Super-Curricular Activities for Computer Science: Reading, Competitions and Projects

Admissions tutors for computer science read personal statements looking for evidence that an applicant has gone beyond the A-level specification, engaging independently with ideas, problems or code over and above simply completing set coursework. At interview, most ask candidates to reason through an unfamiliar problem on the spot, since the department wants to see how someone thinks under pressure. A short, well-documented project therefore tends to carry more weight than a long list of loosely connected activities.

Computer science sits at an unusual point on the sixth-form curriculum: A-level Computer Science is not compulsory for entry to most courses, and some strong applicants take further maths, physics or another science instead. Super-curricular work does two jobs at once. It signals genuine interest in the subject to a tutor reading hundreds of similar-looking statements, and it gives the applicant something concrete to fall back on when an interview question moves off the syllabus.

None of this needs to look like a finished portfolio. Universities are generally more interested in how a student approached a problem, what they got stuck on and what they changed as a result, than in the polish of the final output. Activities chosen mainly for their breadth of coverage, without genuine curiosity behind them, tend to read as thin under interview questioning.

What super-curricular activity means for computer science

Super-curricular work is anything a student does around the subject that sits outside homework and exam preparation: reading, competitions, courses, coding projects, an EPQ, work experience or a society. It differs from extra-curricular activity, such as sport or music, in that it connects directly to the degree being applied for. A tutor reading a computer science application wants to see that an applicant has tested their interest against real material, not merely enjoyed the idea of the subject.

The distinguishing feature of strong super-curricular work in this subject is that it usually involves building or proving something, whether that is a working programme, a solved set of problems or a piece of independent reasoning written up clearly. Passive consumption, such as watching videos without follow-up, rarely shows through in a personal statement or survives interview questioning. Activity that leaves a trace, a repository, a notebook of worked problems or a written reflection, is what gives a student something specific to discuss later.

Reading around the subject

Reading remains one of the most accessible ways to build subject knowledge, and computer science has a strong tradition of books written for an intelligent general reader, not aimed solely at specialists. Popular science titles on algorithms, cryptography or computing history give students vocabulary and context; more technical introductions, such as an accessible book on how computers actually work at the hardware level, push a student towards the kind of first-principles thinking that interviewers favour.

The value of reading lies less in the number of titles finished than in what a student can say about them afterwards. A tutor is likely to ask a follow-up question about any book named in a personal statement, so students should be able to explain an argument, query a claim or connect an idea in the book to something else they have studied. Keeping brief notes while reading, even a few lines per chapter, makes this much easier to do convincingly months later.

• Popular science and history of computing for broad context
• One or two more technical texts, worked through slowly, not skimmed
• Freely available online texts and lecture notes from established computer science departments

Competitions and essay prizes

National competitions give students a benchmark against a wider cohort and, for the strongest performers, a genuine talking point for a personal statement or interview. The British Informatics Olympiad and the UK Bebras Computing Challenge are both established, free to enter through participating schools, and pitched at a range of abilities, so a student does not need prior competitive programming experience to take part usefully.

Online programming challenges that run outside the school calendar, such as Advent of Code each December, let a student build a record of solved problems at their own pace, which can be referenced in a personal statement even without a formal ranking. Essay prizes specific to computer science are relatively rare. Individual Oxbridge colleges sometimes run subject essay competitions, and these are worth checking directly on college websites instead of assuming one exists.

Lectures, courses and structured learning

Free university-level courses let a student go deeper into a single topic than school teaching allows, and completing one gives a personal statement something more specific to reference than general enthusiasm. Introductory courses covering programming, algorithms or computer systems from established universities are widely available online and do not require university-level maths to start, though later material often does.

A course such as CS50 from Harvard or the Nand2Tetris project, which walks a student through building a simple computer from logic gates upward, works well precisely because it produces something concrete: a piece of working code, a set of solved problem sets, or a small computer built in simulation. Students should treat these as material to be worked through actively, pausing to attempt exercises and not simply watching lecture videos end to end.

Projects, EPQ, work experience and societies

A self-directed coding project, whether a small game, a website, a data analysis tool or a contribution to an open-source repository, tends to generate the richest interview material, since a student can describe design decisions, mistakes made along the way and what they would change. An Extended Project Qualification offers a structured route into a similar piece of independent work, with a supervisor and a formal write-up, and suits students who want a topic with more depth than a personal statement paragraph can hold.

Work experience specific to computer science is harder to arrange than in some subjects, since most employers cannot host under-18s in technical roles; a short shadowing placement, an online internship programme, or attending an employer-run insight day still gives useful exposure to how software is built in practice. A school computing society, hackathon or robotics club adds a collaborative dimension that solo projects lack; it is worth a brief mention, not a headline activity.

• A coding project with a defined output, however small, described honestly including what did not work
• An EPQ on a computing topic, if the school offers it and the student wants sustained depth
• Any employer contact, insight day or online internship relevant to software or technology
• Society or club involvement, framed as evidence of collaboration, not leadership alone

A timeline from Year 12 to Year 13

Super-curricular work spreads more comfortably across two years than it does when compressed into the autumn of Year 13, when exam preparation and the UCAS application itself compete for time. Early exploration in Year 12 lets a student discard activities that turn out not to interest them before committing time to a project worth writing about.

A workable shape starts with broad reading and one or two short courses in the first half of Year 12, moves into a chosen project, competition or EPQ topic by the spring, and treats the summer before Year 13 as the main window for sustained project work, since school terms leave little spare time once term restarts. September of Year 13 is best used for drafting the personal statement and preparing to discuss the work already done, not for starting anything new.

• Year 12, autumn to Christmas: broad reading, one introductory course, initial competition entries
• Year 12, spring: narrow focus to a project or EPQ topic based on what held interest
• Summer before Year 13: main block of project or EPQ work
• Year 13, September onwards: personal statement drafting, interview preparation, no new activities started

Writing about it and talking about it at interview

A personal statement for computer science reads best when it explains what a student did and why, not simply listing achievements. Naming a specific problem tackled, a bug that took time to resolve, or a moment where an initial approach was abandoned in favour of a better one, tells a tutor more about how an applicant thinks than a line claiming enthusiasm for the subject. Space is limited, so most students are better served discussing two or three activities in depth than mentioning six in passing.

At interview, any activity named in the statement is fair game for a follow-up question, so students should expect to be asked to explain a project's design, defend a choice made in it, or extend an idea from a book into a new context. Interviewers are generally less interested in a polished answer than in watching a candidate reason aloud when they do not immediately know the answer, so treating uncertainty as something to work through calmly matters more than arriving with a rehearsed script.

Common mistakes include listing activities without reflection, claiming a competition result that cannot be substantiated, or describing a project in vague terms that would not survive a single follow-up question. Students who choose fewer activities and understand them thoroughly are consistently easier to prepare for interview than those who have sampled widely without depth.

Recommended resources for Computer Science

• Algorithms to Live By: Introduces core algorithmic thinking through everyday decision-making problems, useful for personal statement discussion.
• The Code Book: Simon Singh's history of cryptography, a well-established entry point into computer science through a concrete application.
• British Informatics Olympiad: The UK's national computing olympiad, open through participating schools and a recognised benchmark for strong applicants.
• UK Bebras Computing Challenge: A widely used computational thinking challenge suitable for students without prior programming experience.
• Advent of Code: A self-paced set of programming puzzles released each December, useful evidence of independent coding practice.
• CS50: Introduction to Computer Science: Harvard's free introductory course, widely used by UK sixth-formers to build programming and systems knowledge before applying.
• Nand2Tetris: A free course building a simple computer from logic gates upward, producing a concrete project to discuss at interview.
• MIT OpenCourseWare: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming: A free university-level course covering programming fundamentals in Python, with problem sets to work through actively.
• Computerphile: A long-running video channel covering computer science topics in depth, made with university academics.

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