Help me choose a sixth form please

have you gone to their open evenings?
that usually helps

No completely missed both of them due to disorganisation, this back to bite me in the ***

haha same i had covid
have you tried contacting them? some of them do tours

Can you see the breakdown of the results they get? If the lower average score is because almost nobody gets top grades, that's rather different to if it's because there's a wider ability range in the classes but the top end of it is still getting A*s.

You haven't compared travel time, which may be a big issue if you're going to lose a couple of hours out of every day for one but not the other (especially if it's a form of transport which isn't time you could use to study).

I can’t find the breakdown of their results, but it’s fine since I decided I’ll go to sixth form B, thank you
They’re about the same distance away from my house

I have a feeling B is my Sixth Form. The entry requirement was a 6 in Maths (never did it at GCSE too) and I switched subjects because I just felt completely lost with no support sessions in that subject. Switching from CS to Psychology is a decision I'll never regret.

Computer Science is difficult and very competitive so you'll need to have a good ounce of confidence.

Sixth form A- Emphasises they’ll support students who didn’t take GCSE computer science before (like me) thoroughly
Sixth for B- Only says the minimum requirement is a Grade 6 in maths, but says nothing else. This leads me to believe that ofc they’ll teach the course from scratch, but it won’t be as thorough as Sixth form A, as Sixth form A kept re-emphasising it

Sixth form A- Smaller class sizes so I’ll get more individual support (about 12 people)
Sixth form B- Bigger class sizes, not as much individual support then (20 people or more)

Sixth form A- Rated Good by Ofsted
Sixth form B- Rated Outstanding by Ofsted

Sixth form A- Has a lower average score than sixth form B
Sixth form B- Has a higher average score than sixth form A & more students getting into Oxbridge (what I want)

Sixth form A- fewer people so I may not have many people to get along with (but idc that much about this)
Sixth form B- more people (but idc that much about this)

Thank you for such valuable information!

Do you recommend that I buy a revision guide for GCSE computer science and make some notes over the summer, as well as use codeacademy (starting from now) to learn a few programming languages? That would give me useful knowledge right? Enough to not feel lost in class

Sixth form A and B did virtual tours, which I watched. I also emailed sixth form B about computer science but I got no response

Thank you for such valuable information!

Do you recommend that I buy a revision guide for GCSE computer science and make some notes over the summer, as well as use codeacademy (starting from now) to learn a few programming languages? That would give me useful knowledge right? Enough to not feel lost in class

Yes, any exam board will do. Make sure your notes are simple and effective (time-wise). Write some definitions down for all topics, it'll make life a bit easier. Try to finish your notes as soon as possible so you have enough time to read and reinforce them. Once all the GCSE's are over, give yourself a short break then start, an early start is strongly recommended. My teacher mentioned pseudocode more than anything so you'll want to understand that (I didn't). Don't go too hard on the notes, A-Level doesn't bring a whole lot of new stuff on the table.

I wouldn't recommend Codeacademy, it's fine for most people but not for Sixth Form students. I'd get a small book on learning Python (very simple, as far as programming languages go and it's used a lot in CS classes).