all instructions for candidates

Instructions for Candidates
The question paper is divided into four sections and a recommendation is given to candidates as to
how long to spend on each section. Below are the recommended timings for the 2011 examination.
Section A
You are advised to spend no more than 30 minutes on this section.
Questions will examine the specification content not specific to the Preliminary Material.
Section B
You are advised to spend no more than 20 minutes on this section.
You will be asked to create a new program not related to the Preliminary Material or Skeleton
Program.
Section C
You are advised to spend no more than 20 minutes on this section.
Questions will refer to the Preliminary Material and the Skeleton Program, but will not require
programming.
Section D
You are advised to spend no more than 50 minutes on this section.
Questions will use the the Skeleton Program and the Preliminary Material and may require the
HiScores.txt Data File.
Electronic Answer Document
Answers to questions for all four sections must be entered into the word processed document made
available to you at the start of the examination and referred to in the question paper rubrics as the
Electronic Answer Document.
Preparation for the Examination
You should ensure that you are familiar with this Preliminary Material and the Skeleton Program.
For the Skeleton Program for your programming language, you should be familiar with:
 the built-in functions available for manipulating string data and converting strings to other data
types
 file handling commands for CSV (Comma Separated Variable) files
 declaring and using arrays.
Turn over
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Dice Cricket Game
The Skeleton Program is a program for the two-player game of Dice Cricket. Dice Cricket is a
simple game based on the sport of cricket.
When playing Dice Cricket, players use two special dice called the Bowl Die1 and the Appeal Die.
The Bowl Die is a 6-sided die where, instead of the numbers 1 to 6, the sides have "0", "1", "2", "4",
"6", and "OUT" written on them. The player whose turn it is rolls the Bowl Die. If the result is one
of the numeric values then this is added to their score (the number of runs they have got) and they
continue to roll the Bowl Die until "OUT" is rolled. If the result is "OUT" then they roll the Appeal Die
to see what happens next.
The Appeal Die is a 4-sided die where the numbers 1 to 4 have been replaced with different values.
The values on the Appeal Die are "NOT OUT", "CAUGHT", "LBW" and "BOWLED". If when a
player rolls the Appeal Die they get a result of "NOT OUT" then their turn continues and they can
roll the Bowl Die again. Any other result on the Appeal Die means that they are out and their turn
finishes. When player one's turn is over player two has their turn. When player two is out the two
players' scores are compared and the winner is the one with the highest score.
In the Skeleton Program players can choose to play with real dice or virtual dice. If real dice are
used then the two players have actually got a Bowl Die and an Appeal Die and enter the values they
roll into the program. If virtual dice are used then the program simulates the rolling of the Bowl Die
and Appeal Die by generating random numbers. There are 6 different values on the Bowl Die and 4
different values on the Appeal Die.
The Skeleton Program also stores the names and scores of the four highest results obtained by
players playing Dice Cricket. After each game the scores of the two players are compared with the
previous top scores. The winner's details, if their score is higher, will replace those of the player
with the lowest top score. The loser's details, if their score is high enough, could also replace one of
the previous player’s details. If the winning player’s score is the same as the lowest top score their
details are not stored. If a game is drawn with a score lower than three of the top four scores then
only player one’s details will be stored.
In the Skeleton Program there is a menu containing five options:
  Play game version with virtual dice
  Play game version with real dice
  Load top scores
  Display top scores
 Quit
If the user chooses to load top scores from a file then the file HiScores.txt is opened and the
contents placed in the array TopScores.
The Data File
Ricky,12
Sachin,45
Brian,2
Monty,1
The data file HiScores.txt will be available to you at the start of the examination.
1Dice is the plural of the word die.
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Variables
Some of the variables used are:
Identifier Data Type Purpose
TopScores Array[1..4]
of Record
This is an array of records. Each
record stores the details about one of
the top four scores. A record consists
of a name (string data type) and a
score (integer data type)
PlayerOut Boolean Used to indicate if a player is out or
not
CurrentPlayerScore Integer Used to store the number of runs that
the current player has accumulated
PlayerNo Integer Used to indicate if it is player one's or
player two's turn
Notes
The programming language used to code the game will determine the letter case for each identifier
and so may not match exactly the identifiers shown in the table above.
Your chosen programming language may use arrays with a lower bound value of 0. If so, position 0
will not have been used.
END OF PRELIMINARY MATERIAL
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