What is Computing A-level like?

OCR Computing was great. Have no idea about Physics as I didn't do it so someone else may be able to provide information regarding Physics. (Highlighted things in bold because I realised I went on for quite a bit.)

Overview from the OCR Computing website so that you can see the similarities to GCSE:

"Component 01: Computer systems
- The characteristics of contemporary processors, input, output and storage devices
- Types of software and the different methodologies used to develop software
- Data exchange between different systems
- Data types, data structures and algorithms
- Legal, moral, cultural and ethical issues.

Component 02: Algorithms and programming
- What is meant by computational thinking (thinking abstractly, thinking ahead, thinking procedurally etc.)
- Problem solving and programming – how computers and programs can be used to solve problems
- Algorithms and how they can be used to describe and solve problems.

Component 03: Programming project
- Apply the principles of computational thinking to a practical coding programming project.
-Analyse, design, develop, test, evaluate and document a program written in a suitable programming language.
- The project is designed to be independently chosen by the student and provides them with the flexibility to investigate projects within the diverse field of computer science."

My experience:

Built upon the topics we covered at GCSE and there were only a couple of new ones such as different types of algorithms - A* and Dijkstra's and also things about the floating point - finding the mantissa and the exponent and manipulating it. The students who did maths in my computing class found it pretty straightforward. I didn't do Maths A Level and I found it manageable too. Personally, I found that there wasn't much Maths involved.

In terms of the networking aspect you mentioned, it's virtually the same as GCSE but it goes into further detail so you have to learn more facts. This is the case regarding with all of the subtopics covered - this ensures you have an even better understanding of concepts explored at GCSE level.


Disadvantages:

Component 3 involves a quite a bit of programming and also a lot of effort in terms of explaining the actual program you make, stakeholders etc and you need to include a very thorough Analysis, Design, Development, Testing and Evaluation structure. The document size is usually very large with some people doing 200+ pages of coursework. (Usually though, this is because they have included massive pictures of the user interface etc). This piece of coursework takes up a lot of time so if you want to do it, make sure you have a idea for a project and are ready to start at the end of year 12/over the summer holidays/at the start of year 13. I started mine very late which was a huge pain.

Programming is a step up from GCSE and in terms of the algorithms and programming paper - the types of questions asked will be harder than GCSE - but ultimately that's because it's an A Level qualification.

Advantages:
The overall textbook content is pretty much the same as GCSE for year 12, slightly harder in year 13, which, again, is seen in practically all A Level subjects.

I really enjoyed it - it was something different in terms of the course content (compared to other subjects) and programming element which was refreshing.

Disclaimer: this was my particular experience and it is in no way representative of all of the computing students out there.

Good luck with choosing - just choose the one that interests you the most - you might be sat for hours on end revising/doing coursework for a particular subject over the two years and so ultimately if you choose one you like, you will feel more motivated to dedicate time to it, hopefully be more satisfied overall (and perhaps also attain even better results!)

Specifically either the AQA or OCR courses. I don’t know whether to do it or not because I like most of the GCSE course but some of the theory topics like networks I find more boring. I want to do maths at uni so I’m wondering if doing physics as my last option might be more useful. Thanks to anyone who answers in advance!

Thank you so much! This is really helpful

OCR Computing was great. Have no idea about Physics as I didn't do it so someone else may be able to provide information regarding Physics. (Highlighted things in bold because I realised I went on for quite a bit.)

Overview from the OCR Computing website so that you can see the similarities to GCSE:

"Component 01: Computer systems
- The characteristics of contemporary processors, input, output and storage devices
- Types of software and the different methodologies used to develop software
- Data exchange between different systems
- Data types, data structures and algorithms
- Legal, moral, cultural and ethical issues.

Component 02: Algorithms and programming
- What is meant by computational thinking (thinking abstractly, thinking ahead, thinking procedurally etc.)
- Problem solving and programming – how computers and programs can be used to solve problems
- Algorithms and how they can be used to describe and solve problems.

Component 03: Programming project
- Apply the principles of computational thinking to a practical coding programming project.
-Analyse, design, develop, test, evaluate and document a program written in a suitable programming language.
- The project is designed to be independently chosen by the student and provides them with the flexibility to investigate projects within the diverse field of computer science."

My experience:

Built upon the topics we covered at GCSE and there were only a couple of new ones such as different types of algorithms - A* and Dijkstra's and also things about the floating point - finding the mantissa and the exponent and manipulating it. The students who did maths in my computing class found it pretty straightforward. I didn't do Maths A Level and I found it manageable too. Personally, I found that there wasn't much Maths involved.

In terms of the networking aspect you mentioned, it's virtually the same as GCSE but it goes into further detail so you have to learn more facts. This is the case regarding with all of the subtopics covered - this ensures you have an even better understanding of concepts explored at GCSE level.


Disadvantages:

Component 3 involves a quite a bit of programming and also a lot of effort in terms of explaining the actual program you make, stakeholders etc and you need to include a very thorough Analysis, Design, Development, Testing and Evaluation structure. The document size is usually very large with some people doing 200+ pages of coursework. (Usually though, this is because they have included massive pictures of the user interface etc). This piece of coursework takes up a lot of time so if you want to do it, make sure you have a idea for a project and are ready to start at the end of year 12/over the summer holidays/at the start of year 13. I started mine very late which was a huge pain.

Programming is a step up from GCSE and in terms of the algorithms and programming paper - the types of questions asked will be harder than GCSE - but ultimately that's because it's an A Level qualification.

Advantages:
The overall textbook content is pretty much the same as GCSE for year 12, slightly harder in year 13, which, again, is seen in practically all A Level subjects.

I really enjoyed it - it was something different in terms of the course content (compared to other subjects) and programming element which was refreshing.

Disclaimer: this was my particular experience and it is in no way representative of all of the computing students out there.

Good luck with choosing - just choose the one that interests you the most - you might be sat for hours on end revising/doing coursework for a particular subject over the two years and so ultimately if you choose one you like, you will feel more motivated to dedicate time to it, hopefully be more satisfied overall (and perhaps also attain even better results!)

I am currently in year 12 doing computer science without doing it in GCSE. Right now I'm kinda getting the hang of it but as I go on will I be able to handle it?

(Highlighted things in bold because I realised I went on for quite a bit, again. Not as long this time though)

I can't really comment on how the experience would be for you as I did it at both GCSE and A Level. I had one friend who didn't do it at GCSE and they were fine.

You may need to put in a bit more work though as you need to make up for the lack of experience of coding at GCSE level so the programming project might be slightly harder for you than for other people who may have done it. Definitely set yourself coding challenges so that you aren't completely new to the programming aspect when you visit it later in the year/next year - it will prevent you from getting overwhelmed.

It does depend on the teacher as well -my Computing teacher was an absolute legend so we learnt the content thoroughly in lessons and as a result, I had to do very little outside of classes to understand topics. Just review topics you're currently doing and it will be manageable.

As I mentioned, there are a couple of topics you visit in year 13 that are slightly harder - the A* algorithm and floating point stuff. As you're only in year 12, just make sure your binary addition and subtraction and logic gate knowledge is good - look at 1.4.1 Data types- sections a,b,d,e,f on the specification and the "AND, NOR, XOR" gates and the truth tables associated with them. This was all covered at GCSE level and it will help you with Year 13 content. The GCSE OCR Computing Bitesize is good for a basic introduction too (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zfspfcw/revision/2).

Print off the specification so that you can see the bits you have covered and need to cover too.

Even so, the Computing course is made for everyone so the teachers will go through everything, don't worry. It's just that some teachers tend not to spend as much time on the basics so brushing up on this means you won't fall behind in lessons.

So going back to the original question, yes you will be able to handle it.

Thank you so much!!
my immediate family is all software engineers so I have a lot of help hopefully I won't be too behind in yr13. Plus I just asked my teacher about the binary as I am behind on that.

Yeah just keep on communicating with your teacher and you should be fine! No worries - good luck with it - I'm sure you'll do really well

Thank you! Have you completed your A levels?