Original post by TheNotoriousOGRead this if you have the chance, it's my story about taking Computing at GCSE if it helps you in any way.
Computing in my case, I chose because my brother did it and It seemed like an interesting subject, I didn't really have the best interest in it, but it sounded good. The first lesson I realised I knew nothing about the coding/programming, I didn't even know what Python was let alone the theory, whilst there was a lot of kids that seemed like they knew everything about it from day 1. So every Python task we done I wouldn't know what to do so I copied other people's codes that worked. In the theory I just copied everything on the board into my book not knowing what it meant.
Anyway, I hung around with the wrong people in lessons for the first year and I was achieving a grade E/D in past paper tests we done in lessons. So my teacher split the group I was in - there was 4 of us - around the class so we wouldn't mess around. The teachers we had were fine and taught good, but I never took it seriously. (We had a teacher for the theory and a teacher for the programming). Near the end of the first year we started the first Python coursework task and I didn't even know what coursework was back then (seriously) I thought we were just writing code and talking about it so the teacher could see what we understood or not. I had to copy the smart kids that were sat next me because I didn't have a clue.
So when we went into the second year I was predicted a D/C grade while kids in the class were predicted A/A*. I was predicted one of the lowest in the class. My brother was in the year above and he achieved an A in his Computing GCSE, so my teachers would compare me to him, and end up thinking that I'm not going to achieve anywhere near as well as him. I was off school one day and decided to write a program on Python, it was a game where the computer would think of a number and the user has to guess it. I went really in depth and realised that with Python, it's super simple! What you write is all English and is logical. For example....
If *somethting* equals *something* do *something*
(Not written properly in Python, but you get the point, you literally tell the computer what to do)
Then onwards I understood Python a lot easier. Some time onward we started the second programming task and it was a breeze however there was a task for the Python protect which for a GCSE student was impossible, you had to do something which even the teachers didn't know how to do, so I was hopeless, but the teachers told us that if you can attempt it and write about how you couldn't finish the task because you didn't have the skills you could still get the same marks.
Anyway, half way through the second and final year my brother built a PC and i had didn't know anything about it, how it worked, what the parts were or anything, I actually helped him build it. The night we finished the PC It sparked an interest in me and I did so much research about computers and wanted to build one myself, from then onwards I searched for hours each night about computers and it really interested me. I went into lessons and understood stuff so much better, then I found out the coursework made up for a certain % of the final GCSE grade (was 60% coursework and 40% exam I think... can't remember) I ended up staying in school an extra 2 hours each night just doing the coursework because it really interested me and I found it easy, even though some tasks were hard to do, even attempting it and if you could explain about it you could get full marks.
I handed in my coursework and it was about 40 pages more than everyone else and the teachers were confused. I ended up getting such a high mark that I was the highest in the class. I still did more work as my plan was to get high marks in the coursework so that If I failed the exam I could still come out with a C.
Anyway the night before the exam I thought I was screwed as I knew none of the theory, I had this 50 page PowerPoint and went over it and refreshed my memory, that was the only revising I done for computing. Took me 2 hours and I went into the exam thinking I would only get a B at the most. But there was 2 pages in the exam which were about computers, there was a six marker about some guys computer and what would you upgrade to make it better, I knew it all and guaranteed myself marks. So I left the exam thinking I was guaranteed a B. Results day came around and I got an A* overall. 2 A* (88/100) (89/100) in the courseworks and an A in the exam (100/120).
My teacher was so happy for me and I achieved the highest grade in the class. And this is coming from someone who had little interest in computing and was predicted to not even pass. Put in the effort and it is the most interesting subject you will ever take.
EDIT: I'm now in year 12 studying computing and it's fun, more complex than GCSE but more interesting.
Most people say they hate the computing coursework but I found it so satisfying when you identify errors, fix them and you have a good working program, from there all you really had to do was screenshot your code and add a bit of text explaining what you did to find the errors and what you did to fix it and then show it running.