Computer Studies / Computing

Assessment

The full A-level qualification has 3 units of work which consist of 2 exams and a project. The examination structure is like this: Exam 2.5 hours 40% Exam 2.5 hours 40% Project Various 20% In the second exam, you will be writing code, by hand, on the exam paper. For this, you will be required to produce a program in either Python, VB.Net, or Java as well as answer some short answer questions and possibly debug a program provided by the exam board. The school currently teaches Python, but if you are self-taught in VB or Java you will be able to use that language in the exam if you are more proficient in it. (There are exam boards that offer on-screen coding exams. These sound much better than the paper-based versions but are often very stressful for students and require extra time preparing for an exam board task. This can be distracting in a period of generalized exam preparation.)