That Blue Square Thing

AQA Computer Science GCSE

This page is up to date for the AQA 8525 syllabus for exams from 2022.

Computer Systems - Revision

This unit appears on Paper 2.

There's a lot of "stuff" to learn for this unit. Make sure you can do logic gate questions - they always come up.

Revision materials

PDF iconSyllabus content - a slightly edited version of the syllabus document showing what you need to know in some detail

PDF iconBooklet to print - an active way to revise the key knowledge required

PDF iconKey definitions and knowledge - a summary of the things you need to learn all on one slide

PDF iconLists from the syllabus - the lists of key points you need to be trying to use in answers

BBC Bitesizewiki link has a section dealing with this part of the AQA course that might be worth a look.

There is quite a lot of technical detail in this unit. For example, a topic that comes up really regularly is the ways in which the different types of secondary storage work. These revision summaries might help for that part of the syllabus:

PDF iconMagnetic storage - exam prep

PDF iconOptical storage - exam prep

PDF iconSolid state storage - exam prep

Because of the amount of technical detail involved, it might help to produce sets of revision notes which get gradually shorter each time you work through a section.

An example of what this might look like is shown below. This is only part of the unit: the aim would be to start with a number of pages for the whole unit, but eventually to get the content down to no more than 2 sides (this is a large unit compared to units 5 or 6).

Test iconCPU performance revision example

Test iconHardware & Software Multiple Choice Testwiki link - this is the same quiz as on the Software Types page

PDF iconLogic diagrams - some slides with diagrams on that can be used as preperation

PDF iconProgramming languages revision questions - with answers