We counted every question in our own AS Level Computer Science 9618 question bank — 320 questions worth 2,325 marks, 2021 to 2026 — and sorted them into the 8 chapters of the syllabus. Databases carries the most marks.
Every chapter, heaviest first
| Chapter | Questions | Marks | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Databases | 31 | 427 | 18.4% | |
| Information Representation | 57 | 394 | 16.9% | |
| Processor Fundamentals | 50 | 384 | 16.5% | |
| Hardware | 62 | 329 | 14.2% | |
| Communication | 30 | 264 | 11.4% | |
| System Software | 32 | 237 | 10.2% | |
| Security, Privacy and Data Integrity | 31 | 168 | 7.2% | |
| Ethics and Ownership | 27 | 122 | 5.2% |
The top 3 of 8 chapters hold half the marks in the bank. The three heaviest are Databases, Information Representation, Processor Fundamentals. The lightest is Ethics and Ownership, at 5.2% of the marks.
Inside the chapters
| Sub-topic | Chapter | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQL: DDL and DML scripts | Databases | 23 | 326 |
| Bitmap images: resolution, colour depth and file size | Information Representation | 15 | 123 |
| Logic circuits and expressions | Hardware | 21 | 96 |
| Instruction groups and addressing modes | Processor Fundamentals | 10 | 89 |
| Binary and denary conversions | Information Representation | 13 | 86 |
| Tracing an assembly language program | Processor Fundamentals | 8 | 77 |
| Purpose and tasks of an Operating System | System Software | 10 | 74 |
| Von Neumann model, registers and buses | Processor Fundamentals | 8 | 63 |
| IP addresses and subnetting | Communication | 5 | 63 |
| Compilers and interpreters | System Software | 9 | 59 |
How to use this
Revise the heaviest chapters first. A chapter worth 18% of the marks deserves more than one worth 5.2%.
Use it to decide what to practise, not what to skip. A light chapter can still be the difference between two grades, and Cambridge can set anything on the syllabus.
Check yourself chapter by chapter rather than by whole papers, so a weak topic shows up while there is still time to fix it.
These are ExamYard’s own figures: the questions in our AS Level Computer Science 9618 question bank, grouped into the chapter of the syllabus each one tests, and added up by the marks each carries. No question text, mark scheme or examiner report is reproduced on this page. The printed book and the online bank are counted separately, so the totals on this page need not match the book’s own page.