Will Computer Science fail as a GCSE subject?

GCSE electronics failed because it was pointless. Electronics was not nessecary if you wanted to apply for electronic engineering at uni and I am very doubtful that it even gave applicants an edge in the application process.

Do you know of any instances of people being rejected because they didn't have a traditional science GCSE but they had an alternative science GCSE such as astronomy or environmental science?

I read somewhere that Computer Science officially counts as a science at GCSE.

Well STEM is a bit of a red herring IMO, e.g. if you want to be a teacher they'll ask if you've got a science which means strictly physics, chemistry and biology.

BTW there was a 'computer studies' O level in the 8 bit BASIC era which did involve a bit of learning to code. I didn't do it and tbh most of the kids who were really into computers didn't either. my mates big sister (who did) told me it was soft and involved a lot of essay writing about the sociological implications of technology etc... as well as the dreaded project.
Mates big sister left school at 16 and went to work doing 'data entry' at an insurance company fwiw.

The best thing about computer studies was that it gave the school a reason to have about 10 TRS-80 micros which at my place we were allowed to use one lunch hour per week while the teacher sat in the room eating his sarnies to make sure a riot / theiving spree didn't break out.

http://www.edtechhistory.org.uk/history/the_1980s/Computer_Programming.html

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just noticed this on the above webpage...

Lamb (1985) summed up the general approach at that time to programming: " The ability to program is the most obvious skill that a child might acquire from school computing, but it is not necessarily an instant passport to a job. Although surveys of the computer industry continually allege that there is a severe shortage of programmers. systems analysts and engineers, school-leavers often find it difficult to get a start in computing. Employers want skilled staff and are reluctant to spend money on trainees. ln any case, few school children will join the sunrise industries of computing and electronics. Even if they do work with computers, they will not need more than an acquaintance with the standard typewriter keyboard in order to cope with the technologiy. ln the longer term, detailed knowledge of computers wilI become even less relevant as manufacturers strive to cut out the complexities of computer operation and make their machines more "user friendly".

(my emphasis)
TBH the entreaties of the BCS etc should probably be treated with a degree of scepticism today as well tbh.

GCSE electronics failed because it was pointless. Electronics was not nessecary if you wanted to apply for electronic engineering at uni and I am very doubtful that it even gave applicants an edge in the application process.

GCSE electronics failed because it was pointless. Electronics was not nessecary if you wanted to apply for electronic engineering at uni and I am very doubtful that it even gave applicants an edge in the application process.

Look at it from this perspective.

GCSE Science (and Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) are:

1. STEM subjects
2. Deemed to be academically rigorous subjects
3. Valued by higher education and employers
4. Academic subjects rather than life skills

GCSE ICT is:

1. Not a STEM subject. It could be argued to be the modern day typing and office skills course that schools taught in the 1960s.
2. Generally deemed to be a soft subject
3. Not valued, or even counted, by higher education and employers. A GCSE in ICT is not required to study ICT or Computer Science in higher education and applicants with a GCSE in ICT are of no advantage over those without it.
4. Often promoted as a life skill

GCSE Computer Science ticks boxes 1, 2, and 4 for GCSE Science. As it is a new subject then only time will tell whether it ticks box 3.

Of course GCSE CS ticks box 3, it is one of the hardest subjects so far you know.

The first computer programs I wrote were stored on punched paper tape, I then progressed to audio cassettes.

I don't know what the answer is.
when the first 8 bit 'home computers' came out a subset of kids thought it was fascinating to program them... BASIC interpreter was the only software a lot of them came supplied with anyway.
generally no one got much of a big project completed because the disk drives were a huge extra cost comparable to the price of the puter itself so everything was lost when you switched off.
Basically that was small self-selected goals driven by competition with your mates to see who could produce the best code in perhaps a couple of hours. Maybe you'd read a magazine article about a better search algorithm or something and you'd want to play with that for a bit.

What IMO sucked the fun out of the old DT O levels that I did was that you were required to produce and document a design project which always seemed contrived and was a longwinded bore when you wanted to be having fun learning some more new stuff.

I learned machine code and 6800 assembler on this machine:



....and produced my first commercial bespoke hardware/software application using this machine complete with 24K ROM and 32K RAM running the CP/M operating system (which I always thought superior to MS DOS:



1.2 MB 8" Winchester floppy drives were the height of technology at the time !

Dev boards like the Arduino have revived interest in assembly language programming and using small amounts of RAM. Embedded computers should be covered in Computer Science because there is more to computing than desktops running Windows.