can anyone explain

Hey (sorry a few questions)
What qualifications are the equivalent to A-levels? (for university)
Can anyone explain the scores for each grade (ucas system)?
I also wanted to find out what can be done in 1 year to gain a qualification such as A-levles take 2 years but what can you do which takes 1 year?
Also what do people recommend if someone wants to take a career in IT/Computing what other subjects to study besides the obvious being ict and computing.
Thanks

Reply 1

kenkennykenken

Maths would be quite useful I think

Reply 2

[-David-]

Best combo to go into uni to study computer science would be Computing / Maths / Physics.

Though ive got in with only an AVCE double award (18 units) - this qualification is equilivant to A levels.

For ucas points please visit http://www.merlinhelpsstudents.com/studentlife/beforeuniversity/ucas/ucaspointstable.asp

Hope this helps

Reply 3

sashh

you can do some A levels in a year.

If you are doing these exams purley to get into uni you could look at access courses. You can also do BTEC.

If you are a mature student you may not need A levels at all,

UCAS has a table of points for A levels / AVCE / BTEC /IB etc. etc.

I'm not sure if you could do a foundation degree and then follow on to an honours degree. You could certainly do HND and then 'top up' to a degree.

Reply 4

sd-

maths is more important than computing oddly enough for computing related courses/work. If you have to choose between maths or computing, universities would much prefer to see maths.. many won't even allow you to study a computing degree without it (while there's no requirement of computing a-level).

If you already have some relevant qualifications it's entirely possible to study a-level maths in a year (further maths students effectively do this). If you don't have solid gcse knowledge (B minimum) then you would probably find the speed at which you are expected to progress through the course troublesome.

If you are planning to study for one year, I would recommend doing further maths and depending upon how much work load you want a couple other subjects at AS level as well. Just pick whatever interests you the most.

There have been a few threads 'discussing' which a-levels are most respected but I think it depends on what you want to do at university.

biology/chemistry/maths/physics are pretty much universally well acknowledged. I'm not entirely sure how the wordy subjects compare to one another since I've never studied them but I think english, english lit and history are preferred to others like sociology, psychology etc. but if it's being studied as an extra to some other main subject e.g. maths it doesn't make much difference.

Be warned: Computing and ICT are 2 of the worst subjects statistically to study for good grades, only the top 10-15% get A grades while other subjects are closer to 30%.

Having said that, don't be totally put off.. I studied computing and didn't find it very difficult the first year. It is easy to get a very strong mark in the coursework to bump up the final grade. Revision is as simple as memorising mark schemes to past papers and a reasonable knowledge of your notes. In the second year a good coursework mark is much more difficult, the work load is insane :frown: