Computing or ICT at A-Level ?

simmed

Hi guys,
Im a year 11 student currently choosing my A levels.

I'm looking to head into a career in finances, maybe investment banking, accounting, whatever, and at A-Levels I am definitely taking Maths, Politics, Economics and either ICT/Computing.

In taster sessions, it has been said many times that ICT is easier than computing, and also that ICT has connotations with computers in the work place, but I would really like to have a challenge too and take computing, which concentrates on hardware and programming skills. Cant make up my mind between the two.

Any advice ?

tsimehC

I can't give any personal experiences of studying for ICT/Computing A levels but I had a friend who did do them. He was doing both of them but decided to drop Computing after AS because he found it to be too much of a challenge but later in A2 he regretted this saying that ICT was far less interesting than Computing. Guess that's just personal preferences though but he did get an A in the end xD!

I did Maths though so enjoy that (hehehe).

poor_poor_student

Hey, my brother is your age and is also picking his A levels he wants to go into the same sort of things as you but more the business side rather than maths. He's picked ICT and business studies along with two others. I did ICT 4 years ago and believe me its not easy! For the AQA course theres 4 exams and a massive pieces of coursework - my total page count was over 200! However, (maybe slightly biased) but i think its really useful for that area of business. You learn all about the ethics of hardware and software as well as much more advanced skills. My friend who did ICT in my class and computing complained that computing was all about taking it apart and putting it back together, writing programmes and doing more of the hand on stuff rather than the business side of things. Hope that helps

Blacksheep1979

do computing - will be thought of more highly by universities. Also there is more of a maths based background to computer science type courses that should be complemented by the maths a-levels.

flossy_splodge

Just to throw a spanner in the works, History is actually one of the most sought after subjects as it is seen as being rigorous and develops analytical thinking and reasoning.
I know someone who is doing very nicely thank you in Banking from a degree in History.Good luck whatever you choose.:T

Stubert

As you've mentioned ICT is more about IT in the workplace. It's mainly about procedures and that sort of thing such as the Data Protection Act, Computer Misuse Act and that sort of thing.

The papers are pretty repetitive and A2 is pretty much exactly the same as AS but just in a little more depth (i.e. its not really different subjects covered).

The coursework as mentioned is MASSIVE and its pretty much impossible to know what you're doing unless you get an example coursework. Somebody mentioned it was really hard, I wouldn't really say it is. I think its more about common sense. Coursework, if you can build a half decent system is pretty easy but really time consuming doing all the testing etc. But immense satisfaction once its completed.

I haven't done Computing, but I dare say its probably interesting than ICT. And probably more useful later on in life, but I assume its probably harder.

Blacksheep1979

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Just to throw a spanner in the works, History is actually one of the most sought after subjects as it is seen as being rigorous and develops analytical thinking and reasoning.
I know someone who is doing very nicely thank you in Banking from a degree in History.Good luck whatever you choose.:T

yes you can get into banking with a history degree and dr.'s (medical) go down well in the banking world. Unfortunately we're talking about a levels here, not degrees

Helix

I've done both and I would say go for Computing. Its a bit harder than ICT with all the theory but there isn't as much coursework to do.

The coursework for ICT isn't too hard there is just a hell of a lot of it. Also I find with the ICT exams its very hard to get a decent grade. You could put down an answer which is perfectly correct but then not get many or any marks for it. Its not just me that thinks this lots of people on another forum I went on thought the same.

Also ICT is a bit like A-Level Microsoft Office with a few extras thrown in but if your school/exam board lets you choose optional units then you can avoid some of this which is what I did. Computing on the other hand teaches you the theory behind how computers work and you get to do some programming as well. Computing is also more respected by Universities.

BruceyBonus

I'm studying for A2 Computing this year - I got an A in AS Computing.

The subject is more interesting than ICT - however it covers some quite complicated principles that most people won't really understand.

You need to be able to learn to program quite quickly, so previous experience is preferable. People in our class who had never programmed before struggled with the AS coursework, however they did catch up.

With our exam board, the ICT and Computing A2 coursework is actually the same.

My college had 2 groups of about 15 doing AS Computing. Now there are only 7 people doing A2 Computing.

paperclip4201

by some universities ICT is seen as softer then computing

from people studying them i've heard that ICT is really boring whilst computing is tough

[Deleted User]

If you work in finance, they'll be far more interested in your maths rather than the IT.... personally i'd do computing (but i love a bit of good computer science). Actual computer science is far more about logical ideas than anything else.

Why not take a look at the syllabus for the two subjects and make a decision from that?