MARK SCHEME – GCSE COMPUTER SCIENCE – 8525/1 –
JUNE 2023
AQA
GCSE
COMPUTER SCIENCE
8525/1A, 8525/1B, 8525/1C
Paper 1 Computational thinking and programming
skills
Mark scheme
June 2023
The following annotation is used in the mark scheme:
; - means a single mark
// - means alternative response
/ - means an alternative word or sub-phrase
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, MARK SCHEME – GCSE COMPUTER SCIENCE – 8525/1 –
JUNE 2023
A - means acceptable creditworthy answer. Also used to denote a valid answer that goes beyond
the expectations of the GCSE syllabus.
R - means reject answer as not creditworthy
NE - means not enough
I - means ignore
DPT - in some questions a specific error made by a candidate, if repeated, could result in the
candidate failing to gain more than one mark. The DPT label indicates that this mistake should
only result in a candidate losing one mark on the first occasion that the error is made. Provided
that the answer remains understandable, subsequent marks should be awarded as if the error
was not being repeated.
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, MARK SCHEME – GCSE COMPUTER SCIENCE – 8525/1 –
JUNE 2023
Note to Examiners
In the real world minor syntax errors are often identified and flagged by the development environment.
To reflect this, all responses in a high-level programming language will assess a candidate’s ability to
create an answer using precise programming commands/instructions but will avoid penalising them for
minor errors in syntax.
When marking program code, examiners must take account of the different rules between the
languages and only consider how the syntax affects the logic flow of the program. If the syntax is not
perfect but the logic flow is unaffected then the response should not be penalised.
The case of all program code written by students is to be ignored for the purposes of marking. This is
because it is not always clear which case has been used depending on the style and quality of
handwriting used.
Examiners must ensure they follow the mark scheme instructions exactly. If an examiner is unsure as to
whether a given response is worthy of the marks they must escalate the question to their team leader.
Level of response marking instructions
Level of response mark schemes are broken down into levels, each of which has a descriptor. The
descriptor for the level shows the average performance for the level. There are marks in each level.
Before you apply the mark scheme to a student’s answer read through the answer and annotate it (as
instructed) to show the qualities that are being looked for. You can then apply the mark scheme.
Step 1 Determine a level
Start at the lowest level of the mark scheme and use it as a ladder to see whether the answer meets the
descriptor for that level. The descriptor for the level indicates the different qualities that might be seen in
the student’s answer for that level. If it meets the lowest level then go to the next one and decide if it
meets this level, and so on, until you have a match between the level descriptor and the answer. With
practice and familiarity you will find that for better answers you will be able to quickly skip through the
lower levels of the mark scheme.
When assigning a level you should look at the overall quality of the answer and not look to pick holes in
small and specific parts of the answer where the student has not performed quite as well as the rest. If
the answer covers different aspects of different levels of the mark scheme you should use a best fit
approach for defining the level and then use the variability of the response to help decide the mark within
the level, ie if the response is predominantly level 3 with a small amount of level 4 material it would be
placed in level 3 but be awarded a mark near the top of the level because of the level 4 content.
Step 2 Determine a mark
Once you have assigned a level you need to decide on the mark. The descriptors on how to allocate
marks can help with this. The exemplar materials used during standardisation will help. There will be an
answer in the standardising materials which will correspond with each level of the mark scheme. This
answer will have been awarded a mark by the Lead Examiner. You can compare the student’s answer
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