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A-Level Computer Science (AQA) - Best apps to study with?

Hi, I'm doing A-Level Computer Science (yr 12). Are there any proper apps or websites out there I can use to revise content through quizzes or flashcards (something like seneca)??? I've been making flashcards out of my textbook but its taking ages and I'm not taking things in.
personally, i would make flashcards using all of the powerpoints or learning resources used in class. i used to use quizlet but recently i've moved onto anki.

quizlet is good because you can generally find other people's flashcard sets for exactly what you need, just by searching "[exam board] A level computer science". its design is intuitive and easy to understand and grasp very quickly, and all of the flashcards you need are on the internet and easy to access.
the only notable drawback is the paywall that blocks free users from doing just about anything that would be helpful for an online flashcard service, such as formatting text, using your own images for flashcards, downloading flashcards to use offline, etc.

anki is another flashcard service (website, pc app, and a mobile app which is expensive on ios app store, but free on android play store). its layout and everything is a little more dated i guess and it's harder to initially understand how to use than the intuitive, modern look that quizlet has.
i'd recomend it because it has a lot of features you can only get from quizlet if you pay for quizlet plus, including all of the ones i mentioned earlier. also, for every flashcard you go through, you can select from 1-4 how confident you felt with it, and it then appears more or less frequently throughout your revision based on how you felt. (quizlet has a similar feature where you choose if you "know" it or are "still learning", but i find the way anki goes about it to be more helpful).
you also dont need internet access in order to look at your flashcards, only to upload or download changes from the cloud. i think(???) you can also look for user-made ankis to import, but i'm not 100% sure. however, anki is also good in that it supports user-made add-ons (plugins). one of these add-ons lets you import a quizlet set into anki, maintaining formatting, images, etc from the quizlet flashcards. so if you or anyone else does decide to use anki but doesn't want to/have the time to make their own flashcards, i would highly recommend having a look through quizlet for some good flashcard sets for your exam board, downloading the "Quizlet to Anki" add-on for anki, and importing them into anki (or make them yourself!! making flashcards encourages you to go through all content, and lets you tailor it to your own level of understanding!)
one of the drawbacks are that its a little hard to learn, as i mentioned, but i think its worth it considering its extra features. i think its a bit of a 50/50 whether you like anki or not, which i understand because using quizlet just kind of felt way nicer to use initially.

also, websites like Seneca as you mentioned can be quite good for varied revision that you don't have to make from scratch. a similar resource is computer neek, which as far as i'm aware just has a bunch of pre-made flashcards for each unit in the course.
Physics and Maths Tutor (PMT) is a godsend. it is sorted by paper, by topic; has massive lists of key words; notes sorted into concise, intermediate, and advanced; flashcards; and all the past papers you'd realistically need. its a great source of information for your own flashcard making, or as a go-to source for pre-made flashcards (downloadable as PDFs), or to fill gaps in your knowledge.

as for youtube, you've probably heard of Craig'n'Dave, who i wasn't a big fan of but others say they're helpful, and MrBrownCS.

there are also textbooks you can buy for each exam board, some with practice questions and some with every last drop of content needed for the exams (it covers everything and is quite helpful for when your own resources don't explain something very well).

for AQA paper 1, i would very much recommend practicing section A (general programming knowledge) and section B (coding) questions from past papers, because that's essentially the entire basis of paper 1. if you know the theory behind programming, and how to read and write code well, then you'll be in a very good position for sections C and D (which use the skeleton code you're given around December/January of year 13). the more confident you are at programming, the easier it will be to understand the skeleton code and any curveball 12 mark questions they can throw at you in sections C and D.

for paper 2, i recommend even more to use past papers, because the more exam questions you do, not only will you understand the content more, but you'll exhaust a lot of the different types of questions and topics that can come up in your real exams/mocks. this way, you'll have a way better idea on how to answer most questions they can throw at you. you don't even have to time yourself doing the papers, just pick one up and do a couple questions from it here and there. of course do time yourself at least sometimes, because its helpful to build the 2.5 hours of stamina you need for the exam, but the main focus should be to just understand the wording of questions and the points you need to hit to get marks.
also, the magnitude of all paper 2 content is very very daunting, so on top of doing past papers or exam questions, maybe try to look over just a few flashcards (or youtube videos, or whichever resource you end up using), literally 5 minutes worth, every day or every few days? being year 12, you have plenty of time to really understand the content. i only started properly looking back over flashcards less than a week before my paper 1 a level exam, so please learn from me that you should definitely definitely do little and often over an extended period of time, rather than cramming for 4 days straight. treat it like a duolingo or snapchat streak or something - i was far more keen to keep up my duolingo streak than to revise for my exams so try not to make that same mistake lol.
computer science is a very memory-based subject, like generally if you've just memorised key words then you'd be able to waffle to fill in the gaps in your answers and still potentially secure an A, but if you do manage to actually understand the content and how things work and what is going on, you'll be in a very good place. this can be done by using flashcards for the surface level content, and exam questions to know specifically how to make the examiners happy.

i realise how much i've written now, oops. this was instead of revising for my maths exam on tuesday.
tl;dr: use quizlet for easy flashcards, anki for flashcards with more features, and do past paper after past paper!!
other resources: youtube, textbooks, PMT, seneca, computerneek
Reply 2
haha thanks for the reply. I use quizlet already, but that's what I'm using to make flashcards because I couldn't find any ((public)) sets to use for the spec. I'm going to ask my teacher if it would be better to use class notes to make the flashcards, but textbooks contain stuff I couldn't write down in time. I'll chase up PMT ((if that's what you call going through their notes and pass papers)).For studying little and often with Section 2 content: how would you study flashcards out of the topic? Would you make each topic a set and then study one of those a day?
Original post by turbidite
haha thanks for the reply. I use quizlet already, but that's what I'm using to make flashcards because I couldn't find any ((public)) sets to use for the spec. I'm going to ask my teacher if it would be better to use class notes to make the flashcards, but textbooks contain stuff I couldn't write down in time. I'll chase up PMT ((if that's what you call going through their notes and pass papers)).For studying little and often with Section 2 content: how would you study flashcards out of the topic? Would you make each topic a set and then study one of those a day?

that's great to hear you're making flashcards already! asking your teachers is also a great idea and it's good that you're taking initiative so early. taking a look at PMT would be good! familiarise yourself with what resources you have readily available, so that way you won't ever feel lost for revision resources.

and yeah, for each topic i would make flashcards using whichever resources i had handy (usually the powerpoints and key word lists given to us for lessons). i would never cover all the content because i'd tailor them to my knowledge as i mentioned, for example i won't need to make flashcards for what an integer is, or any other areas of knowledge that i'm 100% confident on.
at least at this stage, maybe try not to stress about doing it lots, just as long as you're doing some. some days you might be tempted to sit down and do some more, or maybe a friend/family member might quick fire some at you, but other days you might want to focus entirely on another subject, or just may not be feeling up to doing anything at all.
one thing i forgot to mention in my original reply is that it also helps to make notes of your RAG (red, amber, or green) rating for each topic, and maybe even go deeper and RAG rate your confidence on the sub-parts of each topic (for example the individual lessons or key parts of topics). this really helps you to determine which flashcard sets to focus on most and least, and it can be really satisfying to change something from a red to amber, or amber to green, and watch as your list becomes more and more green.
that step isn't necessary but helps you to make more of a structure to which topics you revise and which flashcards to use.

as for frequency, as i said there isn't a massive stress on doing it much yet, so you can definitely get away with not doing it on some days. just as long as you do remember to keep doing little and often, little and often, anything will be better than nothing. but of course the more you do it, the most beneficial it will be, so yeah, aim for maybe a max of going through an entire flashcard set a day? (i say maximum because you still need to focus on your other subjects, and also having free time - its important to find a balance or just do what feels right). otherwise, just a handful of flashcards per day will do. even just doing the odd 3 or 4 on the way to school will have more long-term benefits than you might think.

i hope it all goes well for you, by the looks of things you're doing well already by trying hard to get prepared. if you have any other questions, i'll answer them as soon as i realise. good luck 🙏
Reply 4
Original post by nickadoodle302
that's great to hear you're making flashcards already! asking your teachers is also a great idea and it's good that you're taking initiative so early. taking a look at PMT would be good! familiarise yourself with what resources you have readily available, so that way you won't ever feel lost for revision resources.
and yeah, for each topic i would make flashcards using whichever resources i had handy (usually the powerpoints and key word lists given to us for lessons). i would never cover all the content because i'd tailor them to my knowledge as i mentioned, for example i won't need to make flashcards for what an integer is, or any other areas of knowledge that i'm 100% confident on.
at least at this stage, maybe try not to stress about doing it lots, just as long as you're doing some. some days you might be tempted to sit down and do some more, or maybe a friend/family member might quick fire some at you, but other days you might want to focus entirely on another subject, or just may not be feeling up to doing anything at all.
one thing i forgot to mention in my original reply is that it also helps to make notes of your RAG (red, amber, or green) rating for each topic, and maybe even go deeper and RAG rate your confidence on the sub-parts of each topic (for example the individual lessons or key parts of topics). this really helps you to determine which flashcard sets to focus on most and least, and it can be really satisfying to change something from a red to amber, or amber to green, and watch as your list becomes more and more green.
that step isn't necessary but helps you to make more of a structure to which topics you revise and which flashcards to use.
as for frequency, as i said there isn't a massive stress on doing it much yet, so you can definitely get away with not doing it on some days. just as long as you do remember to keep doing little and often, little and often, anything will be better than nothing. but of course the more you do it, the most beneficial it will be, so yeah, aim for maybe a max of going through an entire flashcard set a day? (i say maximum because you still need to focus on your other subjects, and also having free time - its important to find a balance or just do what feels right). otherwise, just a handful of flashcards per day will do. even just doing the odd 3 or 4 on the way to school will have more long-term benefits than you might think.
i hope it all goes well for you, by the looks of things you're doing well already by trying hard to get prepared. if you have any other questions, i'll answer them as soon as i realise. good luck 🙏

Thank you!

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