I don&#x27;t know what to pick for my A-Levels

Original post by shiftycatz

Hi, so firstly- your grades are amazing, so your options are open to literally any course, so there's no need to panic.
Also, having Maths is a great A Level, and automatically puts you in a good light, so having a Science is not really necessary.
I've based my options around what career I'm interested in, but alot of students like to pick courses they expect to enjoy and learn for the first time. So Psychology is a great subject take (only WARNING- there is quite a bit of essays involved, imo i would class it as a literacy based exam). Your CS grade is amazing- so you can defo go forward with that, and it makes quite a nice mix.
My best advice for you rn is to speak to a Head of Year or Careers adviser, and center your Alevels around your career choice. This isnt a requirement though!
For the sixth form sitch- I'd advise you to begin looking into commuting to a different area (IF the area lacks ANY good sixth forms).

I feel like I might burn out one way or another, but I am trying. Erm, in the future, I want to do either coding or medicine and I don't which to do. I like them both, and it's hard to choose.

That's why I feel like I should switch Psychology to Physics. But, I don't like really like either subject.

For sixth form, I guess I am feeling stressed since I haven't been able to apply because of mocks so I feel like most applications have ended. Now, I am stuck you could say.

(edited 4 months ago)

Reply 3

👋 Hey there, I'm taking Computer Science as one of my A-levels. Thinking CS is just coding is a common misconception so I wanted to share an honest overview of my course.

I have 4 papers and only the last one is a coding exam (2h30m on a laptop); the other three are more theory based. I've just taken a look at my textbook, and only 4 out of 20 chapters are programming. Also as I do CIE so I don't have coursework, but from what I've heard, that's more of an EPQ style project than just coding.

LMK if you have any further questions or need me to clarify anything 🙂

Reply 4

hanalei24

7

Original post by atsuko_

First of all, my predicted grades are:
Maths: 9
Biology: 9
Chemistry: 9
Physics: 9
English Language: 9
English Literature: 8
RE: 8
History: 8
Computer Science: 9
French: 9

And I already did my GCSE Further Maths and got an 8 on it.

Currently, I don't know what to pick at all. Like completely.

So what I already can determine is that I definetely am going to Maths and Further Maths for A-Level.

But I don't know if I should pick Biology and Chemistry or Computer Science and Psychology.

I do not wanna do a literacy based A-Level.

And I don't know what I want to do. The deadlines are all coming up, and I don't know any good sixth forms around where I live - Tower Hamlets.

Please send help.

my friend also lives in tower hamlets and she studies at brampton manor college so it's defo worth looking at! (note: not the academy because that's private)

Reply 5

atsuko_

OP

Original post by zaykenyon

👋 Hey there, I'm taking Computer Science as one of my A-levels. Thinking CS is just coding is a common misconception so I wanted to share an honest overview of my course.

I have 4 papers and only the last one is a coding exam (2h30m on a laptop); the other three are more theory based. I've just taken a look at my textbook, and only 4 out of 20 chapters are programming. Also as I do CIE so I don't have coursework, but from what I've heard, that's more of an EPQ style project than just coding.

LMK if you have any further questions or need me to clarify anything 🙂

Can you please give me like a brief overview of the papers?

My CS teacher highly recommended me to do it, plus I do like coding, but I guess I just had a surface-level knowledge of it.

Reply 6

Original post by atsuko_

Can you please give me like a brief overview of the papers?

My CS teacher highly recommended me to do it, plus I do like coding, but I guess I just had a surface-level knowledge of it.

Sure thing, liking coding is a good thing too! Sorry if I sounded dismissive.

Papers 1 & 2 are the AS level. These are both written. Any coding is done in the form of describing a program or drawing a flowchart. Personally, I found the content here nearly indistinguishable from my CS CIE IGCSE.

I will summarise the chapters in those papers too, and you can read the syllabus for more information:

•

CH1 Information Representation and multimedia - manipulating binary and file compression types

•

CH2 Communication - rough idea of how the internet works

•

CH3 Hardware - a repeat of GCSE logic gates

•

CH4 Processor Fundamentals - Von Neumann (RIP) architecture and more complex Assembly

•

CH5 System software - what OS' actually do and how scripts are ran

•

CH6 Security, privacy, and data integrity - GCSE encryption

•

CH7 Ethics and ownership - "How code impacts people, also AI exists i guess"

•

CH8 Databases - Office worker training simulator

•

CH9 Algorithm design and problem solving - you are examined on methods of writing programmes.

•

CH10 Data types and structures - constructing paradigms in code, you are usually asked to fill in the blanks for these.

•

CH11 Programming - "declaring an assigning values to variables and constants", "using constructs including IF and CASE", "different types of loops". This is examined through written pseudocode.

•

CH12 Software development - this is not coding, it's very meta about how software is created and maintained during use.

Reply 7

Original post by atsuko_

Can you please give me like a brief overview of the papers?

My CS teacher highly recommended me to do it, plus I do like coding, but I guess I just had a surface-level knowledge of it.

Pt. 2 since TSR cut me off,

Papers 3&4 are A-level. Paper 3 examines A-level theory whilst paper 4 is that aforementioned coding paper. Please excuse my laziness and accept a screenshot of my textbook's contents page.

https://imgur.com/a/JNTUMf4

My teacher refers to papers 1&3 as theory and papers 2&4 as coding so that's one way to look at it.
You can refer to this for more reference: CAIE 9618 Past Papers

Reply 8

Iluvgcc_aspxxx

Original post by zaykenyon

Sure thing, liking coding is a good thing too! Sorry if I sounded dismissive.

Papers 1 & 2 are the AS level. These are both written. Any coding is done in the form of describing a program or drawing a flowchart. Personally, I found the content here nearly indistinguishable from my CS CIE IGCSE.

I will summarise the chapters in those papers too, and you can read the syllabus for more information:

•

CH1 Information Representation and multimedia - manipulating binary and file compression types

•

CH2 Communication - rough idea of how the internet works

•

CH3 Hardware - a repeat of GCSE logic gates

•

CH4 Processor Fundamentals - Von Neumann (RIP) architecture and more complex Assembly

•

CH5 System software - what OS' actually do and how scripts are ran

•

CH6 Security, privacy, and data integrity - GCSE encryption

•

CH7 Ethics and ownership - "How code impacts people, also AI exists i guess"

•

CH8 Databases - Office worker training simulator

•

CH9 Algorithm design and problem solving - you are examined on methods of writing programmes.

•

CH10 Data types and structures - constructing paradigms in code, you are usually asked to fill in the blanks for these.

•

CH11 Programming - "declaring an assigning values to variables and constants", "using constructs including IF and CASE", "different types of loops". This is examined through written pseudocode.

•

CH12 Software development - this is not coding, it's very meta about how software is created and maintained during use.

out of 10 how difficult would you rate the course

Reply 9

Original post by Iluvgcc_aspxxx

out of 10 how difficult would you rate the course

Personally, I have found it mostly easy with only a few harder concepts, so around a 3/10; though please don't take my experience as a sole representation for the difficulty of the course. My class only has five people so this isn't the best sample size, but those who didn't take the GCSE variant are struggling significantly more.

A reason why my friend and I find the course so much easier is probably because we are so enthusiastic about the subject. We program and apply what we learn as real-world practice beyond just the homework and there have been so many occasions where we have learnt a concept that later came up in the book just because we stumbled our way into it during our free time.

I know people say that the first year covers all of the GCSE spec, but I still believe that those who did not take the GCSE will be at an incredible disadvantage.

Reply 10

thegeek888

18

Original post by atsuko_

First of all, my predicted grades are:
Maths: 9
Biology: 9
Chemistry: 9
Physics: 9
English Language: 9
English Literature: 8
RE: 8
History: 8
Computer Science: 9
French: 9

And I already did my GCSE Further Maths and got an 8 on it.

Currently, I don't know what to pick at all. Like completely.

So what I already can determine is that I definetely am going to Maths and Further Maths for A-Level.

But I don't know if I should pick Biology and Chemistry or Computer Science and Psychology.

I do not wanna do a literacy based A-Level.

And I don't know what I want to do. The deadlines are all coming up, and I don't know any good sixth forms around where I live - Tower Hamlets.

Please send help.

Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Psychology would keep your options open, but if you want to do Medicine, then take Biology instead of Psychology. Your grades are good enough for Brampton Manor, LAE, Newham Collegiate, Harris Westminster and even Ilford County Grammar, Westcliff Boys Grammar and King Edward's Grammar in Chelmsford. 🙂

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 11

Iluvgcc_aspxxx

Original post by zaykenyon

Personally, I have found it mostly easy with only a few harder concepts, so around a 3/10; though please don't take my experience as a sole representation for the difficulty of the course. My class only has five people so this isn't the best sample size, but those who didn't take the GCSE variant are struggling significantly more.

A reason why my friend and I find the course so much easier is probably because we are so enthusiastic about the subject. We program and apply what we learn as real-world practice beyond just the homework and there have been so many occasions where we have learnt a concept that later came up in the book just because we stumbled our way into it during our free time.

I know people say that the first year covers all of the GCSE spec, but I still believe that those who did not take the GCSE will be at an incredible disadvantage.

Thanks so much, I do take the GCSE but I'm not doing as well but I'm currently using sololearn to revise, if you don't mind can you recommend me any tips to revise?
I genuinely find computer science fascinating I'm just not that good at coding but I'm trying to learn slowly by slowly.

Reply 12

Original post by Iluvgcc_aspxxx

Thanks so much, I do take the GCSE but I'm not doing as well but I'm currently using sololearn to revise, if you don't mind can you recommend me any tips to revise?
I genuinely find computer science fascinating I'm just not that good at coding but I'm trying to learn slowly by slowly.

👋 Hi! I'm glad to hear that you find the subject fascinating; and sorry if I come off sounding dismissive with this, but I hope you also realise that it's incredibly impressive to ask for help. I'm going to split my reply into two parts, theory (textbook work) and practical (coding).

Firstly, I would recommend talking with your CS teacher since they will know you best. You could ask them what topics they think you should focus on, if there are any CS-specific revision practices that they recommend, and for other general notes about you that I hope they've been creating, or thinking, over the past two years. I would also suggest asking those doing well in the class how they are learning/revising the material, it wouldn't be bad to expose yourself to different revision techniques. If you are asking for how I revised, my board has these revision books (https://i.imgur.com/RkdfttI.png) (there is a great enough overlap between boards where you can learn from any one) that can be mighty useful; I would take a topic that I wasn't confident in and work my way through that chapter doing each question. I learnt from the one labelled "OLD" in the linked picture but unfortunately your "NEW" book comes with so much new content I'm not sure whether I can recommend my copy.

Secondly, I had never heard of Sololearn before so I did some research; and if this learning is in respect to your GCSE, and if your coding-spec is the same as mine was, then honestly I think it is a little over the top. My memory is a little foggy, but the only code I needed to write, excluding pseudocode, was Python for a pre-released document. Because it's a pre-release we had time in class to work on our solutions so I am sure that your teacher would give you a hand when designing/implementing code. You may even be able to find inspiration from other solutions online. Take a look at what specifically the papers are asking you to do, because I think all you're required to do is write down an abstraction of what the original pre-released spec needed to do. In other words, you don't need to learn the entire solution line by line, just how to roughly implement the core components — you don't need to get a coding question completely correct to earn marks.

As always, let me know if you have any further questions. Keep up the good work 😊.

Reply 13

Iluvgcc_aspxxx