A levels

[DJ_Martin]

Engineering is the same rate/just a bit higher than computer science atm. Still bad though.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ates-unemployed-amid-fragile-jobs-market.html

That link is quite interesting. It is a shame that I was never any good at biology. Always tended to be the science I struggled with and despite revising very hard for my biology GCSEs and not at all for physics in the 1st and 2nd modules of both I ended up with an A* for Physics and a low A/High B (I think I was on the borderline) for Biology.

I don't understand why Computer Science is so bad. What happened to "Computers are the future!"?

 

[UK-AL05]

That link is quite interesting. It is a shame that I was never any good at biology. Always tended to be the science I struggled with and despite revising very hard for my biology GCSEs and not at all for physics in the 1st and 2nd modules of both I ended up with an A* for Physics and a low A/High B (I think I was on the borderline) for Biology.

I don't understand why Computer Science is so bad. What happened to "Computers are the future!"

The subject is hard, cs is basically applied math especially if you go into the AI/ML side of things.

However its kind of its own enemy, the internet has made it easy to outsource software development, I.T support to abroad. I am cs guy doing a masters, I have job doing mobile software development on the side, and I might be doing a phd. I love the subject, so i would have done it regardless. On positive note, its still had 86% employment rate, the worst but you still have 86% chance of getting a job.

 

[RomanNose]

Weirdly its better to media/art stuff at the moment compared to engineering or cs for jobs...according to official statistics.

Interesting, I don't think it will last like this though. An engineering degree is 4 years, I really down the economic climate is going to be the same in 5/6 years.I went to UCL for a taster course not long ago and even in this climate Engineering still has one of the highest starting salaries, in fact EEE is second place behind accounting with an average of 25k. Along with this those media/art students are probably working in something unrelated to their course. Another thing that I picked up on is that the Finance industry is taking engineering graduates, though it may be the case that this is because UCL is close to the city. In fact there were more students who went off to finance than went into engineering, but 40% of all the students went onto post grad education.

 

[Mr Jack]

I don't understand why Computer Science is so bad. What happened to "Computers are the future!"?

Computer Science suffers from a few problems:

1. Computer Science is a theoretical rather than practical subject; meaning that while it' s of use for a computer based role it's not that directly important.
2. As a newish subject it is seen as less valuable than older subjects like maths.
3. Computer Science students have a reputation as lacking soft skills important in many jobs (i.e. the ol' smelly loner stereotype).

 

[UK-AL05]

Computer Science suffers from a few problems:

1. Computer Science is a theoretical rather than practical subject; meaning that while it' s of use for a computer based role it's not that directly important.
2. As a newish subject it is seen as less valuable than older subjects like maths.
3. Computer Science students have a reputation as lacking soft skills important in many jobs (i.e. the ol' smelly loner stereotype).

The biggest problems are outsourcing and intra-company transfers. We used to have one of the highest rates of employment, and we still had those stereotypes. However I have been told by the oldies in the industry, is that outsourcing comes and goes in waves.

Another positive note. Computer Science degrees from imperial university have the highest starting salary of any degree on average.


As someone mentioned above engineering grads have one of the highest chances of working in the city, cs phds tend to work as quants in the city.

 

[explicit4u]

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. I'm 16, have picked my A-Levels and I want to go on and do a CS degree at a Russell Group university. I've picked Maths, Physics, Economics and Chemistry. Chemistry is pretty much irrelevant to CS, I just picked it because I'm good at it and Economics is there because I'm interested in it and it's a more laid back subject (compared to maths/science). The most important ones there are Maths and Physics, I'm sure that both of these are popular choices among CS applicants and I know that Universities regard them as some of the harder A-Levels you can pick.

If you are still able to change or pick your A-Levels I'd recommend doing further maths. From what I've heard from other people doing CS, some of the first year is similar if not the same as A-Level Further Maths so knowing it in advance could reduce some of your uni workload. Unfortunately I can't change my options now but I might be able to drop Economics for A2 and pick up AS Further Maths if my AS Maths results are good enough. Don't be put off by the difficulty of Further Maths, good things rarely come easy in life!

According to the Guardians League table, people who attend the top uni's and take IT/Computer Science usually have around a 70-85%* chance at getting a job within 6 moths, so it's not all bad. If you come out from uni with decent grades you shouldn't have much trouble finding a job, especially if you get a 1st or 2:1 from a decent uni like Imperial or Oxbridge.

Any Idea where you might want to go for uni?

* Source

 

[Mr Jack]

The biggest problems are outsourcing and intra-company transfers. We used to have one of the highest rates of employment, and we still had those stereotypes.

There's still plenty of jobs in the computing sector, but more computing graduates are being produced than are needed for that sector. That's not usually a problem because degrees give you lots of valued transferable skills so a significant proportion of graduates can find work outside of the area of their degree. Here, Computer Science is counted less highly than other degrees.

 

[UK-AL05]

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. I'm 16, have picked my A-Levels and I want to go on and do a CS degree at a Russell Group university. I've picked Maths, Physics, Economics and Chemistry. Chemistry is pretty much irrelevant to CS, I just picked it because I'm good at it and Economics is there because I'm interested in it and it's a more laid back subject (compared to maths/science). The most important ones there are Maths and Physics, I'm sure that both of these are popular choices among CS applicants and I know that Universities regard them as some of the harder A-Levels you can pick.

If you are still able to change or pick your A-Levels I'd recommend doing further maths. From what I've heard from other people doing CS, some of the first year is similar if not the same as A-Level Further Maths so knowing it in advance could reduce some of your uni workload. Unfortunately I can't change my options now but I might be able to drop Economics for A2 and pick up AS Further Maths if my AS Maths results are good enough. Don't be put off by the difficulty of Further Maths, good things rarely come easy in life!

According to the Guardians League table, people who attend the top uni's and take IT/Computer Science usually have around a 70-85%* chance at getting a job within 6 moths, so it's not all bad. If you come out from uni with decent grades you shouldn't have much trouble finding a job, especially if you get a 1st or 2:1 from a decent uni.

Any Idea where you might want to go for uni?

* Source

There no difficulty difference between maths and further, just that you can do more modules. I was surprised to hear that matrices and linear mathematics is further mathematics module? Even though its a pretty easy thing.

I did a btec in electronic engineering, which got me into a russell. The maths in that was basically calculus + trig + imaginary numbers/complex numbers + matrices and vectors.

 

[UK-AL05]

There's still plenty of jobs in the computing sector, but more computing graduates are being produced than are needed for that sector. That's not usually a problem because degrees give you lots of valued transferable skills so a significant proportion of graduates can find work outside of the area of their degree. Here, Computer Science is counted less highly than other degrees.

I suppose that makes sense, respected for relevant jobs, slightly less respected where those stereotypes come into play.

 

[Hxc]

There no difficulty difference between maths and further, just that you can do more modules. I was surprised to hear that matrices and linear mathematics is further mathematics module? Even though its pretty easy thing.

Would strongly disagree. Maths at A level is a lot easier than Further Maths, having done both. It is several degrees more complex and difficult, particularly if you end up doing FP3 and FP4.

Would also say that from experience, A level choices are important. Do a good solid couple of science/maths subjects if possible, more if you like them, and then something with some proper essay/writing skills and you leave many doors open.

Ideal A level setup for keeping as many doors as possible open IMO would be

Maths
Further Maths
Physics/Biology/Chemistry
English Lang/Lit

Geography or History instead of Eng are a good comprimise if you don't like how heavy english can be.

 

[dfarrall]

Imo pick easy subjects unless your aiming for a top 5 uni.
They dont seem to care what you pick, just what you get in the subjects.
Im just finishing up first year uni, dissapointed with my course so far but meh, doesnt feel like i have a choice to not do uni, i just dont see how i can come out with a good job currently.

 

[explicit4u]

There no difficulty difference between maths and further, just that you can do more modules. I was surprised to hear that matrices and linear mathematics is further mathematics module? Even though its pretty easy thing.

Really? I was always under the impression that Further Maths featured more advanced and in-depth modules than standard Maths.

Imo pick easy subjects unless your aiming for a top 5 uni.
They dont seem to care what you pick, just what you get in the subjects.

I'd disagree, most courses like CS or Maths require at least an A in A-Level Maths along with 2 more A's (preferably one of them being science or further maths).

 

[UK-AL05]

Really? I was always under the impression that Further Maths featured more advanced and in-depth modules than standard Maths.

I don't know? But I looked at the modules, and some of things I found easy where in the further mathematics a-level. I think it might be hard to judge the difficulty from the brief description.

Heres some of the examples I found in the curriculum

Vectors, including the cross product and the triple scalar product - These are pretty easy.
Further Matrices - Pretty easy for me, need to become really good at this for graphics
Taylor series - I remember this, went into explaining euler's identity using it and how it links so many subjects in maths- pretty easy
proof of induction is pretty much required for cs people in algorithms.

I've only done a few ODE problems though, although i find them interesting.

Maybe the problems are trickier?

 

[Morbius]

There no difficulty difference between maths and further, just that you can do more modules. I was surprised to hear that matrices and linear mathematics is further mathematics module? Even though its pretty easy thing.

From what I remember, it's a fairly basic introduction to the subject.

 

[DJ_Martin]

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. I'm 16, have picked my A-Levels and I want to go on and do a CS degree at a Russell Group university. I've picked Maths, Physics, Economics and Chemistry. Chemistry is pretty much irrelevant to CS, I just picked it because I'm good at it and Economics is there because I'm interested in it and it's a more laid back subject (compared to maths/science). The most important ones there are Maths and Physics, I'm sure that both of these are popular choices among CS applicants and I know that Universities regard them as some of the harder A-Levels you can pick.

If you are still able to change or pick your A-Levels I'd recommend doing further maths. From what I've heard from other people doing CS, some of the first year is similar if not the same as A-Level Further Maths so knowing it in advance could reduce some of your uni workload. Unfortunately I can't change my options now but I might be able to drop Economics for A2 and pick up AS Further Maths if my AS Maths results are good enough. Don't be put off by the difficulty of Further Maths, good things rarely come easy in life!

According to the Guardians League table, people who attend the top uni's and take IT/Computer Science usually have around a 70-85%* chance at getting a job within 6 moths, so it's not all bad. If you come out from uni with decent grades you shouldn't have much trouble finding a job, especially if you get a 1st or 2:1 from a decent uni like Imperial or Oxbridge.

Any Idea where you might want to go for uni?

* Source

Well obviously I will be trying to get a job while at uni and pay my way as much as possible but my parents have said that there will be difficulty in paying for university and for a place to live so it looks like I will have to live at home, at least for the beginning of it. I don't fancy leaving uni with huge loans to pay off either so I was mainly looking at Cardiff University. I haven't looked into any facts but I have been told a few times that it is a good university.

Also I am unable to take further maths at my school as they only offer it to special cases.

 

[Hxc]

From what I remember, it's a fairly basic introduction to the subject.

Friends doing Maths at uni have found that in the first year they are covering a lot of familer ground we did during FP3 and FP4.

It is significantly harder than normal maths.

Also, league tables are hugely flawed. For Earth and Marine sciences they place UWE Bristol above UoB on the guardian... I'm going to UoB and I would say without doubt it is the better and far more respected course and uni!

 

[Nitefly]

I'd disagree, most courses like CS or Maths require at least an A in A-Level Maths along with 2 more A's (preferably one of them being science or further maths).

Or photography

 

[UK-AL05]

Friends doing Maths at uni have found that in the first year they are covering a lot of familer ground we did during FP3 and FP4.

It is significantly harder than normal maths.

Also, league tables are hugely flawed. For Earth and Marine sciences they place UWE Bristol above UoB on the guardian... I'm going to UoB and I would say without doubt it is the better and far more respected course and uni!

I love the UoB campus =P Aston webb building is awesome.

 

[Hxc]

Aah sorry, by UoB i meant Bristol, not Birmingham

 

[Judgeneo]

Friends doing Maths at uni have found that in the first year they are covering a lot of familer ground we did during FP3 and FP4.

It is significantly harder than normal maths.

Also, league tables are hugely flawed. For Earth and Marine sciences they place UWE Bristol above UoB on the guardian... I'm going to UoB and I would say without doubt it is the better and far more respected course and uni!

In my first year we spent only part of the first 5 weeks covering some of the further maths, just as a reminder, everyone already knew it anyway. Then we moved onto proper maths.

I do agree that the league tables are a bit crap, but anything in the top 10 on them is a good shout. Also worth noting is where employers look for graduates, Warwick comes second in this list, but only 6th in the guardians table.



My advice would be not to do Art, I did a Photography AS at the same time as Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry, for the same reasons as you plan to choose Art. Photography took by far the most time and effort to do, and I got the worse marks in it. By dropping it after AS (and Chemistry) I improved by 2 grades with little to no extra effort.

If you want an easier subject, pick media studies. If you want a better shout at getting into University, do Further maths. I recommend doing Further Maths to AS level either way, as it is a great help for when you are doing A-level maths and it makes university level applied maths a lot less scary.