• Question: What A Levels would you recommend to somebody interested in programming?

    Asked by thefreakyfox to Mark, Ben, Jony, Katharine, Peter on 22 Nov 2011. This question was also asked by kinetickate.
    • Photo: Mark Basham

      Mark Basham answered on 21 Nov 2011:

      Hi thefreakyfox

      So for me the biggest thing would be Maths. Its a key component of all computer science and programming and a good grasp of it really helps with so many things. Other than that a good knowledge of computers helps so an A-Level in computer science or IT is always useful.

      Other than that I don’t think it matters too much, just pick something you enjoy.

      Hope this helps

      Mark

    • Photo: Ben Still

      Ben Still answered on 22 Nov 2011:

      Erm… I didn’t start really programming until I started my PhD so I don’t think I can really answer this one directly. But… I would say that the logic and problem solving is the key part of any programming I do so Physics and Maths would stand you in good stead – Physics especially! 😉

    • Photo: Jony Hudson

      Jony Hudson answered on 22 Nov 2011:

      Hi thefreakyfox,

      like Mark said, the most important one is maths. Other than that, sciences are good, as is IT. More generally pick the ones you want to do the most!

      Another good thing to do, which can get you some great programming experience (and really impress university admissions tutors!) is to get involved with some open source projects. A lot of them are very friendly, and you can start by trying to fix just a very small bug. You could start by looking if there’s any open source software that you use, and checking out their developer pages.

      Jony

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