ADVANCED SKILLS AND APPLICATION
EXAMINATION 2026
COMPUTER SCIENCE; ALGORITHMS AND
PROGRAMMING MASTERY
Focusing on Logical Thinking, Code Development, Debugging
Techniques, and Computational Methods
SPRING SEMESTER EXAM 2025/2026
embedded system ram/rom
- have more ROM than RAM because they don't write much data to memory - don't have
secondary storage so ROM is used - ROM and RAM are stored on the same chip to reduce cost
non-embedded systems ram/rom
- more RAM than ROM as they need to write more data to memory - ROM is typically used for
the BIOS, which doesn't need much memory - ROM and RAM stored on motherboard, away
from the CPU
cpu performance factors
- clock speed - CPU cores - cache size - cache type
1|Page
,cpu cores
- each core can process data independently of the rest - the more cores, the more instructions it
can carry out at once
cache size
- is data storage inside the CPU that is much faster than RAM - larger cache gives CPU faster
access to more data it needs to process
cache type
- different levels (L1, L2, L3) - higher the level, the more it can hold, but the slower it is - cache
speed is based on how far it is from the CPU - L1 is quick as it's on the CPU, L3 is on
motherboard so it's slower
GPUs
- graphical processing unit - they handle graphic and image processing - they relieve the
processing load on the CPU - computers have basic GPUs installed, but they can be upgraded to
improve performance
what happens if there's not enough ram?
- it may not be able to keep all app data loaded at once, slowing the system down
2|Page
, what happens if there's more ram?
- the more RAM, the more apps or more memory-intensive applications it can smoothly run,
making it faster overall
what happens if there's more ram than needed?
- if a computer already has plenty of RAM to run everything, increasing RAM may make no
difference to performance
tiers of storage
- primary: volatile (registers, cache, ROM, RAM) - secondary: non volatile (app, user files, OS)
magnetic hard disk characteristics
- high capacity - reliable storage
magnetic hard disks
- made up of stacked magnetised metal disks - data is stored magnetically in small areas called
sectors - read/write heads are used to access sectors on the disk
solid state drives characteristics
- fast - reliable - light - quiet - expensive
3|Page
EXAMINATION 2026
COMPUTER SCIENCE; ALGORITHMS AND
PROGRAMMING MASTERY
Focusing on Logical Thinking, Code Development, Debugging
Techniques, and Computational Methods
SPRING SEMESTER EXAM 2025/2026
embedded system ram/rom
- have more ROM than RAM because they don't write much data to memory - don't have
secondary storage so ROM is used - ROM and RAM are stored on the same chip to reduce cost
non-embedded systems ram/rom
- more RAM than ROM as they need to write more data to memory - ROM is typically used for
the BIOS, which doesn't need much memory - ROM and RAM stored on motherboard, away
from the CPU
cpu performance factors
- clock speed - CPU cores - cache size - cache type
1|Page
,cpu cores
- each core can process data independently of the rest - the more cores, the more instructions it
can carry out at once
cache size
- is data storage inside the CPU that is much faster than RAM - larger cache gives CPU faster
access to more data it needs to process
cache type
- different levels (L1, L2, L3) - higher the level, the more it can hold, but the slower it is - cache
speed is based on how far it is from the CPU - L1 is quick as it's on the CPU, L3 is on
motherboard so it's slower
GPUs
- graphical processing unit - they handle graphic and image processing - they relieve the
processing load on the CPU - computers have basic GPUs installed, but they can be upgraded to
improve performance
what happens if there's not enough ram?
- it may not be able to keep all app data loaded at once, slowing the system down
2|Page
, what happens if there's more ram?
- the more RAM, the more apps or more memory-intensive applications it can smoothly run,
making it faster overall
what happens if there's more ram than needed?
- if a computer already has plenty of RAM to run everything, increasing RAM may make no
difference to performance
tiers of storage
- primary: volatile (registers, cache, ROM, RAM) - secondary: non volatile (app, user files, OS)
magnetic hard disk characteristics
- high capacity - reliable storage
magnetic hard disks
- made up of stacked magnetised metal disks - data is stored magnetically in small areas called
sectors - read/write heads are used to access sectors on the disk
solid state drives characteristics
- fast - reliable - light - quiet - expensive
3|Page
