Computer Science

Course summary

Through the study of Computer Science at A Level, students will have the opportunity to apply the academic principles learned in the classroom to real-world systems. The course covers the fundamental concepts of Computer Science, including: abstraction, decomposition, logic, algorithms and data representation. Students will recognise how to analyse problems in computational terms through the practical experience of writing programs to do so. It’s an intensely creative course combining invention and excitement, requiring the capacity to think innovatively, analytically, logically and critically. The ability to understand the relationships between different aspects of Computer Science is beneficial, in addition to mathematical skills, which are embedded throughout the content of the three components. Students are assessed through two written papers, Component 01 “Computer Systems” provides a sound basis in topics such as data representation, hardware, software and systems architecture and Component 02 “Algorithms and Programming” further develops programming skills with increasing complexity. Students will be given an opportunity to enhance and consolidate these techniques/knowledge within Component 03 “The Programming Project”, where learners analyse, design, develop, test, evaluate and document a program, written in a suitable programming language.