Independent Study Area

Below is a list of different independent learning activities you can use in your directed study time and study days

Websites

Websites to read through and work through programming exercises

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/vb.net/index.htm

http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/NET/vbNet.html

https://www.memrise.com/courses/english/computers-engineering/

https://www.memrise.com/course/1211053/ocr-a-level-computer-science/1/

Videos

https://clickv.ie/w/eTGh - Cyber Attack: The Day the NHS Stopped

https://clickv.ie/w/gTGh - The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms

https://clickv.ie/w/hTGh - Absolute Genius: Alan Turing

https://clickv.ie/w/9TGh - Coding: The Future is Creative

https://clickv.ie/w/MTGh - Film: The Imitation Game

https://clickv.ie/w/Xp8k - The Joy of Data

https://clickv.ie/w/-p8k - The Joy of AI

https://clickv.ie/w/aq8k - How do Operating Systems Work

Books

Read course textbooks, make notes, complete topic questions, activities and check answers

• OCR A Level Computer Science. by George Rouse , Jason Pitt , Sean O'Byrne
• OCR AS and A Level Computer Science. By P. M. Heathcote, R. S. U. Heathcote
• My Revision Notes OCR A level Computer Science. By Hodder Education
• Computing Projects in Visual Basic .Net. by Mr Derek Christopher

Code Academy

https://www.codecademy.com/ Work through the courses available to help you improve your programming skills through practice.

Mind Maps

Create a set of mind maps for each topic. This could also be done with each sub-topic.

Have you tried using https://www.mindmeister.com/ you could share these with your peers.

Quizlet

https://quizlet.com/ Create a set of keywords and descriptions. With these you could make the following to help you with your understanding of each:

Flashcards, Match, Tests, Learn, Gravity Game

You could share these with your peers. You could recreate most of these by using pen and paper if you have not able to gain access to the internet.

Glossary of Key Terms

Throughout the year add all the new terminology to your glossary. You could do this in alphabetical order or grouped into topics.

Revision Wall

When creating mindmaps and flashcards, why not create a wall of revision that is easy to access, like in your bedroom. You will know where all your revision material is then.

Rearrange your folder

Instead of grouping your notes in order by theme, why not group them by how confident you are in that topic. You can have the following 3 areas, separated by a divider:

Confident - You fully understand the topic - Low Priority

Unsure - Know parts of the topic but need more time on it - Medium Priority

Not Confident - Do not understand this topic, need to seek out help - High Priority

From this, you know exactly which topics you need to revise first and which you are confident on. You can the more notes through each section as you become more confident in it

Highlighting/Color Coding

Go through your assessments using a colour key and highlight areas of strengths and weaknesses in your answers. Improve your areas of weaknesses by acting on feedback given.

Articles

Within the exam you may get an essay based question on anyone of the topics. You will require knowledge based on current news articles. Good examples of this is 1.2.2 Applications Generations, 1.3.1 Databases, 1.3.2 Networks 1.5.1 Computing related legislation and 1.5.2 Ethical, Moral and Social issues. Research and save any current news articles relating to a topic.

Past Exam Papers

Choose a past paper to complete under a timed condition. Mark your own or buddy up and mark a peers and give feedback. Once you have done this you could also hand it to your tutor to mark to check you have answered and marked correctly.

You could even study the papers examiners report to find out where students are getting answers correct, mistakes that could be made and and how they can improve on questions.

Group Meet

Organise to meet up with a group of your peers and focus on a topic. You could use this time to go through the theory or practical to develop further understanding by carrying out discussions, going through test papers by breaking down questions and answers.

You could mark each others and feedback as a group to help find out where students commonly are getting answers correct, mistakes that could be made and how they can improve on questions.

New Questions

Develop a question bank of questions, answers and possible mark schemes that have not been previously asked linked to your courses specification of topics that are covered. This will allow you to cover topics that have had less exam questions.

You could even potentially create your own examiners report for each question to discuss where students are likely getting answers correct, mistakes that could be made and how they can improve on questions.

Model Answers

Read through the model answers after completing an assessment to find out where you can pick up extra marks as well as understanding what a perfect answer looks like.

Compare them with your own answer to see how you can tweak your answer in the future to access more marks.

Question the Teacher

During the lesson, or when referring back to the lesson content, why not generate questions that you can ask the teacher to help with improving your knowledge of the topic. Maybe something didn’t get answered that you want to know about or something has appeared on the news that linked to the topic that you have studied.