Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

A2 CompSci - Bad teacher, help!

Hello, I am a year 13 student who has just started A2 studies at my sixth form. One of my three subjects that I have carried on to A2 is computer science (OCR).

Unfortunately after the two weeks of coming back to school I realized the utter incompetence of my computer science teacher. I understand that every student must have a point of criticism or two for every teacher, but this is INSANE.

This man has no previous knowledge of the course or its content, when asked questions he either does not know, talks around it or just outright does not answer. 'Lessons' with him are just... incomprehensible, he struggles to convey simple concepts and is always vague or incorrect.

We have just now started work on our coursework. Our coursework, for those who do not do computer science, is developing software for a client which entails planning, designing, creating, documenting and evaluating our software and the process of creating it. Over two weeks we have gotten as far as trying to decide what type of software we want to create and for whom. My friends at different colleges have already started planning their coursework and practicing programming in visual basic. As for programming our teacher has suggested visual basic which I am fairly confident he has no knowledge of.

I guess these things happen. My main concern however is that learning the content and exam application by myself will not be enough to get a good grade as 20% of A2 CompSci is the coursework. Information about the coursework is included in the spec (http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/170844-specification-accredited-a-level-gce-computer-science-h446.pdf) but I just do not know if I can manage to do it on my own without any help and get a good grade.

I understand that there are not many solutions, complaining will not get him replaced with an amazing computer scientist. I do however want some advice on the idea of getting a CompSci tutor to guide and help me through the coursework. I am not sure if this is possible but I would like to hear some ideas on how to go about this ordeal or if anyone has had something like this happen to them and how you dealt with it.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

TSR Jessica

Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown:

Are you sure you've posted in the right place? :smile:

Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. :redface:

Just quoting in Fox Corner so she can move the thread if needed :wizard:

Spoiler

Reply 2

2190243

I wouldn't really say there is much you can do in terms of having a bad teacher. You could always ask to move class (if there is another CS class available) or as you said, get a tutor.

Lots of tutors can be found here or here. You may have to travel far tho, as I doubt there are many CS A-level tutors around.

Good luck tho :smile:

P,S, Welcome to TSR!!!!

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Articles for you

Artificial intelligence and robotics degree personal statement example (1a) with review and advice

International Baccalaureate (IB) students: applying to university

What A-levels do you need to study sports science?

A-levels and AS-levels, explained