Answers
A15.1 How your A level is assessed
Exam preparation · A level · OCR H446 2.2.1, AQA 7517 4.4.1.2, Eduqas A500QS 1.8 · about 35 min
Exam preparation · A level · OCR H446 2.2.1, AQA 7517 4.4.1.2, Eduqas A500QS 1.8 · about 35 min
The papers and the project for OCR H446, AQA 7517 and Eduqas A500QS, the assessment objectives, and a timing plan built with integer arithmetic.
[1 mark]Which A level paper is sat on a computer, with a skeleton program released before the exam?
[1 mark]What percentage of the A level is the programming project worth, on every board?
[1 mark]A question says: "Write a program that returns the robot home using a stack." Which assessment objective does it mainly target?
[1 mark]An OCR paper has 140 marks in 150 minutes. To the nearest minute, how long should a 12-mark question take?
[1 mark]What does this timing calculation print?
start = 9 * 60
finish = start + round(35 * 1.4)
print(f"{finish // 60:02d}:{finish % 60:02d}")09:49
35 x 1.4 is 49 minutes after 09:00, which is 9 hours 49 minutes: // gives the hours and % the minutes.
Make a timing plan for a mock paper. START is the start time as a string "hh:mm" in 24-hour time. MINUTES is the length of the paper in whole minutes, CHECKING is the whole number of minutes kept back at the end for checking, and marks is a list of the whole-number marks for each question in order.
1. Write clock_time(minutes), which takes a whole number of minutes after midnight and returns the time as "hh:mm", with two digits each. Use // for the hours and % for the minutes.
2. The minutes a mark are (MINUTES - CHECKING) divided by the total of marks. Print <n> minutes a mark, to one decimal place.
3. For each question, keep a running total of the marks so far. The question should be finished by the start time plus that total times the minutes a mark, rounded to the nearest whole minute with round. Print Q<n> (<marks> marks): finish by <hh:mm>, numbering from 1.
4. Print checking from <hh:mm>, the start plus MINUTES - CHECKING, and then end <hh:mm>, the start plus MINUTES.
The robot stays still.
# the two lines every program starts with: the commands, then the robot from bugbot import * connect() START = "09:00" MINUTES = 150 CHECKING = 10 marks = [8, 12, 15, 5, 20, 10, 18, 12]
The hint students can ask for: Turn the start time into minutes after midnight first, so all the arithmetic is on whole numbers. The time per mark comes from the time left after checking divided by the total marks. Keep a running total of marks, and turn each finishing time back into hours and minutes only when you print it.
# the two lines every program starts with: the commands, then the robot
from bugbot import *
connect()
START = "09:00"
MINUTES = 150
CHECKING = 10
marks = [8, 12, 15, 5, 20, 10, 18, 12]
def to_minutes(text):
return int(text[:2]) * 60 + int(text[3:])
def clock_time(minutes):
return f"{minutes // 60:02d}:{minutes % 60:02d}"
start = to_minutes(START)
per_mark = (MINUTES - CHECKING) / sum(marks)
print(f"{per_mark:.1f} minutes a mark")
done = 0
for n, m in enumerate(marks, start=1):
done += m
print(f"Q{n} ({m} marks): finish by {clock_time(start + round(done * per_mark))}")
print("checking from", clock_time(start + MINUTES - CHECKING))
print("end", clock_time(start + MINUTES))
Any program that meets the task's checks is marked correct in the simulator; this is one way, not the only way.