The OCR A Level in computer science will encourage you to be inspired, motivated and challenged by following a broad, coherent, practical, satisfying and worthwhile course of study. It will provide insight into, and experience of how computer science works, stimulating your curiosity and encouraging you to engage with computer science in your everyday lives and to make informed choices about further study or career choices. What you will study: • Component 1 Computer Systems – External written exam – 140 Marks – 2 hours and 30 minutes This component will introduce learners to the internal workings of the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the exchange of data and will also look at software development, data types and legal and ethical issues. It is expected that you will draw on this underpinning content when studying computational thinking, developing programming techniques and devising your own programming approach in the Programming project component (03). You will be expected to apply the criteria below in different contexts including current and future uses of the technologies. • Component 2 Algorithms and Programming – External written exam – 140 Marks – 2 hours and 30 minutes This component will incorporate and build on the knowledge and understanding gained in the computer systems component (01). In addition, you should: o understand what is meant by computational thinking o understand the benefits of applying computational thinking to solving a wide variety of problems o understand the principles of solving problems by computational methods o be able to use algorithms to describe problems o be able to analyse a problem by identifying its component parts.   • Component 3 Programming project – Internally assessed Programming project component (03) is a practical portfolio based assessment with a task that is chosen by the teacher or learner and is produced in an appropriate programming language of the learner’s or teacher’s choice. You will be expected to analyse, design, develop, test, evaluate and document a program written in a suitable programming language. The underlying approach to the project is to apply the principles of computational thinking to a practical coding problem. You will be expected to apply appropriate principles from an agile development approach to the project development. While the project assessment criteria are organised into specific categories, it is anticipated the final report will document the agile development process and elements for each of the assessment categories will appear throughout the report.