ScholaFly CS13-05 | ||
| Writing and calling your own subprograms | ScholaFly CS13-08 | ||
| SELECT, FROM and WHERE | ScholaFly CS16-02 | ||
| 2.3.1OCR J277 | Defensive design | Code other people can read | ScholaFly CS14-04 |
| Input validation | ScholaFly CS14-05 | ||
| Authentication | ScholaFly CS14-06 | ||
| 2.3.2OCR J277 | Testing | Reading and refining someone else's program | ScholaFly CS14-01 |
| Syntax, logic and runtime errors | ScholaFly CS14-07 | ||
| Why we test, and when | ScholaFly CS14-08 | ||
| Choosing test data | ScholaFly CS14-09 | ||
| 2.4.1OCR J277 | Boolean logic | AND, OR and NOT as logic gates | ScholaFly CS15-01 |
| XOR and combining gates | ScholaFly CS15-02 | ||
| Logic circuit diagrams | ScholaFly CS15-03 | ||
| 2.4.1-rowsOCR J277 | Work out how many rows a truth table needs: 2 to the power of the number of inputs. | AND, OR and NOT as logic gates | ScholaFly CS15-01 |
| 2.5.1OCR J277 | Languages | High-level and low-level languages | ScholaFly CS06-05 |
| Compilers, interpreters and assemblers | ScholaFly CS06-07 | ||
| 2.5.2OCR J277 | Describe the tools an IDE provides (editors, error diagnostics, run-time environment, translators) and how each helps a programmer. | The IDE | ScholaFly CS06-08 |
| 3b-SECTIONB-RULEOCR J277 | In J277/02 Section B, write code answers in OCR Exam Reference Language or a real high-level language - structured English, flowcharts and bullet points score nothing there, even though they are allowed in Section A. | Which notation do you answer in? | ScholaFly CS10-09 |
| 3c-ERLOCR J277 | Read OCR Exam Reference Language on sight - its operators, casting, loops, selection, string handling, file handling, arrays and sub programs - because every Paper 2 question is printed in it and no reference sheet is issued. | Which notation do you answer in? | ScholaFly CS10-09 |