Computer Science Standard Level Mastery Aspects

Mastery Item Claimed JustificationWhere Listed Arrays Used to store the student data Lines P. 53 User-Defined Objects Lines P. 56 Objects as Data Records Lines P. 56 Simple Selection Lines P. 58 Complex Selection Lines P. 52 Loops etc User-Defined Methods Mastery Items

Arrays What’s ok Arrays of objects are good Avoiding the calling of null elements or elements outside of the array boundaries

Arrays What’s not Using library classes such as java.io.ArrayList

User-defined objects What’s ok Creating a class(es) and calling it (them) from another class

User-defined objects What’s not Creating classes from standard (built-in) Java classes will not count

Objects as Data Records What’s ok Using a class whose data members correspond to the fields of a record (e.g inner class) Using different types for the fields

Objects as Data Records What’s not Storing data within the main program.

Simple selection What’s ok A number of if / if... else statements Only need to document a couple of these (within the coding)

Simple selection What’s not try … catch construct would not satisfy this aspect

Complex Selection What’s ok if statement with multiple conditions Nested if statements Multiple chained if … else statements Switch statements Documented within the coding

Complex Selection What’s not Try … catch would not qualify

Loops more than one example would be required Nested Loops one example would be sufficient

User-defined Methods What’s ok Method created by the user Called more than once

User-defined Methods What’s not The main method The constructor(s) Methods from standard Java interfaces A method that is only called once

User-defined Methods with Parameters What’s ok Parameters passed into a method and used within the body in a non-trivial way What’s not Using methods from standard libraries

User-defined methods with appropriate return values What’s ok Methods that return values for a non-trivial purpose What’s not Methods that are only called once Methods from standard libraries

Sorting What’s ok The sort routine must be a valid addition to the program

Searching What’s ok The search routine must be a valid addition to the program Must use loops (or recursion), not a series of if statements on a small data set

File I/O What’s ok Data must be written to and read from a file (e.g. text file) Data must not be lost between sessions Can use SQL database (Excel) and the java.sql functions Must be a valid reason for long-term storage

File I/O What’s not If SQL database is used, other mastery aspects cannot be claimed (e.g. searching, objects as data records etc)

Use of Additional Libraries What’s ok Use of built-in classes/utilities such as: Abstract Windows Toolkit, StringTokeniser Interfaces can be implemented Libraries imported (e.g. ActionListener)

Use of Additional Libraries What’s not Classes created by the user Math or String methods

Use of Sentinels or Flags What’s ok An end-of-data marker in a data set (e.g. “XXX” or 999) A Boolean variable that changes when a condition is met