Start with your syllabus code
Check the code and examination year with your teacher before choosing revision resources. CtrlAltRevise has public roadmaps for 0478 Computer Science and 0984 Computer Science (9–1). The 0984 roadmap currently uses the verified 0478 content set; its equivalence to the current 0984 syllabus is still being checked. Use your official syllabus as the final reference.
The platform currently focuses on IGCSE. AS & A Level Computer Science 9618 is not yet available.
What should you revise?
Balance understanding computer systems with solving problems. Reading a definition is a start; explaining a process, doing a calculation or tracing a program shows whether you can use it.
- Data representation
- Practise converting between binary, denary and hexadecimal. Explain how text, sound and images are represented, and calculate file sizes with the correct units.
- Data transmission
- Compare transmission methods, explain how packets travel across networks, and work through error-detection and encryption examples.
- Hardware and software
- Trace the fetch–decode–execute cycle. Compare memory, storage, input and output devices, and explain the roles of operating systems and translators.
- The internet and automated systems
- Explain how web pages reach a browser and how to recognise security threats. Trace how sensors, processors and actuators work together.
- Algorithms and programming
- Decompose a problem, trace an algorithm, and choose suitable test data. Practise sequence, selection, iteration, arrays, procedures and functions.
- Databases and Boolean logic
- Write queries that select, filter and sort records. Build truth tables and work out the output of logic circuits.
Turn revision notes into practice
- Choose one objective. Use the syllabus roadmap to pick something specific, such as converting an 8-bit binary number.
- Read and recall. Study the explanation and a worked example. Close the notes and explain the idea in your own words.
- Apply it. Answer a question without the notes. For an algorithm, predict its output in a trace table before running it.
- Check your reasoning. Compare your answer with the feedback. Record the step you missed and try a fresh example.
- Return to it. Revisit the objective in a later session, then mix it with questions from earlier topics.
In the pseudocode workspace, you can write and run code to test your predictions. The workspace requires an account. Execution helps you check an algorithm; you still need to practise explaining its behaviour on paper.
Where to find IGCSE Computer Science resources
Revision notes and exam-style questions
Struggling to turn an idea into an algorithm? Start with our free pseudocode practice guide: a worked trace table, small programming exercises and test cases.
CtrlAltRevise brings lessons, worked examples, quizzes, exam-style practice and progress tracking together in a Computer Science revision platform. You can browse this guide and the syllabus roadmaps without signing in. Create an account to use the learning workspace; access to paid material depends on your subscription. Check current plans before subscribing.
Official syllabuses and past papers
Use Cambridge International’s official 0478 subject page for syllabus documents and available past papers. Match the paper to your syllabus and examination year. Platform exam-style questions are practice resources, not official Cambridge past papers.
CtrlAltRevise is an independent revision platform and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Cambridge.