The student will use their knowledge of digital technology, including computational thinking, to develop, design, synthesise, integrate and critically reflect on digital technology solutions, to address problems.  This looks like it will be a computer programming exam with problems similar to some of the higher level questions that we see in programming contests. Plus you'll need to be able to critically reflect on your answers and solutions by being able to analyse and discuss algorithm efficiencies.

To succeed, you'll need to able to understand:

• Algorithmic comprehension and decomposition

  • Being able to understand complex problems in unfamiliar contexts

• Algorithm development and implementation

  • Being able to write algorithms (in pseudocode or code) to solve those complex problems

• Critical reflection and analysis 

  • Being able to reflect on your solution, explain it's efficiencies and compare it to potential other solutions

Links:

NZQA Page

Assessment Specifications

Performance Standard

Not all of what is needed is taught explicitly in Level 3 Programming courses. If you do programming contests, you are in a better place than most, but all that you need CAN be learned.

Below is a number of free resources to help you to understand some of the more complex content that will help you to be successful in programming contests and the scholarship exam.

• CSField Guide: Algorithms

• CSFieldGuide: Complexity and Tractability

Foundational understanding of some more advanced data structures is really important for solving some of the more advanced programming problems and learning some of the more complex algorithms. Make sure you have looked at the following sections of W3Schoold DSA webpage and done further reading and experimentation if necessary:

• Stacks

• Queues

• Trees

• Graphs