Computer Studies / Computing

Course summary

A level of Computer Science is a practical and rigorous course where you apply academic principles, learnt in the classroom, to real-world systems. It is a creative subject that combines invention and excitement. Our qualification values computational thinking, helping you develop the skills to solve problems, design systems, and understand the powers and limits of human and machine intelligence. These concepts lie at the heart of this qualification and are the best preparation if you want to study Computer Science at a higher level. A level of Computer Science also provides a good grounding for other subjects that require programming, computational thinking and analytical skills. At Highgate, you will learn largely by doing, with much of the course content being illustrated by programming and working with Computer hardware. You will learn how to write efficient algorithms and how to analyse data for Scientific discovery. Another aspect of Computing is related to design – how can we build well-designed programs and hardware that are a pleasure to use? Computing is also about getting things to work and you will find out how both computer software and hardware are engineered and improved. Finally, we look at how computers are changing the world and examine some of the legal, ethical and cultural implications of rapid technological advances in areas such as data science and artificial intelligence.