GCSE Computer Science Study Group 2024-25

This thread is a place you can connect with fellow students who are also studying Computer Science at GCSE. Here we offer a space to support each other support as you prepare for your exams/coursework.
Feel free to share any helpful tips, resources, or advice you find along the way, and share any questions you have about the subject.
Help encourage others, celebrate your achievements, or simply vent when things get a bit overwhelming!
Lil serious note - just a reminder please be aware that sharing or requesting copyrighted materials is against our community guidelines, and moving conversations off-site for this purpose is not allowed. Posts violating these rules will be taken down.
To get started, here are a few questions to break the ice:

This thread is a place you can connect with fellow students who are also studying Computer Science at GCSE. Here we offer a space to support each other support as you prepare for your exams/coursework.
Feel free to share any helpful tips, resources, or advice you find along the way, and share any questions you have about the subject.
Help encourage others, celebrate your achievements, or simply vent when things get a bit overwhelming!
Lil serious note - just a reminder please be aware that sharing or requesting copyrighted materials is against our community guidelines, and moving conversations off-site for this purpose is not allowed. Posts violating these rules will be taken down.
To get started, here are a few questions to break the ice:

My exam board is OCR.
I mostly enjoy programming.
Is the three types of sorts and two types of search

Hi I need some help with app development can you help

My exam board is OCR (let's be honest, they basically dominate the subject)
Things I enjoy the most? Programming!
Topics I find challenging: My CS teacher set me work about Depth-First Searching vs Breadth-First Search and I still haven't been able to figure out how to implement it myself (I've been forbidden from looking at any code examples, only the theory)
Topics I find interesting: Loads of different things, I love this subject so much

Hi! I do AQA computer science and honestly I really really don't like the subject, but after doing it for over a year and a half I'm just dealing with it now 😞. Even though the school forced me to do it (because the business class was apparently full 🙄)and there are only like 10 people in the class, I kinda like programming as a minimum ( I do python). I'm so glad I get to drop this subject in a few months because computer science literally ruins my grades and generally really annoys me - it is a rather complex subject and thinking like a computer....😒. Anyway, logic gates are alright, sorting and searching algorithms are kind of fun ( especially bubble sort!) and the last block on ethical issues is basically common sense....

I kinda wish we did OCR because AQAs grade boundaries are really high for computer science (I'm getting 6s in the mocks) and there are more resources and explanations for OCR.

Got my computer science mock tomorrow! I'll let you know how it goes! I've had a breakthrough with trace tables now so I feel a bit better😐

i am using ocr, i very much enjoy coding and i hate the theory.

ME TOO! I hate theory for no specific reason though.

Same I'm doing ocr and I hate theory also it is boring. currently a 6 in my mocks and aimming for an 8-9

I am also doing OCR and am hating both sides to it. I am at a 6 (which is my predicted) which is ok but I'd be over the moon if I got a 7 for GCSE. Are there any tips to get better with programming/theory?

For programming, I would recommend just practicing a lot! For example, the Craig 'n' Dave time2code course (I've linked it for Python but there might be courses for other languages) or Snakify (this is for Python too).
For theory, look at the specification to check what you need to know, use a good resource like the Craig 'n' Dave videos or BBC Bitesize (you can make flashcards if you want), and definitely do practice questions which you can find on the OCR website.
Good luck!

My exam board is edexcel : barely anyone does it 😭
Programming! However I also find it the most difficult funnily enough

I do edexcel!!! it feels like no-one does it but at least we get the PLS and can write on computers