GCSE ICT

Why study GCSE ICT

Do you like helping your family with their own office work on the computer? Do you want to help your family plan their personal budget? Would you like to improve your knowledge of working with graphics, editing videos and sounds and making games? If your answer is YES, then GCSE ICT may be the course for you.

This course will provide you with the technical knowledge, skills and understanding of basic use of ICT. You will also develop both the theoretical and practical skills of ICT required to be able to solve everyday ICT problems.

Course Outline

The Exam Board is EDEXCEL. You will learn topics under 2 units:

Unit 1: Living in a Digital World. In this unit students explore how digital technology impacts on the lives of individuals, organisations and society and the issues raised by their use.

Unit 2: Using Digital Tools. In this unit students work with a range of digital tools and techniques to produce effective ICT solutions in a range of contexts.

Assessment

Unit 1: External Exam (40%)
Unit 2: Controlled Assessment (60%)

Required skills / attributes

To achieve your full potential and succeed on this course, you need to have / develop these skills:
Be very hardworking and eager to learn as this will help with your progress
Be able to work independently and solve problems as you will need these skills to excel in the controlled assessment and would also sit an exam and should be able to answer questions
Be able to work well within a team by listening to the opinions and ideas of others as well as being able to lead a team into making a success of the tasks given.
Be a very good communicator as you will create websites for communicating information and make presentations to pass on information.

Future pathway

ICT plays an important role in today’s world and this course provides students with many opportunities. You are able to move into other higher qualifications such as A Level, BTEC National or even Business courses. The subject is also ideal in preparing you for jobs that directly involve ICT such as IT Technician, Games developer, or indirectly, such as a job in business administration.

Useful page links

Revision

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gcse/gcse10/ict/Unit_1/Pages/default.aspx (Past exam papers)
http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gcse/gcse10/ict/unit_2/Pages/default.aspx (Exemplar materials - (Controlled Assessment)

Texts

REVISE Edexcel: Edexcel GCSE ICT Revision Guide
REVISE Edexcel: Edexcel GCSE ICT Revision Workbook