O/A/IGCSE Computer Science Blog

5 signs that scream you procrastinate too much You have an exam tomorrow, you had five days to cover your whole syllabus, but you “calculated” that you can complete it in five hours and decided to watch some movies instead. The calculation failed miserably, and now you know it might be your turn next; welcome to the most common end result of procrastination. Procrastination is often confused with laziness, but laziness is when you willingly don’t do anything. Procrastination is an active process of prioritizing something else over what you should really be doing at that moment. Mason Cooley said that, “Procrastination makes easy things hard, and hard things harder.” Where some students learn to efficiently manage delay while procrastinating, it does more harm than good to others. Here are 5 signs that might help you realize that you’re procrastinating too much, and should really start to take control of things: 1. You do Everything at the Eleventh Hour:  We all know...

Wake up at 7AM, reach school at 8AM, get home at 3PM, reach tuition center at 4PM, back home at 10PM and repeat. This is what represents the life of most O/A level students nowadays. Private tuitions murdered the social life of students and a typical family working day ends late night instead of early evening. Think about it yourself. After such a hectic routine, do you think that it is possible for a sane, normal person can enjoy with his family or friends, given that the same schedule is to repeat the next day? Many of you would still be managing this routine along with your social interactions, but the problem lies with the majority of you who are unable to do so. Hobbies, whether sports or video games, and healthy night sleep are necessary factors in students' life.  They give you a way to take your mind off the stresses of everyday life, allowing to relax and find some time for what you love. If you do not have any hobbies, you’re a mess. Evening tuitions are leading t...

You’re Who You Surround Yourself With We meet a lot of people throughout our lives, but there are a few we decide to call our friends; but as we’re advancing in time, it is witnessed that the word “Friend” has become underrated and is often misinterpreted. If students realize the huge impact that Friendship has on academics, they’ll think a thousand times before calling someone their friend. Thomas Fuller said, “If you have one true friend, you have more than your share.”  To understand this, we have to know the difference between a Friend, and an enabler. An enabler will allow you to do everything, let it be good or bad, as they don’t care for you; while a true friend will never allow you to harm yourself, let it be in academics, or in any other way. It is not necessary that if your friend is a high achiever, you’ll magically become one yourself, it doesn’t work like that. But, it is a fact that he will advice you to study on time, will help you whenever you’re in need ...

Zafar Ali Khan & Computer Science Marathons ------ Zakathon The marathons that you usually hear about start off with multiple candidates but only one winner. It is every man for himself and there are plenty of those who don’t make it. The marathon that I’ve been leading my students on since a span of seven years is slightly different though. Every journey of a successful venture has fond memories attached to it. Spanning over 7 years from 2012-2018, the journey has been an incredible one for us. I came up with the concept of Zakathon —marathon sessions of Computer Science revision classes held prior to CAIE exams in the month of May. In Zakathon, we all operate as a single team. We do not run against each other, but with each other. Here there are no tracks for you to run — just O/A levels computer science lectures that you must grasp for hours on end to reach your ultimate goal. My students are athletes but of a different kind — they put in their blood, sweat and tears fo...

Student life, a stressed commodity where supposedly every thing is in chaos, but amidst that chaos, some students emerge like the knight in shining armor. The debatable point here is that how’re those students different than those who’re always stressed but are not achieving enough in their academics. It is absolutely true when Albert Einstein said that: “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”  But it is also a fact that hard work always overcomes talent. There are a few important factors that come into play when students think that they are not achieving well because of the “Stress of education” in their lives, the most important being time management. The distinguishing line between a high achieving student and a stressed student is that the high achiever doesn’t start to study at the 11th hour. Studying before hand can be a game changer for any student, but if you prioriti...

Computer Sciences vs. Computer Engineering. What to choose? Its nearly that time of the year, when A2 and Second Year Students are searching for options and universities to apply in for their higher education. Where many fields are clear that in what they are offering, curriculum in Computer fields are unclear to students. Students interested in the field of IT are utterly confused between Computer Engineering and Computer Sciences as the boundary between the two fields is thought to be blurred. However, this is not true, as we shall see. You people would probably know the difference between hardware and software, right? That is simply the difference between ENGINEERING and SCIENCES. In Computer Engineering, the main focus is towards the hardware side, such as designing new and better processors, storage mediums, etc. There is some focus towards the software side as well, though. So, it can be thought to be a mixture of Electronics Engineering and Computer Sciences, where you...

Computer Science as a Career? Almost every teenager in Pakistan after completing their High school education goes through the stressful thought process of choosing a career path. It’s a fact that there are those who seem like they have their whole lives planned out, but the majority struggles and seeks guidance to select a field that will help them fulfill their desired goals in life. The intent of writing this article is not to tell you that selecting Computer Science (CS) as a career will suddenly fill your life with rainbows and unicorns, the intent is to tell you the hows and whats of what one can achieve by selecting this career. In it’s core definition, Computer Science is the study of the theory, experimentation, and engineering that form the basis for the design and use of computers, but to understand CS in its practical paradigms, we have to look at the bigger picture and the pathways that branch out after entering the door of CS. The first reason to choose Computer Sci...