Computer Science or Art

If she's doing DT, adding Art will be a high workload, especially if she's doing Triple Science.

If she's good at CS, it will be easy for her to excel at it. I have one dd who 'doesn't like CS, but is good at it'.....

Computer science as art is something you can self study very easily, art through the current school system doesn't leave you with much at the end.

"This is something I read here regularly. That doing Art for GCSE can turn it into a chore to be got through, rather than enjoyment."

Would agree with this 100%.

My DS really deliberated between computer science and graphics (slightly different to art obviously, but close enough as a subject that his school does not allow students to take both art and graphics as they are deemed so similar) for his last GCSE option. He loves drawing and has ambitions to be a comic book writer. It was a close run thing.

What put him off was exactly the above - and the thought of having to do lots of coursework and produce a large portfolio (I'll be honest and say I was put off by that too, or rather by the idea of having to nag him to do it ).

He opted for computer science and has kept art as a nice calming hobby at home. Definitely been the right decision for him.

^^This is something I read here regularly. That doing Art for GCSE can turn it into a chore to be got through, rather than enjoyment.

That was also true for DD. She is a talented artist and seriously considered doing A level art, but was put off it by her cousin who told her how much coursework was involved. She took science subjects instead and only after A levels did she start to enjoy drawing again.

For an easier life regarding school work, CS. If she's got that bright logical brain, she'll find it straightforward, and art has the huge workload (although if they enjoy it that can be relaxing).

Keeping options open - not doing CS is unlikely to prevent her picking it up at A-level, but the problem is that it's harder to work out whether you want to study something if you haven't done it at GCSE. If she goes in the science/maths direction, she may well need to program at some point, but it is something that people pick up at different points. (My daughter has decided against CS - she would find it straightforward, and she will very likely end up in a career where she will program, but she also knows she could learn it without the GCSE.)

and she is now loving art again without being expected to show artist influences, progression of her idea etc.

^^This is something I read here regularly. That doing Art for GCSE can turn it into a chore to be got through, rather than enjoyment.

OP would your DD be better off doing CS GCSE and keeping Art 'for fun'?

DD was due to sit her art GCSE just before the Easter holiday, but obviously this has been cancelled now. It has been a huge amount of coursework, but she is a talented artist and didn’t mind it, she was planning to take it for A level.

Four weeks after all her school work stopped and she is now loving art again without being expected to show artist influences, progression of her idea etc. She’s also strongly re-thinking taking it for A level, she says the thought of going back to doing art in that way again doesn’t appeal to her any more.

My dd has done both options (and engineering which is very close to DT with an engineering bias) dd is very talented at art and I think that's important, it's a very practical subject, but she likes to draw or paint things she chooses not what was set by her art teacher, which was quite prescriptive stuff based on learning certain techniques. They spent ages drawing a rope at the beginning of the course, she hated that. There was a lot of coursework but not too much academic stuff to learn. All in all she didn't enjoy it but I think someone who loves art but is more flexible about what they do would enjoy it.

Computer science dd enjoyed, this is really the opposite to art, lots to learn academically very maths based, but the coding project is not actually marked but you do have to do it. So there's no true coursework element to the exam. She felt outnumbered by boys in her class. This subject is definitely for someone who likes STEM and computers not just for using them but programming and that side of things.

Dd favourite subject was actually engineering, she is great at the technical drawing and doesn't seem to mind drawing what she is told in this lesson, all the maths was easy for her as she is in top set maths and any maths in engineering was easier. She struggled a bit with the heavy machines but was good at anything that required precision like soldering. Again she was very outnumbered by boys but her teacher was a woman and that helped a lot. The engineering was a Btec with a real exam in year 10 and lots of coursework.

Dd is very organised and good at keeping up with coursework and projects, that helped in all the subjects as even in computer science they had to do this unmarked coding project of 20hours.

I think artistic ability will be a huge help in art even though they might say it's not, and you don't need to be very academic.

Also think.about what A levels etc she might do as if it's more STEM them CS seems a better choice, if more arts then art.

I'm going to be a bit biased here, because I'm a software engineer and goodness knows we need more women! However, I would say generally that CS opens up a lot more options than Art, particularly when it comes to higher paying and the sheer quantity of jobs - there is a massive skills shortage.

Even if she doesn't pursue it as a career (and it is a great career for people with HFA - we're everywhere!) it will make her CV stand out a bit more, especially compared to other women. Yes, you can be self-taught with computing, many are, but a bit of paper opens more doors. If she's not been doing a great deal already, the course would be even more useful if she decides to go that way in life.

The nice thing about Art is that you can do it anywhere, at any time, for therapeutic reasons. You don't need a qualification in it to benefit from that aspect of it. Plus, no idea what things are like now, but I seem to recall back in the day that those who chose Art ended up spending more time on Art homework/coursework than all their other subjects put together! And it is not as much fun when you're forced to create things you wouldn't normally choose to either.

For what it's worth - CS (certainly as a career) is a lot more creative than many people realise. If she worries about losing an outlet for creativity, there's no danger of that

CS can be hard, but at the risk of generalising massively, people with HFA often have the right brain for it. It's why so many of us choose it as a career!

Art involves a lot of coursework. I don't know much about DT, but I imagine that does as well. Computer Science is harder conceptually but much less time consuming.

Well it's hard to say! I've heard they are both 'hard" subjects, they both involve a lot of work. My son is doing both. Art would be useful for designing user interfaces in computer programming.

Computer science is really hard; you have to be working at a 6 in maths and science to choose it at my school. Has she looked at any basic programming online? Obviously art is challenging in a completely different way. Which is she most drawn to?

Is she interested in how computers work and programming?