Computer Science

Computation is at the heart of the quest to unravel the secrets of life and in the era of tablets and smart devices. Is coding or programming a computer, something which we can leave to a few specialists?

Entry Requirements

6 in GCSE Computer Science and 6 in GCSE mathematics.

Assessment

AQA  A-level qualification

Paper 1 – On-screen exam: 2 hours 30 minutes 40% of A-level

Paper 2 – Written exam: 2 hours 30 minutes 40% of A-level

NEA – Non-exam assessment: 20% of A-level

BEYOND SIXTH FORM

The qualification carries UCAS points and is recognised by higher education providers as contributing to meeting admission requirements for many courses if taken alongside other qualifications as part of a two-year programme of learning, including, but not exclusively, those which are science-related. The qualification can be taken as part of a diverse programme, leaving progression options fully open.

It can also give context to subjects which would benefit from some scientific background. 

Computer science is a broad-based course where you will gain a sound understanding of the internal structure of computers and how they operate. A large part of the course relates to problem-solving in which you will study programming to develop your logic skills. This will enable you to learn how to produce algorithmic solutions to these problems.

You will study in detail:

  • Introduction to programming using a high-level programming language

  • Problem-solving

  • Number systems – including binary, hexadecimal and decimal systems

  • Networking communications and protocols

  • Hardware components of a computer system

  • Advanced programming techniques

  • Operating systems

  • Databases

  • Moral, ethical, legal and cultural issues of computing

Practical Project

This provides opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the systems development life-cycle. You will produce a relatively complex program to a real user problem and provide documentation for the analysis, design, construction, testing and evaluation of the system.

What sort of work will I be doing?

  • Problem-solving using introductory and advanced programming tasks. Solutions will be produced using both procedural and object-oriented approaches

  • Research tasks and past paper theory questions based on the theory topics above

  • Computer project


Exam board: AQA

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