A Level
Exam Board: OCR
Subject Leader: Mr S Sycamore

Computer Science is an intensely creative subject that combines invention and excitement, and can look at the natural world through a digital prism. OCR’s A Level in Computer Science will value computational thinking, helping learners to develop the skills to solve problems, design systems and understand the power and limits of human and machine intelligence.

How is the course organised and assessed?

This course is divided into three components, Computer Systems, which contains the majority of the content on the course and is assessed in a written paper recalling knowledge and understanding (40% total mark), Algorithms and Programming, which focussing on problem-solving skills to let students apply knowledge gained in component one (40% total mark), and finally a programming project, which is a practical portfolio based assessment with a task that is chosen in consultation with the teacher and is produced in an appropriate programming language agreed with the teacher (20% total mark).  Each of the two papers are 2 hours and 30 minutes long and include a mix of short answer and long answer questions.

What's next?

A level Computer Science leads naturally into any and all computing degrees including, Information Technology, Information Systems, or Engineering. 

View the learning journey for Computer Science at NLS