Difficulty verdict

Taken together, the two June 2025 AS papers are of moderate difficulty (3/5). Roughly a third of the marks are short recall or routine procedure (registers, binary arithmetic, protocols, simple tracing). The hard marks come from three nine-mark levels-of-response questions and from open-ended code writing with no scaffolding.

Where the marks are

  • Programming techniques (35 marks) is by far the largest block. It covers writing loops over 1D and 2D arrays, string handling, casting, subroutines, parameter passing and recognising constructs.
  • Algorithms and data structures (34 marks combined) covers tracing an insertion-sort style algorithm, a bubble sort, linear and binary search, and stack operations.
  • Data types (14 marks) covers hexadecimal, 8-bit addition and subtraction, character sets and primitive types.
  • The three extended-response questions (operating systems, ethics of automated delivery, agile versus waterfall) are worth 27 marks in total.

Examiner-style pitfalls

No examiner report was supplied, so these points are inferred from the mark scheme.

  • Mark schemes reward the construct, not an example of it. Name the construct (iteration, selection), not the keyword.
  • Answers must be specific to the scenario or data given. Generic statements about an array are not credited.
  • Binary working must show actual binary addition or subtraction. Converting to denary and back earns no working mark.
  • Functions that do not return a value are capped. A loop counter increment left inside a for loop loses the mark.
  • In the nine-mark questions, a conclusion that is justified by earlier points is required for the top band. Listing points is not enough.

Strategy

  1. Bank the quick marks first. Spend about one minute per mark on short questions.
  2. For code questions, plan the mark points: initialise, loop, test, update, output. Write plain pseudocode in the same style as the paper.
  3. For trace tables, record only the changed values and do not add anything extra.
  4. For levels questions, use one paragraph per required area and tie every point to the scenario. Finish with a justified judgement.

Prediction

Programming techniques, algorithms (searching and sorting, tracing), data structures (stacks and queues) and data types will almost certainly return. Topics with a lighter or missing recent record, such as thinking logically, thinking procedurally, web technologies and computing legislation, are the likeliest to appear next as smaller questions, so give them at least one revision pass.