A-Level Computer Science NEA Help | AQA 7517 and OCR H446

In short

At AQA, A-level Computer Science 7517 is marked out of 375 scaled marks: two papers of 100 raw marks each, scaled to 150, and the non-exam assessment at 75, with AQA's guidance putting 42 of the 75 on the technical solution. At OCR, H446 has two papers of 140 marks each, 2 hours 30 minutes and 40 per cent apiece, and the programming project, H446/03, at 70 marks and 20 per cent, split into analyse a problem (10 marks), design (15), develop and test (25) and evaluate and document (20). Both reward evidence of thinking, not just a working program. The commonest mistake is scope, and the fix is to design the states of the program before writing it. On AI, OCR is explicit that only independent candidate work should be credited. Our classes teach the programming, design and testing behind the project, and never produce any part of it. The opening lesson costs nothing, and after it a group place runs at USD 100 monthly, private teaching at USD 150.

Where to start

Three courses for A-level programmers

Most students need fluency, structure and testing, in that order.

NEA / 01

Python from start to finish

When the obstacle is the language and not the idea: files, classes, error handling and how to lay a program out.

Open the syllabus →

Problem Solving for Teens course thumbnail

NEA / 02

Algorithms and data structures

Paper 2 ground, and the source of anything in a project worth analysing or evaluating.

Open the syllabus →

NEA / 03

Full stack web development

For projects with a database and an interface: how the parts fit and where the data lives.

Open the syllabus →

What the boards mark

Where the marks actually are, at AQA and OCR

Two boards, two structures, one common message: the program is not the whole of it. Figures read at each board's own specification pages on 20 September 2026.

A-level Computer Science assessment, as each board publishes it
Board	Components	The project
AQA 7517	Paper 1 and Paper 2, each 100 raw marks scaled to 150; NEA 75 marks unscaled; total 375 scaled marks	A computing practical project; AQA's guidance puts 42 of the 75 marks on the technical solution, the rest on the documentation
OCR H446	Component 01 Computer systems, 140 marks, 2 hours 30 mins, 40 per cent; Component 02 Algorithms and programming, 140 marks, 2 hours 30 mins, 40 per cent	Component 03 Programming project, 70 marks, 20 per cent: analyse a problem (10 marks), design (15 marks), develop and test (25 marks), evaluate and document (20 marks)

Read the OCR split slowly, because it settles most arguments about how to spend the autumn. Analysis and design together are worth 25 of the 70 marks, the same as developing and testing the program. A student who codes for three months and writes the documentation in the last fortnight is competing for half the paper with a quarter of the effort in the wrong place.

AQA weights the solution more heavily, 42 of 75, but the remaining 33 marks are still a third of the project and they are the ones lost by silence: no analysis of a real user, no design that anyone could follow, no evaluation against the original criteria.

Both boards want evidence of a process, not a finished artefact dropped on the desk. That is why scope matters more than ambition. A modest program, analysed with a real user, designed clearly, tested against its own criteria and evaluated honestly, outscores a half-built ambitious one every time.

Neither board is in the business of surprises: the criteria are published, and a student who reads them in September writes a different project from one who reads them in March.

Sources: AQA, A-level Computer Science 7517 scheme of assessment and its NEA subject content; OCR, H446 specification at a glance. Read 20 September 2026. Modern Age Coders is not connected with AQA or OCR.

The method

Draw the states before you write the code

Most unfinished projects are not short of programming. They are short of a design that says what the program does in every situation, so the writing never ends.

1. List the states

What is the program doing at any moment? A quiz app might sit in five: waiting to start, showing a question, showing feedback, between rounds, and finished. Write them down before anything else.

2. List the events

What can happen? An answer submitted, a timer expiring, a back button, a lost connection. Four events across five states makes a grid of twenty squares.

3. Fill every square

For each state and each event, say what happens next. The squares nobody thinks about, a timer expiring on the finished screen, a back button mid-question, are exactly where finished projects break.

A worked illustration: a five-state quiz project, four events, twenty transitions to decide
State	Answer submitted	Timer expires	Back pressed
Waiting to start	Not possible: ignore it and say so in the design	Not possible	Leave the quiz
Showing a question	Mark it, go to feedback	Count as wrong, go to feedback	Confirm, then leave
Showing feedback	Ignore: the answer is already marked	Move to the next question	Confirm, then leave
Between rounds	Ignore	Start the next round	Leave the quiz
Finished	Ignore	Ignore: no timer runs here	Return to the start

That table is a state machine, and it is worth more than it looks. It is design evidence a marker can follow, it is a test plan in disguise, because each row becomes a test, and it puts a hard edge around the project: twenty decisions, all made, nothing left to invent at midnight in February.

It also stops the commonest scope failure. Each new feature adds a state or an event, and the grid grows by a row or a column. A student can see the cost of an idea before agreeing to it.

The same habit answers the evaluation section. When a project is described as a set of states and transitions, the evaluation writes itself: which transitions work, which were cut, what a user did that the design did not expect.

Students who prefer flowcharts or pseudocode can keep them. The point is that every combination of state and event has an answer decided in advance, in a form someone else can read.

The AI rules

What the boards say about AI in the project

Every family asks this, so here is the answer from an exam board rather than from us. The quotes below are OCR's own guidance for the A Level Computer Science project.

OCR's guidance on AI in the A Level Computer Science NEA
Question	What OCR says
Can AI be used at all?	AI tools may be used to support debugging, and could also be used to suggest ideas and methods to troubleshoot non-functional code
Can it suggest code?	A candidate may ask how a method or object could be written, but must show clearly how this suggestion has been adapted to suit their project
What counts as misuse?	Using or modifying AI responses without acknowledgement, disguising the use of AI, and using it for substantial sections of work
What gets the marks?	Only independent candidate work should be credited when marking the NEA
What must be kept?	A copy of the AI content in a non-editable format, such as a screenshot, with an explanation of how it was used
What do teachers watch for?	Sudden changes in work production, changes in coding style and very erratic work rates

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A workable year

When to do what, across the project year

Dates vary by school, since teachers set internal deadlines. The order does not.

A sensible order for the project year
Stage	What happens	The trap to avoid
Choosing	Find a real user with a real problem, small enough to finish	A project chosen because it sounds impressive
Analysis	Interview the user, write criteria that can be tested later	Criteria so vague that nothing can fail them
Design	States, events, data structures and interfaces on paper	Designing in the code and writing it up afterwards
Development	Build in slices, each one tested and recorded	One long unbroken sprint with no evidence
Testing	Test against the criteria, including the cases you expect to fail	Screenshots that only show things working
Evaluation	Judge the project against its own criteria and the user's view	A conclusion that says it went well

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Getting ready

Four rungs to a project that finishes

Where a student starts depends on their programming, not their year group.

From confident coder to completed project
Stage	Rung	The sign it is secure
Year 11 to 12	1. Fluency	Can write and debug a program of a few hundred lines without help
Year 12	2. Structure	Splits a program into functions, classes and files that make sense to someone else
Year 12 into 13	3. Design	Can state every state and event of a planned program before coding
Year 13	4. Evidence	Tests against written criteria and records what changed and why

If the project is stuck

Stalled projects are usually too big. Cutting features is not failure; the boards reward a finished, well-evidenced small project over an unfinished ambitious one.

Paper 2 practice often unsticks a project, because the algorithms it teaches are the ones a project needs.

Beyond the A level

The habits here, design before code and evidence as you go, are what university projects and first jobs expect.

Students who enjoy the problem-solving side often try the British Informatics Olympiad.

The catalogue

Nine courses for A-level Computer Science students

Sorted by the thing that usually gets in the way. Syllabuses open from the cards.

I

Programming fluency

The language stops getting in the way

NEA / LANG / 01

Python from start to finish

Every core idea, with prediction before running.

Open the syllabus

NEA / LANG / 02

Java for teens

For schools and students working in Java.

Open the syllabus

NEA / LANG / 03

App development

Interfaces, events and state, which projects lean on heavily.

Open the syllabus

II

Theory and algorithms

Paper 1 and Paper 2 ground

NEA / THEORY / 01

Algorithms and data structures

Searching, sorting, trees and graphs, reasoned before coded.

Open the syllabus

NEA / THEORY / 02

GCSE Computer Science

For students who came to the A level without the GCSE.

Open the syllabus

NEA / THEORY / 03

Competitive programming

Speed and correctness under time limits, which sharpens paper 2.

Open the syllabus

III

Building real systems

Databases, web and data

NEA / BUILD / 01

Full stack web development

A site with its own database, built in slices and tested.

Open the syllabus

NEA / BUILD / 02

Data science with Python

For projects that analyse data rather than manage it.

Open the syllabus

NEA / BUILD / 03

AI and machine learning for teens

When the project needs a trained model, and an honest account of how well it works.

Open the syllabus

How lessons run

Weekly teaching, and a clear line around the coursework

Lessons run on video with a teacher in India, where the clock sits five and a half hours ahead of Britain in winter and four and a half in summer. Sixth formers generally settle on an evening, written into the diary in UK time.

Weekday evening

The usual choice for Year 12 and Year 13.

Weekend morning

For longer sessions on algorithms or a full past paper.

Holiday intensives

For catching up on paper 1 and paper 2 content.

Skills, not solutions

We teach programming, design and testing with our own examples, never with the student's project code.

Design taught explicitly

States, events, data models and interfaces, practised on projects that are not the student's own.

Papers practised

Algorithms, data structures, systems and the written technique both papers reward.

Groups of a size that works

Between five and ten students of similar ability, arguing over the same question until the method is clear.

One to one when needed

For a student with a gap to close before a mock or a deadline.

No promises

No grade is promised, and nothing we do forms part of an assessed submission.

Student work

Projects our students have published

Four live examples, all built outside any assessed coursework. More on the student labs page.

AI and ML

NutriLife

An AI nutrition coach that reads what you eat and works you toward a target.

by Bhavya · Open it

AI and ML

Misti

A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

by Harshit · Open it

AI and ML

GuardianX

An assistant that helps a young person recognise unsafe situations online.

by Vivaan · Open it

Web app

SkyCast

A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.

by Krish

Fees

Monthly, in US dollars, the rate for every country outside India. No joining fee, no annual tie.

Free first class

USD 0

no card required

A real lesson with a teacher
An honest view of the gaps
No card details

Book it

Group batch

USD 100

a month, billed in US dollars

Five to ten students at one level
The same teacher each week
Work read and discussed
A certificate at the end

Start here

One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

A teacher for one student
Aimed at specific gaps
Useful before mocks and deadlines

Enquire

What families say

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

Straight from our Google profile, with no edits.

★★★★★

"The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content."

Ria Mukherjee

Parent

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."

Samriddha Mondal

Student

★★★★★

"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."

Vansh Agarwal

Student

★★★★★

"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."

Sonam Oswal

Parent of Dhairya

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."

Sonu Goyal

Parent

★★★★★

"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."

Ritu Kedia

Parent

Questions about the NEA

What A-level students and parents ask

How much is the programming project worth?

A fifth of the A level at both boards. At AQA it is 75 of 375 scaled marks; at OCR it is 70 marks, 20 per cent of H446.

How are the OCR project marks split?

OCR publishes the split as analyse a problem (10 marks), design (15 marks), develop and test (25 marks) and evaluate and document (20 marks).

How much of the AQA project is the program itself?

AQA's guidance allocates 42 of the 75 marks to the technical solution, with the rest across the documentation.

Will you help write my NEA?

No. We teach the programming, design and testing skills the project needs, and we do not write, edit, debug or review coursework that will be submitted. Only independent candidate work can be credited.

Can my child use AI for the project?

Within limits their board sets. OCR says AI tools may support debugging and suggest how a method could be written, provided the candidate shows how the suggestion was adapted, keeps a non-editable copy of the AI content, and acknowledges it. Using or modifying AI responses without acknowledgement is misuse.

What makes projects fail?

Scope, almost always. A project chosen to impress, designed while being written, and evidenced at the end loses marks in analysis, design and evaluation even when the program works.

What is the state machine method?

List what the program can be doing, list what can happen, and decide the outcome for every combination before coding. It produces design evidence, a test plan and a hard limit on scope at the same time.

Do you teach the exam papers too?

Yes. Most of our A-level students come for algorithms, data structures and systems, which are paper 1 and paper 2 content, and the project benefits from the same work.

What do classes cost?

Nothing for the opening lesson. From then on it is USD 100 a month to share a group or USD 150 for private teaching, and you can stop at the end of any month.

When are lessons, in UK time?

Whatever weekly time is agreed once the free lesson is done, most often after school in the evening. The clock in India sits five and a half hours ahead of Britain in winter, four and a half in summer.

Related pages

More for UK computing students

The exam before this one, the contests beside it, and the national picture.

GCSE Computer Science tutoring

AQA, OCR and Edexcel compared, taught to your board.

British Informatics Olympiad

For students who enjoy the problem-solving side.

UK competitions calendar 2026-27

Every contest we could confirm, month by month.

Choosing an online class in the UK

The questions worth putting to any provider before you pay.

Coding classes in the UK

Four school systems, and every UK page.

AI and machine learning classes in the UK

For projects with a model in them.

Start here

Start with a free lesson on the skills

Tell us the board, the year and where the project stands. The free lesson works on a skill the project needs, using our examples rather than your coursework.

Happier reading than talking? Syllabuses sit on the course pages, the teaching method is described on how we teach, and the roadmap puts the topics in order.

WhatsApp us · +91 91233 66161 · contact@modernagecoders.com

A WhatsApp message costs a UK mobile nothing and tends to reach us soonest. The number belongs to India, which we state plainly, and no British office exists.

Three courses for A-level programmers

Python from start to finish

Algorithms and data structures

Full stack web development

Where the marks actually are, at AQA and OCR

Draw the states before you write the code

1. List the states

2. List the events

3. Fill every square

What the boards say about AI in the project

When to do what, across the project year

Four rungs to a project that finishes

If the project is stuck

Beyond the A level

Nine courses for A-level Computer Science students

Programming fluency

Python from start to finish

Java for teens

App development

Theory and algorithms

Algorithms and data structures

GCSE Computer Science

Competitive programming

Building real systems

Full stack web development

Data science with Python

AI and machine learning for teens

Weekly teaching, and a clear line around the coursework

Skills, not solutions

Design taught explicitly

Papers practised

Groups of a size that works

One to one when needed

No promises

Projects our students have published

NutriLife

Misti

GuardianX

SkyCast

Fees

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

What A-level students and parents ask

How much is the programming project worth?

How are the OCR project marks split?

How much of the AQA project is the program itself?

Will you help write my NEA?

Can my child use AI for the project?

What makes projects fail?

What is the state machine method?

Do you teach the exam papers too?

What do classes cost?

When are lessons, in UK time?

More for UK computing students

GCSE Computer Science tutoring

British Informatics Olympiad

UK competitions calendar 2026-27

Choosing an online class in the UK

Coding classes in the UK

AI and machine learning classes in the UK

Start with a free lesson on the skills

Keep exploring Modern Age Coders

Related courses and guides

Free resources

From the blog

Start here