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Is AS level computer science do-able without a teacher?

Hi, basically, I’ve studied 3 subjects irrelevant to computer science (business, history, politics) however I’m looking to study computer science at uni with a foundation year at Manchester. I’ve just finished year 13

To prove an interest and ability in it I want to study it at AS level this year along with resits for 2 of my subjects which were predicted far lower than what I believe I could have achieved.

I’ve studied CS at GCSE and achieved a grade 5 however put very little effort at all into school back then and barely revised for the exams, half of my class failed CS. I retained some knowledge about how CPUs, RAM, ROM work and embedded systems, Binary, Denary, Hex etc and I still know some fairly basic coding, mainly in python.

I’d be sitting the AS exam as an external student and therefore would likely have little or no access to any teachers unless I paid for a tutor, which I’d rather avoid if possible. Am I realistic to be hoping for a grade A purely through textbook knowledge and home coding practice?

Grade A = Roughly 66% from both papers. I feel I’m much better at practical knowledge (paper 1) than algorithms (paper 2).
Doable? Sure. Recommended? Not at all.

Rather than trying to demonstrate interest and ability by academic means, do something that doesn't place additional stress on you. Study the subject, and then put together a portfolio of projects or knowledge, for example programming projects on Github, make a website, write on a blog, etc.

You don't need to take an exam to show interest and aptitude. And personally I'd think that someone with their own blog, website, projects or whatever is more invested than someone who just took the A Level. This demonstrates that it's a hobby you're invested in and you're not just interested in passing the exam.

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