computer science or business studies?

what should i pick im not sure whether i should take computer science or business but im scared computer science may be a bit hard and if i take it i will probably regret it but i think ive got the potential to do it and be successful at it and my only other option would be business whichincludes maths which I'm not really good at

Reply 1

winterscoming

Easy and hard are actually pretty subjective - which bits of it scare you, or do you think you'll find hard? Those are the bits you need to find out about.

Also, what interests you more? That's pretty important to think about too - if you enjoy it, then you're more likely to be able to actually concentrate on learning and understanding it. Stuff is always harder if it bores you to sleep because you miss things, forget them, and it's a bit demotivating to need to play catch-up on a subject that you just don't like.

If you skip Computer Science now, you will still get a chance to study it again at A-Level and Degree level. The same is true of Business. These aren't the kinds of subjects that colleges or universities necessarily expect you to have previous knowledge in, so the good news is that this isn't likely to be a big choice affecting your future :smile:

Computer Science will include 'discrete' mathematics - which is all about problem solving in logic. There'll also be elements of binary arithmetic too (i.e. how computers represent numbers using 1s and 0s, how to represent negative numbers,how to do addition/subtraction in binary, etc.) - If you're curious, here's a fun way of getting a look at binary problems to see what that looks like :smile:

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/docs/DOC-1803

Although the thing most people tend to struggle with (if they haven't done it before...) in Computer Science is getting their head around programming, and the thought processes behind it (a.k.a. computational thinking..). If you have never programmed before, and you don't know whether you'll find it easy or hard (or whether it's something you actually enjoy), then maybe just spend a few weekends learning some Python, and make your own mind up here: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python

If you can reach the end of those online python lessons, and you find you're able to cope with it OK, then you might be fine with one of the aspects of CompSci which people often find tricky - it's not just the programming itself (although that can be a bit mind-bending at first...), writing code will be a big part of the course, but even more important for the exams will be understanding how to "think" like a computer.

So, in other words, how and why computers need to do things step-by-step for solving even simple problems (a.k.a algorithms). Just to put that into perspective - the first time you write an 'algorithm' to get a computer to count from 1 to 10 will feel like teaching a very young child to count from 1-10 using their fingers.

There are other aspects of CompSci which can be a bit dry/boring too - you will need to learn a whole bunch of terminology and definitions for things. You'll need to do some legal/ethics stuff like privacy and data protection. (To be honest, you will probably need to do exactly the same thing in Business though.).

In Comp Sci There will be concepts to learn about computer architecture (how computer memory and processors work..). Also, databases (all about what data is, how data is stored, and how it gets structured to make it useful), networking (e.g. how the internet works, how wi-fi works, etc), some systems analysis and project management type stuff too (probably some coursework where you get asked to analyse some fictitious business like a shop and waffle on about analysis/design/planning/testing/etc). There'll probably be some webpage creation. Obviously all this depends on the exam board. I don't think any of that stuff should be too difficult if it interests you. You definitely won't have a hard time finding thousands of pages/videos on the internet that explain this stuff.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 2

soniakxx

Original post by hanna786

i do both and lemme tell u computer science is HARD its harder than maths
business is easyyyyy ant the maths is super easy youll be fine!

Reply 3

hanna786

thank you sooo much
you have been really helpful

i mean i have been given an A at it at the moment and we are studying pthon programming so i think that will be fine but im slightly worried i may mess up and totally not understand it half way through the course

my future career plans are to get something in medicine and i feel like if i do computer science i will be at an advantage so i think i might go for it
and im not sure about business anymore because im really bad at maths and i feel like business will not put me at an advantage in my future career

thank you for all your help and i will look at the websites suggested as soon as possible

Reply 4

hanna786

thanks soo much for the advice

but im really confident with python programming and i feel like if i put my head to it i can do it
also my future plans are to go for something in medicine and i feel like computer science will put me at an advantage

thank anyway for the great amount of help
i will take your points into a count when picking my options