Paper 2 Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills May/June 2021
PRE-RELEASE MATERIAL * 3 0 7 6 6 2 4 9 9 5 *
No additional materials are needed.
This material should be given to the relevant teachers and candidates as soon as it has been received at the centre.
INSTRUCTIONS ● You should use this material in preparation for the examination. ● You should attempt the practical programming tasks using your chosen high-level, procedural programming language.
This document has 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.
Teachers and candidates should read this material prior to the June 2021 examination for 9608 Paper 2.
Reminders
The syllabus states:
• there will be questions on the examination paper which do not relate to this pre-release material. • you must choose a high-level programming language from this list:
o Visual Basic (console mode)
o Python o Pascal / Delphi (console mode)
Note: A mark of zero will be awarded if a programming language other than those listed is used.
Questions on the examination paper may ask the candidate to write:
• structured English • pseudocode • program code
A program flowchart should be considered as an alternative to pseudocode for the documenting of an
algorithm design.
Candidates should be confident with:
• the presentation of an algorithm using either a program flowchart or pseudocode
• the production of a program flowchart from given pseudocode and vice versa.
Some tasks may need one or more of the built-in functions or operators listed in the Appendix at the end of this document.
There will also be a similar appendix at the end of the question paper.
Declaration of variables
The syllabus document shows the syntax expected for a declaration statement in pseudocode.
DECLARE <identifier> : <data type>
If Python is the chosen language, each variable’s identifier (name) and its intended data type must be documented using a comment statement.
Structured English – Variables
An algorithm in pseudocode uses variables, which should be declared. An algorithm in structured
English does not always use variables. In this case, the candidate needs to use the information given in the question to complete an identifier table. The table needs to contain an identifier, data type and description for each variable.
Candidates should be able to write programs to process array data in pseudocode and in their chosen programming language. Each task should be planned using pseudocode before writing it in program code.
TASK 1.1
Design a way to store multiple pieces of data about a student in a single string. For example, you could store each student’s name, email address and date of birth as follows:
<Student Name>'*'<Email address>'*'<Date of birth>
Candidates should be able to write programs to process text file data in pseudocode and in their chosen programming language.
Each task should be planned using pseudocode before writing program code.
TASK 2.1
Define a structure for a text file used to store multiple pieces of data about each class member as a single string. Each line of the file will store data for one student.
Store at least three pieces of data. For example, you could store each student’s ID together with his or her email address and date of birth as follows:
<Student ID><Email address><Date of birth>
Define a fixed format for the Student ID, for example, two letters followed by four digits.
Define a fixed format for the date of birth, for example, "DDMMYY"
2. prompt for the ID, email address and date of birth
3. form the string as shown
4. write the string to the file
5. repeat from step 2 for all members of the class
6. close the file.
Check the contents of the file using a text editor.
TASK 2.2
Write a second program to search the file for a given Student ID and output the email address if the ID was found, or a suitable message if the ID was not found.
TASK 2.3
Modify the search code to perform a substring match on the Student ID. For example, search for all the Student IDs that begin with "AB".
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To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.
Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which itself is a department of the University of Cambridge.
