AQA or OCR Computer Science A-level?

tony654

The situation I am in allows me to chose, which one is better (I'm going to do a CompSci degree)

Reply 1

Lemur14

Volunteer Section Leader

Original post by tony654

The situation I am in allows me to chose, which one is better (I'm going to do a CompSci degree)

Neither one is specifically better for a computer science degree. There are several things to consider though.
First, if you took GCSE computing, did you do it with one of these boards? There are a few differences in the way they do things, such as the way they like pseudo code to be written, so it may be easier to stick with the same exam board.
Secondly, think about how the exams are assessed. AQA actually have one of the final exams as an onscreen exam, while apart from the 20% coursework all of OCR's final exams are on paper. I can't remember the exact differences off the top of my head, but I think you're expected to produce some code in timed conditions during the onscreen exam, whereas OCR's is all pseudo code for code they ask you to produce. Have a look at the spec and you can see which course you prefer.
Personally, I much prefer AQA's course, but I took AQA for GCSE and I'd rather do an on screen exam than paper exams, so that's totally personal to me (and I'm on OCR so I'm very jealous you can choose!)

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Reply 2

Compost

You don't say how you have a choice. You may need to know that the AQA specification is not open to private candidates. Don't know about the OC R one.