AQA A level Computing

I've just decided to change my options to take it, along with Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what it's like and what books I should get (our school already provides the AQA one) but I don't know what other ones I could get.

I'm hoping to do Computer Science at University and if I get the grades, Computer Science with Chemistry.

Reply 1

Puddles the Monkey

21

Original post by WillWalker23

I've just decided to change my options to take it, along with Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what it's like and what books I should get (our school already provides the AQA one) but I don't know what other ones I could get.

I'm hoping to do Computer Science at University and if I get the grades, Computer Science with Chemistry.

Heya, I'm going to put this in the computing forum for you as you should get more responses there.

You should also check out the forum to see if there's any other threads there which might be helpful to you!

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=132

Reply 2

Binary Freak

18

Original post by WillWalker23

I've just decided to change my options to take it, along with Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what it's like and what books I should get (our school already provides the AQA one) but I don't know what other ones I could get.

I'm hoping to do Computer Science at University and if I get the grades, Computer Science with Chemistry.

You could try using Wikibooks as an addition resource, provided here

Reply 3

Damask-

16

Original post by WillWalker23

I get the grades, Computer Science with Chemistry.

I would seriously, seriously recommend against this. Joint honours degrees are tough enough when there's shared material in common (CS with/and maths, with example) but when there are two very different and very separately demanding subjects, it becomes damn near impossible to give both the time they need, and you end up with poor knowledge of both. Not to mention it cuts the number of universities you can apply to down to about five, your degree could be unaccredited, and it will make employers frown in cases like this, where your choices are quite bizarrely different degrees.

As for additional Computing resources, Multiwingspan is good alongside the Wikibook.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4

Indivicivet

Original post by Damask-

I would seriously, seriously recommend against this. Joint honours degrees are tough enough when there's shared material in common (CS with/and maths, with example) but when there are two very different and very separately demanding subjects, it becomes damn near impossible to give both the time they need, and you end up with poor knowledge of both. Not to mention it cuts the number of universities you can apply to down to about five, your degree could be unaccredited, and it will make employers frown in cases like this, where your choices are quite bizarrely different degrees.

As for additional Computing resources, Multiwingspan is good alongside the Wikibook.

I'd agree with this re: joint honours courses. Double maths/chem/comp is a very good setup for computer science on it's own (I believe - I didn't apply for it).

Also, I'd personally recommend you try and learn to program on your own (don't worry about which programming language too much if you don't get told what you'll be using right at the start, since your skills should translate to whatever your school uses once you know the basics) right away. If you can dedicate some serious time to that at the start of the year then you will find a large chunk of the content for both years is quite easy, as well as most of the first exam. Programming is one of the best parts of any A-level to try and self-teach, as there are a ton of good tutorials online and from then on it's just practicing.

I went into AS computing already knowing how to program and I picked up the essentials of VB.net within the first couple of lessons. Obviously if you're just picking up coding now it will take you longer, but if you're willing to put in some effort now then computing will feel like an easy subject. The downside, I suppose, is you might find the course boring as a consequence, but you can use programming lessons where other students are learning new things to just get more practice coding quickly, efficiently, and cleanly. Just my 2c :tongue:

Edit: I may be biased but if you're finding the workload is pretty high then make sure you're putting enough effort into mathematics because that'll be an important part of your offer for a lot of universities.

(edited 9 years ago)

AQA A level Computing

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