A-Level Computer Science Tutor (Cambridge, OCR & AQA)
I teach A-Level and AS-Level Computer Science one to one over Zoom, across all three main specifications, including the coursework project on the two boards that have one. I am a working software engineer, so the paper 2 material, the project and the on-screen exam are not topics I revise before a lesson. They are the job.
Your tutor
Distinction · AS-Level
Best Across Five
Top aggregate across five AS-Level subjects.
- Straight A* grades at O-Level, all eight subjects, including Computer Science.
- Straight A grades at A-Level, including Computer Science.
£60/hour. No packages to commit to.
Junaid Khalid, software engineer and Computer Science tutor · Reviewed September 2026
What an online A-Level Computer Science lesson looks like
We start from the work in front of you: the last paper, the project that has stalled, the topic that will not stick. Nobody sits through a lecture on something they already know.
Your board, in its own vocabulary
Cambridge says papers, OCR says components, AQA says papers and then names them by programming language. We work in the words that will be on your timetable and your entry.
Code on screen, not code on a slide
We debug the program you wrote, line by line. That is the only real preparation for AQA's on-screen Paper 1 and Cambridge's Paper 4 practical.
The project, at the three moments that matter
Choosing it, once the design is drafted, and once before you submit. I do not write or supply projects. Planning, debugging your own code and reviewing your write-up against the criteria is the help that is allowed and the help that changes marks.
Marks, not topics
A-Level mark schemes reward specific moves: naming the technique, justifying the data structure, evidencing the test. We work on those explicitly rather than hoping they arrive.
The three boards disagree about the one thing the subject is named after
The theory content across Cambridge International 9618, Cambridge OCR H446 and AQA 7517 overlaps heavily. Processors, networks, databases, data structures and complexity are on all three. If that were the whole story, the board would barely matter and generic A-Level revision would work.
It is not the whole story, because the boards make you demonstrate programming in three incompatible ways, and each way needs a different kind of practice.
Cambridge International tests programming on paper, then on a computer, and never as coursework. Paper 2 is written and answered in pseudocode, with no requirement to write program code at all. Paper 4 is a two-and-a-half hour practical on a centre machine with no internet, where work is pasted into a Cambridge evidence document. There is no project anywhere in 9618.
Cambridge OCR tests it in two written papers plus a project it wants developed iteratively. Neither written component is taken on a computer, and neither allows a calculator. The 70-mark programming project is where the coding is assessed, and OCR expects the report to document an agile process rather than a linear one written up afterwards.
AQA tests it in a live on-screen exam with material released in advance, plus a project. Paper 1 is sat at a computer for two and a half hours, and AQA publishes Preliminary Material and a Skeleton Program before the exam. Your programming language is fixed by your school and encoded in your entry: 7517A, 7517B, 7517D or 7517E.
So a student revising hard from the wrong board’s resources can know the theory well and still be practising the wrong skill entirely. Establishing which of these three you are sitting is the first five minutes of the first lesson, and it changes everything after it.
All three specifications, side by side
Raw mark totals differ, so a mark on one board is not a mark on another. On AQA that is literally true twice over, because raw marks are then scaled. Cambridge calls its units papers, OCR calls them components and enters students for H446/01 and H446/02, and AQA calls them papers but names the first one by programming language.
Cambridge International AS & A Level
9618300 marks across four papers- Paper 1: Theory Fundamentals
- 1h 30m75 marks50% of AS, 25% of A Level
- Syllabus sections 1 to 8
- Paper 2: Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills
- 2h75 marks50% of AS, 25% of A Level
- Sections 9 to 12, answered in pseudocode
- Paper 3: Advanced Theory
- 1h 30m75 marks25% of A Level
- Sections 13 to 20
- Paper 4: Practical
- 2h 30m75 marks25% of A Level
- Sections 19 and 20, on a computer
What makes it different: There is no coursework. All four papers are externally assessed, and a good number of students arrive expecting a project that does not exist. Paper 2 is a written paper: candidates answer in pseudocode and are not required to write programming code, with an insert supplying the built-in functions and operators. Paper 4 is the only paper taken on a computer, in Java, Visual Basic .Net or Python, all console mode, on centre machines with no internet or email access. Work is pasted into a Cambridge evidence document, and the syllabus is blunt about it: if there is no evidence of work in that document, the work receives no marks. Calculators must not be used in any paper.
Source: Cambridge International 9618 syllabus, version 2, for exams in 2027 to 2029.
Cambridge OCR A Level
H446350 marks across two exams and a project- Component 01: Computer systems
- 2h 30m140 marks40%
- Topics 1.1 to 1.5, written paper
- Component 02: Algorithms and programming
- 2h 30m140 marks40%
- Topics 2.1 to 2.3, in two sections
- Component 03 or 04: Programming project
- Non-exam assessment70 marks20%
- Marked in the centre, moderated by OCR
What makes it different: Component 02 splits into Section A and Section B, and Section B opens with a scenario that the questions after it all refer back to. Neither written component permits a calculator, scientific or graphical. OCR is the only one of the three that tells candidates outright they do not have to memorise its pseudocode: they may answer in any style of pseudocode whose meaning a competent programmer could reasonably infer. The project can be submitted by upload as 03 or by post as 04, and its mark can be carried forward on a retake while the written components have to be sat again.
Source: Cambridge OCR H446 specification, version 3.0, April 2026.
AQA A-level
7517375 scaled marks across two exams and a project- Paper 1: On-screen exam
- 2h 30m100 raw, scaled to 15040%
- Content 4.1 to 4.4, taken on a computer
- Paper 2: Written exam
- 2h 30m100 raw, scaled to 15040%
- Content 4.5 to 4.12
- 7517/C: Non-exam assessment, the computing practical project
- Non-exam assessment75 marks20%
- The systematic approach to problem solving
What makes it different: AQA has two papers and a project. There is no Paper 3, and a revision plan built around one is a revision plan for a different subject. Paper 1 is sat on a computer and is pre-release based: AQA issues Preliminary Material, a Skeleton Program in each supported language and, where relevant, test data, and answers go into an Electronic Answer Document. The programming language is baked into the entry code, chosen by the centre rather than the student: 7517A for C#, 7517B for Java, 7517D for Python and 7517E for VB.Net. There is no Option C. Python 2 is explicitly not supported. Raw marks are scaled, Papers 1 and 2 by 1.5 and the project by 1, which is the arithmetic reason a mark on AQA is not a mark anywhere else.
Source: AQA 7516 and 7517 specification, version 1.6, 31 July 2023.
AS-Level is a different shape on each board too
On Cambridge International, AS Level is Papers 1 and 2 only, and there are three routes: AS on its own, graded a to e; the A Level staged over two years with the AS marks carried forward; or all four papers in one series. Guided learning hours are given as roughly 180 for AS and 360 for the full A Level.
Cambridge OCR runs a separate AS qualification, H046, with two written papers of one hour fifteen minutes and no project, designed to be co-teachable with H446. AQA runs 7516 the same way: an on-screen Paper 1 of one hour forty-five minutes and a written Paper 2 of one hour thirty, no project.
Both projects are worth 20%, and they reward almost opposite things
This is the single most useful comparison on the page and the one almost nobody runs, because it needs both mark schemes open at once. Cambridge OCR’s project is 70 marks and AQA’s is 75. Both are 20% of the qualification. The similarity ends at the total.
Cambridge OCR H446
70 marks, 20%- Analysis10 marks · 14%
- Design15 marks · 21%
- Developing the coded solution25 marks · 36%
- Evaluation20 marks · 29%
Development splits into iterative development, 15 marks, and testing to inform development, 10 marks. Evaluation splits into testing to inform evaluation, 5 marks, and evaluation of the solution, 15 marks. OCR expects an agile approach and expects the report to document that approach rather than a tidy linear one invented afterwards.
Source: the Cambridge OCR H446 specification.
AQA 7517
75 marks, 20%- Analysis9 marks · 12%
- Documented design12 marks · 16%
- Technical solution42 marks · 56%
- Testing8 marks · 11%
- Evaluation4 marks · 5%
The technical solution splits into completeness of solution, 15 marks, and techniques used, 27 marks. AQA says the design deliberately gives a high proportion of the marks to the technical solution and a lower proportion to the supporting documentation, and the mark table shows it: the code is worth more than everything else put together.
Source: the AQA 7517 specification.
What that means in practice. On AQA the code is the project: 42 of 75 marks sit in the technical solution, and evaluation is worth 4. A student who spends a fortnight polishing an evaluation chapter on AQA is optimising a section worth about five per cent of the project.
On Cambridge OCR the balance is almost inverted. Development is 25 of 70, and analysis, design and evaluation together are 45. A student who writes brilliant code and a thin write-up on OCR is leaving more marks on the table than one who does the reverse.
Same subject, same weighting, opposite strategy. Getting this the wrong way round is one of the most expensive mistakes available at A-Level, and it is entirely avoidable by reading two tables.
Choosing a project that can actually reach the top bands is a separate problem, and a longer one. My guide to NEA project ideas works through eleven that clear the criteria and five popular ones that quietly do not.
Five places A-Level students hand marks back
Writing an essay where the mark scheme wants a technique named
At A-Level the marks attach to specific moves: name the data structure, justify the choice, state the complexity. A fluent paragraph that never names anything scores below a blunt sentence that does.
Revising AQA's topics but not AQA's skeleton program
Paper 1 is on screen with a pre-released Skeleton Program. Reading it, running it and breaking it on purpose before the exam is worth more than another pass through the theory, and it is the single most commonly skipped piece of preparation on that board.
Treating Cambridge Paper 2 as a coding paper
It is written, in pseudocode, and code is not required. Students who have only ever typed Python into an editor lose time translating under pressure, and lose marks to notation they never practised on paper.
Building a project that cannot be evidenced
On both OCR and AQA the marks follow the evidence, not the ambition. A clever program with no test log, no iteration history and no evaluation against its own success criteria throws away marks that were easier to earn than the code was to write.
Leaving the write-up until the code is finished
OCR's criteria reward iterative development documented as it happened. Reconstructing that at the end is both harder and less convincing, and moderators read a great many reconstructed ones.
Taught by an engineer, which matters most at A-Level
I am Junaid Khalid, a software engineer and the founder of Ertiqah, which builds and runs software products. A-Level is where Computer Science stops being definitions and starts asking for judgement: which data structure, which algorithm, why this design and not that one.
Those are the questions I answer at work, and the project especially is a scaled-down version of what I do: scope something, build it iteratively, test it honestly and write down why it is the shape it is. I also sat the Cambridge system myself, so the exam-technique half is first-hand rather than inferred.
More about my background, including the exam record and where the specification overlaps with a working codebase.
Specifications I teach
- Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science9618
- Cambridge OCR A Level Computer ScienceH446
- Cambridge OCR AS Level Computer ScienceH046
- AQA A-level Computer Science7517
- AQA AS Computer Science7516
Online, hourly, no commitment
Lessons run over Zoom, one to one, at £60 an hour. There are no packages to buy up front and no minimum commitment. The first conversation is a free introductory call, which is mostly me asking what has gone wrong so far.
You will need a laptop or PC with a webcam and Zoom installed. For A-Level a second screen genuinely helps, because most of the time is spent with your editor on one side and the question, the skeleton program or the mark scheme on the other. Sessions can be recorded on request, which students tend to want for the project sessions in particular.
On the project, book by the hour rather than in a block. Three well-timed hours across the year beat ten spread evenly, and paying someone to sit through a project you have to write yourself would be both expensive and against the point. Tell your teacher you are getting help, too. It is allowed, and it is much better for everyone that they know.
A-Level Computer Science help, in short
Which A-Level Computer Science specifications do you teach?
Cambridge International AS and A Level 9618, Cambridge OCR H446 and AQA 7517, plus the standalone AS qualifications, Cambridge OCR H046 and AQA 7516. Tell me the code when you get in touch and the first lesson starts on your specification rather than on a generic A-Level syllabus.
Does Cambridge International 9618 have a coursework project?
No. 9618 is assessed entirely by four externally assessed papers: Theory Fundamentals, Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills, Advanced Theory, and a Practical taken on a computer. The words coursework and non-exam assessment do not appear in the syllabus. If you are on 9618 and someone has told you to start planning a project, they are describing OCR or AQA.
Is AQA Paper 1 really taken on a computer?
Yes. AQA Paper 1 is an on-screen exam of two hours thirty minutes, worth 40% of the A-level. AQA issues Preliminary Material, a Skeleton Program in each supported language and, where appropriate, test data, and answers are typed into an Electronic Answer Document supplied by the board. That makes the skeleton program itself a revision resource, and preparing without it is the most common mistake on this board.
Can I choose which programming language I use?
Almost never, because the centre chooses. On AQA the language is part of the entry code: 7517A for C#, 7517B for Java, 7517D for Python and 7517E for VB.Net, with no Option C, and Python 2 is not supported. Cambridge Paper 4 is taken in Java, Visual Basic .Net or Python, all in console mode. For the OCR project, OCR will accept Python, the C family, Java, Visual Basic, PHP and Delphi, and anything else has to be cleared with the board first.
Do I have to memorise the pseudocode?
It depends on the board, and the honest answer is not the reassuring one. Cambridge OCR states in the H446 specification that learners are not expected to memorise the syntax of its pseudocode and may answer in any style whose meaning a competent programmer could reasonably infer. Cambridge International and AQA say nothing either way in their specifications, so there is no published guarantee to rely on: practise the notation your board prints. Note that OCR's GCSE calls this notation Exam Reference Language while both A-Level specifications call it Pseudocode, which is the same notation family under two live names.
Can you help with the NEA or programming project?
With planning it, structuring it, debugging your own code and reviewing your write-up against the marking criteria. Not with writing it. Supplying coursework is against exam board rules and, in England, a criminal offence under the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, and it would mean signing a false declaration of authenticity. Where an outside pair of eyes actually changes the mark is at three moments: choosing the project, once the design is drafted, and once before submission.
Am I allowed a calculator?
On Cambridge International 9618 the syllabus says calculators must not be used in any paper. On Cambridge OCR H446 no calculator, scientific or graphical, is permitted in either written component. The AQA specification does not mention calculators at all, so for 7517 check with your centre rather than assuming either way.
Is OCR the same thing as Cambridge International?
No, and the naming has made this genuinely confusing. As of September 2025 OCR's name is Cambridge OCR, and students who sat exams in summer 2025 receive Cambridge OCR branded certificates. That is a separate organisation from Cambridge Assessment International Education, which sets Cambridge International 9618. Two different qualifications, two different paper structures, two different pseudocode notations. Check the code on your entry: H446 is Cambridge OCR, 9618 is Cambridge International.
Does Cambridge OCR still offer an AS Level?
Yes. H046 is currently published, at version 2.0 dated February 2026, and is assessed by two written papers of one hour fifteen minutes each, Computing principles and Algorithms and problem solving, with no project. Computer Science does not appear in OCR's withdrawal notice for general qualifications as at May 2026. H446 is designed to be co-teachable with it.
Not on A-Level, or not sure which notation you are being marked in?
If you are a year or two earlier, the qualification depends on where you are studying. UK schools run GCSE Computer Science on OCR, AQA or Edexcel, and international schools usually run Cambridge IGCSE. I teach both.
On notation, OCR students hit a naming problem that costs real marks: the GCSE specification calls it Exam Reference Language, both A-Level specifications call the same notation family Pseudocode, and only the A-Level documents say you are not expected to memorise it. My reference guide sets out every construct with a worked example. Cambridge International students want the Cambridge Pseudocode Guide instead, which is a different notation and not interchangeable.
Everything I have written is free and needs no sign-up. The resources hub collects the guides.