Overview
Practical, creative and academic, A Level Computer Science builds on the skills and knowledge developed at GCSE, with an emphasis on problem solving using computers, computer programming and algorithms, and the mathematical skills such as Boolean algebra used to express computational laws and processes.
Having gained significant programming skills at GCSE, pupils will be exposed to several programming paradigms and languages and the opportunity to develop their own computing project.
Entry requirements
At least a grade 8 in GCSE Mathematics.
Course content
Year 12
- The characteristics of contemporary processors
- Input, output and storage devices
- Software and software development
- Essential programming
- Object Oriented Programming
- Data types
- Data structures
- Computational thinking
- Algorithms
- Problem solving
- Programming NEA
Year 13
- Exchanging data
- Problem solving
- Programming NEA
- Legal, moral and ethical issues
- Revision
Assessment
Paper 1: Computer Systems (2 hours and 30 minutes written exam: 40% of marks)
Paper 2: Algorithms and Programming (2 hours and 30 minutes written exam: 40% of marks)
Programming Project: Coursework (20% of marks)
Exam board
OCR Computer Science (H446)