AQA Computer Science GCSE
Computer Systems – Revision
This unit appears on Paper 2.
There's a lot of "stuff" to learn for this unit. Make sure you can do logic gate questions – they always come up.
Revision materials
Syllabus content – a slightly edited version of the syllabus document showing what you need to know in some detail
Booklet to print – an active way to revise the key knowledge required
Key definitions and knowledge – a summary of the things you need to learn all on one slide
Lists from the syllabus – the lists of key points you need to be trying to use in answers
BBC Bitesize
has a section dealing with this part of the AQA course that might be worth a look (although as of June 2026 it's not been updated for the new version of the syllabus so take care).
There is quite a lot of technical detail in this unit. For example, a topic that comes up really regularly is the ways in which the different types of secondary storage work. These revision summaries might help for that part of the syllabus:
Magnetic storage – exam prep
Solid state storage – exam prep
Because of the amount of technical detail involved, it might help to produce sets of revision notes which get gradually shorter each time you work through a section.
An example of what this might look like is shown below. This is only part of the unit: the aim would be to start with a number of pages for the whole unit, but eventually to get the content down to no more than 2 sides (this is a large unit compared to units 5 or 6).
CPU performance revision example
Hardware & Software Multiple Choice Test
- this is the same quiz as on the Software Types page
Logic diagrams – some slides with diagrams on that can be used as preperation
Programming languages revision questions – with answers