Computer science GCSE advice needed

[Jamrollypolly]

Hi

My daughter would like to do GCSE computer science, I would appreciate advice/feedback from anyone who has children who are doing this course.

How have they found it? Is it valued by colleges & universities?

Thank you in advance

Haven't done it, DS has signed up for it, I think it's one of the EBacc choices so considered quite respectable.

Definitely valued by universities & employers. There's a shortage of people with coding skills, and this will hopefully get more young people to consider computer science & related courses at higher education level.

Yeah it's more challenging than the general IT GCSE I think. DS1 has just taken it this year and is really enjoying it. He's really good at maths and problems so it's right up his street. Not everyone was allowed to do it at his school, as they felt some would struggle with the demands. From what I can gather, I think it probably wouldn't be for someone who doesn't really like maths and problem solving. From the infor we were given, the normal IT GCSE is more about learning to use the programmes such as word, excel etc whilst computer science is writing programmes and working out challenges. Both were accepted to do A level computing at our local college, but computing science was also listed as useful if you wanted to do maths. DH is a computer programmer and he thinks it is good from what my son has discussed with him.

Ds1 took this and absolutely loves it. He likes being able to create his own programmes and problem solving.
He will often talk to me about what he is stuck on and then say "thanks, Ive solved it." with me having done nothing as I have no idea.
He is doing well at it though so we are happy. He is also very good at logical subjects, maths, stats, latin and german so it fits with this.

Extract from Bristol University's admission criteria to study Computer Science:

"A Level Computer Science, Computing or ICT are not required for any of our courses. For students looking for a good grounding in the principles of Computing pre A Level, we do recommend the new GCSE in Computing".

Dd's school don't do GCSE computing only computer science. Does anyone know what the difference is?

For students looking for a good grounding in the principles of Computing pre A Level, we do recommend the new GCSE in Computing

I think that is refering to the OCR GCSE in Computing which I think was new in 2009. I think OCR was the only exam board to introduce this prior to 2012.

Dd's school don't do GCSE computing only computer science. Does anyone know what the difference is?

In 2012 the other exam boards introduced similar qualifications titled Computer Science, in line with the then draft National Curriculum for 2014, but OCR have kept the title Computing although the syllabus is more or less the same.

At A level, all the exam boards use the title Computing

Ds has just signed up for this next year - his school only recommend it's taken by dc who are v good at maths and problem-solving

Ds was bored to tears by IT lessons as he wants to learn about coding etc and how computers work

By daughter is doing computer science and absolutely loves it. She's always on her computer editing her coursework and wants to do it for A level and maybe even degree :)
She already had quite a lot of knowledge before she started the course, but when I asked her it sounds like not many of the others did - but one thing to bear in mind is that even though they don't actually do much maths, it requires that kind of logical thinking, so at my daughters school they only let kids with level 8 in maths take it.
Also, it might be different in other schools, but she's the only girl in whole sch taking it, which doesn't bother her at all - but i suppose put others off :(

So, yer wonderful course, it dose stretch the kids a lot, but they all seem to still love it :)

DS1 in y10 is doing it and absolutely loves it, particularly programming. Strong possibility he'll continue with it at A level but that's still not a requirement at degree level - maths is essential.

Ancient thread.
I've had 2 DC do CS now. Glad they did. :)