Wjec Computer Science A level

I didn't do WJEC but instead OCR, I don't imagine it's too different since it also had a 20% coursework. I did Mathematics and Art and Design, so Maths had no coursework and Art was 100% coursework. The coursework is a lot, that is correct, however you do have a lot of time to complete it, (in our school, we started end of year 12, and had until February of year 13 to finish it) so honestly it's worth taking if you have good time management skills. A lot of people overcomplicate the project for the coursework when it's mainly focusing on documentation, but I would check with my teachers first about this since each school recommend their students to do different projects. It can be worth it if you want to study it in university, I know Newcastle University offers contextual offers/special consideration just for taking CS, so along with maths it can be a great option. Hope that helped.

I'm not sure what you want to study, but if it is Computer Science, a lot of universities require maths (and sometimes further maths) and have CS as a 'bonus'. However, there are also lots of universities that don't have maths as a requirement, and rather look at your GCSE maths instead (sometimes being a 6 or higher). I do recommend it, however I understand that if you hate it then it might not be worth it / might bring your overall grade down. While it's definitely possible to study it without maths, it might be good to do some research on some universities/apprenticeships/ whatever industry you would like to get into, email, and ask your teachers for their input. Don't pressure yourself into doing subjects that you don't want to.

Btw how much math is there at a level might do something else if the a level is math heavy too won’t mind the coding man???

Anyone finished or are in year 13 doing this and do you recommend as heard many say is not worth and is not manageable with other a levels and coursework is so much for just 20% of the course lmk and give thoughts and what were you other subjects with examboard thx

I'm in year 13 studing cs with wjec and got an A in AS. The coursework is quite a lot but was quite enjoyable tbh and straight forward, and with theory there really isnt too much content at all so i think it all balances out. I'm also doing Biology WJEC.

Do you think is manageable and do u recommend

I just saw you said you don't like math at all, im exactly the same. The only "Math" there is includes doing binary addition and subtraction, which is insanely easy. There is also Floating Point stuff but its really not complex and is one of the easiest topics of the course. I don't think you should not pick it purely because you dont like maths. But like someone else said most unis need maths alevel for cs at uni. So overall, dont worry about the maths in cs and look into unis for courses you want to do and think ahead before picking a-level subjects. Also, one more thing, with the Course work communicate with your teachers a lot, ask for feedback and what you can change etc, this goes for everything including theory.

Give examples of the math like example questions and what topic in the spec is it and is it manageable coursework heard so much for just 20% and got another 2 a levels so very difficult lmk how u feel about this

I found course work very manageable while doing 3 a-levels, esp when you get to sit AS exams in year 12, If you search up Binary addition or subtraction questions and floating point questions you could get a grasp of the type of stuff, its really not difficult at all. You could probably learn all the "maths" you need in a few hours for cs. You also need to know about twos complement and sign and magnitude which isnt even maths, its just identifying specific bits. I'll write it all down below if you're interested in learning it, it would literally take a few mins to learn the basics (which is all you really need).
Two's Complement and Sign & Magnitude
For example 1001 = 9 normally because of 1 + 8
But with twos complement, 1001 = -7, this is because the Most significant bit (furthest bit to the left) is 1, which means i
its value is turned into a negative, so instead of 8, the MSB(Most significant bit) is -8. so we do -8 + 1 = -7
With sign and magnitude, 1001 = -1, here, the MSB determines the SIGN ONLY (0 = positive, 1 = negative)but holds no value, so its -1.
The MSB is always the furthest bit to the right.
Floating Point
This is essentially creating decimal numbers with a point in the binary number using a mantissa and exponent. The mantissa is on the left, exponent on the right. You move the floating point to the RIGHT using the value of the EXPONENT. and then the values to the right of the point divide by 2 as per usual with binary, so 0.1 = 0.5 and 0.01 is 0.25 and so on.
an example is this:
"Using the 8 bit mantissa and 3 bit exponent, work out the floating point value:
Mantissa: Exponent:
0.1010000 010
Try to work it out without reading the solution below:
To work this out we firstly work out the exponent value, which is 2.
we then move the floating point (the decimal) by 2 to the RIGHT (fyi if the value was negative it would go to the left)
this makes the mantissa look like this: 010.10000
So the value is 2.5
They may also ask to convert a value INTO floating point form which essentially means to convert a denary number into a Mantissa and exponent, also floating point numbers' mantissa must always begin with 01 or 10, this is called "Normalisation". On top of this, they may introduce Sign & magnitude OR twos complement laws into the question, but they will tell you.
And thats pretty much everything you need to know apart from subtraction and addition but they are much easier, if you want me to go over that im more than happy to just lmk.

Anyone finished or are in year 13 doing this and do you recommend as heard many say is not worth and is not manageable with other a levels and coursework is so much for just 20% of the course lmk and give thoughts and what were you other subjects with examboard thx

it is a good subject if you are passionate or interested in computing. WJEC a level computers isnt too hard especially if you did computer science in GCSE you will have alot of knowledge already. In terms of theory it isnt too hard to understand and the theory is pretty much almost the same for both years, just more in depth in year 2. There is also a lot of practical elements that require simple calculations aswell (hexadecimal, mantissa+exponent etc). I did my coursework project in about 1.5-2 months including the writeup and coding, which did make it a bit unmanageable with other subjects but if you start earlier you will be fine. Other subjects: maths, business.

Do u do wjec cs

Yes

How is it and do u recommend and is it even manageable bc of the coursework apparently is like a page everyday 300 around which is a lot and what grade you getting and wha examboard do for business and do y recommend business as thinking doing it what’s your easiest and hardest subject lmk and dyk anyone that does Soc with computer science or law or politics or psych or econ lmk

Apparently the coursework was so much for just 20% like you had to write 300 pages in a year or this for every examboard and isn’t that lots

Yes it is manageable, the coursework isn't until year 2, if you learn java / python in your first year or whatever language your school does it then you will be decently equipped for writing the code for your project in yr2. I did like 200 pages of writeup, but its not all writing, alot of the pages are just snippets of your code etc. I do business WJEC and its pretty easy / alot of common sense. However theres alot of theory you will have to learn in business but its pretty straightforward. My hardest subject is probably maths.

i did no where near 300 pages, i did 80 max, and most of it was tables for testing my program, and i still got an A in the coursework. It is manageable.