GCSE Computer Science Study Group 2023-2024

Welcome to the GCSE Computer Science Study Group! :hello:

This is where you can chat with other students studying the same subjects as you and support each other as you head towards your exams :grouphugs:

You can post any useful tips and resources that you come across, offer support to others, share your successes, or just have moan when it gets tough! :yes:

Just remember, it’s against the site rules to ask for or offer any copyrighted papers, or to take conversations off-site to do these things. Posts that break these rules will be removed.

A few possible ice breaker questions are:
What exam board are you with?
What do you enjoy most about this subject/ course?
What area do you struggle with in this subject/ course?

Specifications

Good luck with the next few months. Remember, ask for help, support where you can and together we can do this! :yeah:

Reply 1

agent_duck343

16

heyyy
im doing ocr computing gcse
in lesson I don’t really understand anything (probably bc i’m talking to my friend instead) but in the tests I always seem to do quite well
for revision I use seneca and sometimes csuk but it’s a bit hard to understand the website 🫠

Reply 2

yumunniee

how do you usually study for programming that's something I usually struggle with

Reply 3

anonymous1425

5

hiii

im doing aqa gsce

usually i prefer the theory over programming, because sometimes i find Python quite fiddly

Reply 4

anonymous1425

5

Original post by yumunniee

how do you usually study for programming that's something I usually struggle with

the way i study programming is my teacher puts lots of practise questions up and i do them and ask him to mark them. or, i type them up into Python and run it, and fix my errors that way for a change to hand writing it.

hope that helps :smile:

Reply 5

dmedz

10

My teacher is so darn awful! Any tips?

Reply 6

*LifeHappens*

12

Hii
I'm doing ocr computer science.
I have a logical/mathematical mind and I feel that computer science concepts are a lot like maths in some ways as they build on existing and new knowledge and both subjects have interesting concepts to learn. So that's one of the main things I enjoy about computer science.
I think my teacher is very slow, as we take a while to finish a sub topic even when we aren't learning anything new, so I feel like we could be a lot more ahead by now, but it's fine.
I usually take the time in lesson to understand the topic/sub-topic and I review the topics we studied in class using the cgp revision cards that I bought as it introduces me to different styles of questions. I would recommend having a look at CS newbs as they summarise the topics well!

Reply 7

burgesszandra

3

Practice papers.

Mine wasn't great either!!

I really lost motivation by the end of GCSE because of how bad my teacher was but I still managed a 6 - even though my predicted was a 9.

Practice papers are the life hack to all subjects - a teacher can't teach you exam techniques and what the exam board wants from you, particularly a subject like Computer Science.

Keep motivated, you'll do well!!

Original post by dmedz

My teacher is so darn awful! Any tips?

Thank you all!

Original post by Pwca

Welcome to the GCSE Computer Science Study Group! :hello:

This is where you can chat with other students studying the same subjects as you and support each other as you head towards your exams :grouphugs:

You can post any useful tips and resources that you come across, offer support to others, share your successes, or just have moan when it gets tough! :yes:

Just remember, it’s against the site rules to ask for or offer any copyrighted papers, or to take conversations off-site to do these things. Posts that break these rules will be removed.

A few possible ice breaker questions are:
What exam board are you with?
What do you enjoy most about this subject/ course?
What area do you struggle with in this subject/ course?

Specifications

Good luck with the next few months. Remember, ask for help, support where you can and together we can do this! :yeah:

i havent actually chosen my gcses yet (y9 person here) but im choosing computing. ill be doing ocr and my favourite thing is probably the programming (tho itll get harder probably) and my least favourite currently is the creative stuff like graphic design because im really not good at that kind of thing.

Reply 10

Anonymous_dragon

9

If you like graphic design you should consider taking DT (if your school does it)
A lot of people find programming easier than the theory part of GCSE computing (but it is the opposite for me haha)
I've heard OCR is easier than Edexcel so the theory and programming might be better from what I've experienced!
year 11 x

Reply 11

*LifeHappens*

12

Original post by Anonymous_dragon

If you like graphic design you should consider taking DT (if your school does it)
A lot of people find programming easier than the theory part of GCSE computing (but it is the opposite for me haha)
I've heard OCR is easier than Edexcel so the theory and programming might be better from what I've experienced!
year 11 x

SAME I usually do way better in theory than in programming - when we go onto coding tasks, I usually copy my friend's code lol.

OCR is meant to be easier than edexcel and it pretty much is; although I heard that for this year, the GCSE exam was super tough even the OCR exam board admitted it, but hopefully that won't be repeated again!

Reply 12

username6523751

1

Original post by undefined

SAME I usually do way better in theory than in programming - when we go onto coding tasks, I usually copy my friend's code lol.

OCR is meant to be easier than edexcel and it pretty much is; although I heard that for this year, the GCSE exam was super tough even the OCR exam board admitted it, but hopefully that won't be repeated again!

Yes, I'm a Year 11 student and I found the exam paper (we did it for mocks) actually decent, not as hard as 2022 one. That one I think was the hardest. :frown:

Reply 13

*LifeHappens*

12

Original post by username6523751

Yes, I'm a Year 11 student and I found the exam paper (we did it for mocks) actually decent, not as hard as 2022 one. That one I think was the hardest. :frown:

oh! It's strange because once you learn the info it is simple to apply it to the questions asked, but I've only finished a few topics so I don't know if it will get harder later on

Reply 14

IdkkMayy

1

Original post by username6523751

Original post by undefined

SAME I usually do way better in theory than in programming - when we go onto coding tasks, I usually copy my friend's code lol.

OCR is meant to be easier than edexcel and it pretty much is; although I heard that for this year, the GCSE exam was super tough even the OCR exam board admitted it, but hopefully that won't be repeated again!

Yes, I'm a Year 11 student and I found the exam paper (we did it for mocks) actually decent, not as hard as 2022 one. That one I think was the hardest. :frown:

What was the exam paper?

Reply 15

milktee

18

Original post by Pwca

Welcome to the GCSE Computer Science Study Group! :hello:

This is where you can chat with other students studying the same subjects as you and support each other as you head towards your exams :grouphugs:

You can post any useful tips and resources that you come across, offer support to others, share your successes, or just have moan when it gets tough! :yes:

Just remember, it’s against the site rules to ask for or offer any copyrighted papers, or to take conversations off-site to do these things. Posts that break these rules will be removed.

A few possible ice breaker questions are:
What exam board are you with?
What do you enjoy most about this subject/ course?
What area do you struggle with in this subject/ course?

Specifications

Good luck with the next few months. Remember, ask for help, support where you can and together we can do this! :yeah:

hii i do ocr computer science gcse and to be fair, i actually really enjoy computer science and its my favourite subject, so i also want to study it at university. for me, i personally find the programming a lot more enjoyable than the theory, since ive been doing python since year 5 😭🙏

tips to revision:

•

i like to make keywords for each topic since lots of the questions in exams are to define key words

•

USE THE WEBSITE CALLED CSNEWBS, i recently found out about it and oh my god its so helpful and presents the necessary theory information really well, except the downside is that they only have content for eduqas and ocr gcse BUT they also have basic python programming help. i haven't actually used the website for python, but i looked at it and the basic programming functions and knowledge are explained really well (https://www.csnewbs.com/)

•

i watch this yt channel called MrBrownCs and he really explains the theory and main points well

•

do practice papers!! the only way to actually consolidate your revision and knowledge and understand the style of exam questions is to do a bunch of practice papers, and trust me, you'll understand everything a lot better

i hope this helps!! so sorry if its a whole load of waffle but i really love computer science so if you have any other questions or want any other revision tips feel free to ask

Reply 16

agent_duck343

16

Original post by milktee

hii i do ocr computer science gcse and to be fair, i actually really enjoy computer science and its my favourite subject, so i also want to study it at university. for me, i personally find the programming a lot more enjoyable than the theory, since ive been doing python since year 5 😭🙏

tips to revision:

•

i like to make keywords for each topic since lots of the questions in exams are to define key words

•

USE THE WEBSITE CALLED CSNEWBS, i recently found out about it and oh my god its so helpful and presents the necessary theory information really well, except the downside is that they only have content for eduqas and ocr gcse BUT they also have basic python programming help. i haven't actually used the website for python, but i looked at it and the basic programming functions and knowledge are explained really well (https://www.csnewbs.com/)

•

i watch this yt channel called MrBrownCs and he really explains the theory and main points well

•

do practice papers!! the only way to actually consolidate your revision and knowledge and understand the style of exam questions is to do a bunch of practice papers, and trust me, you'll understand everything a lot better

i hope this helps!! so sorry if its a whole load of waffle but i really love computer science so if you have any other questions or want any other revision tips feel free to ask

thank you for the website it’s looks really useful