Electronics

Electronics

Our Subject

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An introduction to Electronics
A Level Electronics FAQs

Taught by highly experienced staff, our A-level Electronics course has been running for over 25 years and achieves consistently great results. Your challenging, interesting classes are delivered in a bright laboratory equipped with an interactive whiteboard for delivery of lessons, and work stations for practical work, and a laptop for each student. You will become quite an expert at using computer-aided design (CAD) software to design and test your ideas. As well as Excel and Word and the internet, you will use specialist software to include Crocodile Clips, Livewire, and PIC Tutor. There are detailed interactive notes for all the topics on the Bilborough Sixth Form College Moodle. The course is very hands on and you will be designing and trying out circuits to deepen your understanding of the discipline.

To study Electronics at Bilborough, you will need to have a minimum of a grade 5 in GCSE Maths and a 4 in English Language. It is also highly desirable to have grade 4 in Double or triple Science.

Our links with HE

We’re always delighted when Electronics students from Bilborough Sixth Form College go on to study related degree subjects such as Engineering, Computing, Games Production and Music / Media – and indeed many of them do. Our tutors have good knowledge about higher education and are always happy to give you expert advice on suitable progression routes. Not only do students attend prestigious universities to study electronics, a large proportion of them find employment and apprenticeship opportunities.


Course Structure

A-level Electronics is a two year course which is split 80% examination and 20% coursework. You will have two 2 hours 45 minutes’ exams at the end of the second year of the course. The topics you will learn are as follows:

DC electric circuits, Energy and power, Semiconductor components, Logic systems, Operational amplifiers, Signal conversion, AC circuits and passive filters, Communication systems, Wireless transmission, Instrumentation systems, Timing circuits, Sequential logic, Microcontrollers, Digital communications, Mains power supply systems, High power switching systems, Audio systems.

For your coursework, you will learn how to program using assembly language. You will then implement a circuit to solve a specific problem. You will also have the opportunity to design a larger project in your second year. Ideas include audio systems, electronic games, security systems, and much more!


Inspiration

Abi left Bilborough Sixth Form College in 2012 and began a five-year apprenticeship programme with Fairfield Control Systems Ltd. She says: “Initially, I took Electronics as a more light-hearted subject (I also did English Language, Maths and Philosophy). However, I enjoyed the course so much that I decided I wanted a career in it! As well as my favourite subject, it was my highest graded one. It was challenging, with a diverse range of topics, but definitely worth the effort I put in (not to mention the fact that Dan and Jeff were great tutors!).

“I would 100 per cent recommend the course to any females – the classes may be male-dominated, but as a whole the electrical engineering field is pretty evenly split. However, there aren’t many qualified female electrical engineers in this country, so it is definitely a field worth going into.”







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