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I found the perfect Computer Science course at Cardiff Met through Clearing

Pavita working on her laptop
Pavita working on her laptop

Hey guys, my name is Pav and I’ve just finished my first year on the BSc (Hons) Computer Science course at Cardiff Met.

I can’t lie, A-levels results day was a really tough day for me. I got worse results than I was hoping for and I felt so defeated and hopeless. I hadn’t looked into the Clearing process, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. However, once I got into the swing of calling up universities and negotiating for a place, it became a lot less stressful! Through Clearing I managed to get 11 different offers for a place on the course that I wanted to do. After a couple days of thinking, I managed to narrow it down to two choices – Cardiff Met and Sunderland. One of the best things for me about the course at Cardiff Met was the optional year in industry – something that’s really important to me.

Being from Leeds it was a big decision for me to move all the way to Wales, having never been and not knowing anybody there. I knew I wanted to move to a big city, with a big nightlife and somewhere with a live music scene and when I got to Cardiff, I was not disappointed! It’s a student city for a reason, trust me!

Pavita sitting on the couch with her laptop
One of the best things about the course at Cardiff Met was the optional year in industry

I was lucky enough to be able to study computer science at GCSE level. I loved the problem-solving nature of the subject – the idea that someone would come to you with a problem i.e. a concept for a game or website and you could then work towards creating a solution. The satisfaction of creating a functioning piece of software was unmatched to me. Having done work experience at Sky UK, I realised the importance of getting more women into tech and what a growing industry it really is. I knew from the moment I started the subject; this is what I wanted to study at university and the Cardiff Met course has been exactly what I had hoped for in terms of furthering my knowledge at a comfortable pace.

One of my favourite modules in first year was the hackathon that we did in our first week back after Christmas. It was part of our Principles of Programming module where we learnt how to code in Python and JavaScript. I created a piece of software for KS1 pupils in c#, which we had the opportunity to learn ourselves, using skills we already learnt in our seminars. Like I said, I studied computer science before I got to uni but some of my friends that I made on the course had never studied it before. This really didn’t matter when we started the course though, because it’s great for total beginners or people with some prior knowledge alike.

Pavita sat in front of her laptop
The problem solving nature of computer science is what attracted me to it

Unfortunately, COVID-19 cut my first year short, but not by much! I only had a couple pieces of coursework left to submit but I was unlucky enough to get Coronavirus pretty badly in April. All I had to do was apply for mitigating circumstances and I was given an extension. The uni also set up a no detriment policy that meant the average we’d already achieved wouldn’t be affected by any low marks post-lockdown.  The Computer Science course is really engaging and it’s the perfect level of challenge. Cardiff Met is a great place to study and Cardiff is an amazing city for students!