Access to Computing whilst doing A-Level Maths

Pushing yourself over the edge...... hmm.... without sounding rude it depends mainly on how bright you are. If you have a good brain and plenty of time to study I don't see why not (I wouldn't fancy trying to work and do both though). The Access to Computing course I completed had a limited number of level 3 maths credits, which while useful, was not really enough to apply for straight CS at a good Uni. So if you have the chance to do AS alongside I would go for it - if you get lucky you may have a nice maths tutor for your Access course who may well be willing to help you out with anything you get stuck with on the A-level course.

The other alternative would be looking for a University which offers an integrated science/maths/engineering foundation year and going down that route instead of Access.

Without meaning to sound like a total snob, what level of Uni are you hoping to apply at? - Entry requirements for CS @ a top 30 Uni are much more likely to require A-level maths or equivalent than those lower ranked. Also, are you absolutely sure you want to do straight CS? There are a lot of Computing/IT courses out there which basically offer the same course content as CS but minus the maths and heavy theory of computation.

Thanks for the advice, perhaps you're right about the foundation degree courses. I will have a look through then now. Do these courses have entry requirements compared to Access? To be honest I was hoping on applying to universities in the top 20. Obviously not the top 5. Wait a minute, are foundation degrees 2 years long? It looks to me as if the degrees with foundation year well at least to me seem to have very similar entry requirements?

What I meant is Universities which offer a foundation year, not foundation degrees.

Something like this: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sefs/foundation-year-programme/
or
http://www1.aston.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/science-foundation/

Basically you do the 1 year and if you pass you automatically progress to year 1 of your chosen degree at the same university. Although in all honesty I don't know how many others offer such a thing.

I think Access + A-level maths will give you more options in the long run but if you happened to find a good Uni offering something like the above it would be worth applying.

Also, if you want to do straight CS then I think it is going to be a case of researching your application carefully as even among the 'good' universities there is a lot of variation. For example, when I was looking to apply I worked out that Warwick and Bath were a no go without A grade A-level maths, but Lancaster, Nottingham and Leicester were more flexible.