The biggest dream of children is to be successful in their professional lives and for that, they are extremely passionate about getting a quality education. Your friends might have suggested you go for Intermediate in Computer Science (ICS) after matric which is an excellent option but if you don’t know what ICS actually is about, you must not step in. This very article will cover pretty much everything you need to learn about ICS.
When it comes to ICS, many people get the idea that there’s a very low number of students who prefer doing ICS after matric. This is because they are not aware of what ICS actually is and what it is about. They don’t know the importance of it. In this comprehensive guide, we will talk about every aspect of ICS like ICS subjects, best colleges for ICS, eligibility criteria, ICS preparation, pairing scheme, the paper pattern that one could think of and you will have the answers to all the questions you have in your mind right now. So, let’s get started!
ICS (Intermediate in Computer Science) in Pakistan is referred to as a degree after matriculation that is equivalent to FSc, FA, and I.Com. This means that you have 4 ways to go after clearing your matric exams and those are:
ICS is a 2-years long program that is a combination of the study of science and computers. By learning this, you immediately get the idea that by going for ICS, you will open the doors to all computer-related fields for higher studies such as software engineering, bachelor in computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence, and a lot more. Going into these fields is highly privileged within Pakistan and also across the globe.
Intermediate-level academic education is necessary to understand the fundamentals of the subjects that you will be required to study during your undergraduate and post-graduate education (higher studies). ICS is an intermediate academic level of education that mainly deals with the studies of computers and their complete science. Intermediate in Computer Science is what ICS stands for in education. Now that you are familiar with ICS’s full form, it is time to learn everything about all the ICS subjects in Pakistan.
This is one of the most common questions that we hear from our students. They finish their matriculation but they don’t know what they should do after that. Most of the time, the parents had already told their children to go for ICS since it’s very common in our society. As a result of this, students don’t show proper interest in the field and end up getting low grades or simply failing the exams. This happens mostly when the student isn’t given complete freedom over his/her education. In order to avoid this, the parents must understand that their children have the main right to choose what they want to study and what they don’t.
We reach the conclusion that you must choose whatever you want after matric. For that, you have to learn the difference between F.Sc and ICS which is pretty much straightforward and nothing too fancy.
Choosing your field is totally up to you. The only advice we have for you is to study what is meant by F.Sc in Pakistan, learn everything about FSc through this very blog, and make your own decision on the basis of your interest and passion.
Let’s talk about the subjects of ICS that you will have to study once you’re enrolled. There are three different kinds of subjects that you will tackle during your ICS and those are:
You had already studied both types of subjects during your matriculation. The subjects of English, Urdu, Islamiyat, and Pakistan Studies are all known as compulsory subjects for one huge reason; one has to learn from these subjects for the sake of ethics, linguistics, and better understandings of the religion and the history of the nation one is living in. In the same way, there are science subjects such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Economics, and Statistics. These subjects are extremely necessary for students to complete their ICS because if they want to pursue their academic career with higher studies, then they have to study the fundamentals during their ICS.
Talking about the elective subjects, these are the ones from which you can select the subject according to your ease and interest. In the case of ICS, you are allowed to choose from three science subjects:
This is how 3 different groups of elective subjects are formed. You will be required to choose one of the three groups to study along with the compulsory subjects. The following are the three groups:
| Subjects | Objective | Subjective | Practicals | Total Marks | |||||||
| ICS Subjects Part 1 | |||||||||||
| Urdu | 20 | 80 | - | 100 | |||||||
| English | 20 | 80 | - | 100 | |||||||
| Islamiyat | 10 | 40 | - | 50 | |||||||
| Mathematics | 20 | 80 | - | 100 | |||||||
| Physics/ | Economics /Statistics | 17 | Economics (20) | 68 | Economics (80) | 15 | No Practical Paper for Economics* | 100 | |||
| Computer Studies | 15 | 60 | 25 | 100 | |||||||
| ICS Subjects Part 2 | |||||||||||
| Urdu | 20 | 80 | - | 100 | |||||||
| English | 20 | 80 | - | 100 | |||||||
| Pak Studies | 10 | 40 | - | 50 | |||||||
| Mathematics | 20 | 80 | - | 100 | |||||||
| Physics/ | Economics /Statistics | 17 | Economics (20) | 68 | Economics (80) | 15 | No Practical Paper for Economics* | 100 | |||
| Computer Studies | 15 | 60 | 25 | 100 |
This makes a total of 1100 marks (550 marks for both 1st year and 2nd year).
Choosing the right combination of subjects in ICS is very necessary because that is what you will have to tackle throughout the degree. Some students don’t know much about the combinations - they just randomly pick one and get stuck because they couldn’t cope up with the subjects. They end up getting poor marks in the final examination and ruin their ICS result. But don’t worry, Nearpeer will not let its readers make any mistake that would cost them their career.
To know which combination is best for ICS, it is important to learn the details of the subjects of each combination. As mentioned earlier, there are three combinations/groups in ICS and each group has 2 common and 1 elective subject. You need to pay attention to the elective subjects and those are:
You’re probably very much familiar with Physics since you’ve studied it during your matric as well. However, Economics and Statistics could be new for you - Economics is a social science that mainly deals with resources and their uses, the production of different goods, and more and includes mathematics. However, statistics is all about the study of data. One learns different methods of collecting, storing, analyzing, and presenting different forms of data while studying statistics.
Now, the question is, which of these three subjects would you like to study in ICS? Make sure that you choose the one that you find the easiest and most interesting. If I had to choose one of the combinations/groups, I would choose the one with Physics in it because, for me, it’s very interesting to learn the phenomena of the universe and how everything actually works. So, which combination is best for ICS in your opinion?
Gaining quality education should be your first goal and now that you know so much about ICS and have finally decided to go for it, then you have to learn which colleges are great for your intermediate (HSSC) education. Below is the list of the best colleges in Pakistan you can complete your ICS from:
Just because we have listed the institutions down with numbers doesn’t mean that we have compared them at all. These are the 10 institutions out of which some are prestigious and historical while some are from the modern era and are still very much capable of high-quality education. Also, it’s not only about the quality of education that we must see in a college before joining it - but we must also see if the college offers things other than education, that are good for grooming and health. The above-listed colleges offer effective, fun, and amazing learning environment along with many activities that help with the grooming of personalities.
As you may be aware, ICS is a two-year curriculum separated into two parts: the first year and the second year (ICS Part 1 and ICS Part 2). Both of these years are essentially two academic years for a kid; eleventh and twelfth grades. You must have passed matric with at least 33 percent of the total grades to be eligible to apply to an ICS college. Because of the competitiveness and quality, it is not feasible to obtain admission to an ICS institution if you only received 35 percent in matric.
To get into an average ICS institution, you may need to achieve at least 65-70 percent on your matriculation exam. The greater the number, the better!
You're probably seeking for some top advice on how to prepare for ICS examinations now that you've learned so much about ICS. This section will explain how to succeed in ICS. We have a separate guide on improving ICS total marks in Pakistan because this is the most significant aspect of this entire guide.
Of course, if you don't want to go, we'll provide you with a summary of ICS exam preparation recommendations that will greatly assist you in your path.
If you want to ace your ICS examinations, you must first overcome your prior failures. You might have displayed a lot of laziness or something else unpleasant that had an impact on your matriculation outcome. So, the first thing you should do is: don’t do it again!
It is never a good idea to repeat your mistakes, therefore compile a note of everything that may have influenced your matric score and try not to make the same mistakes throughout the next two years. Make sure you study the ICS past papers and notes, communicate with your lecturers, and don't forget anything vital. You can unwind over the holidays and even on weekends, so don't worry.
I'm sure you've encountered this problem at some point in your life. It's a circumstance in which you are unable to manage your time and, as a result, are unable to complete a task by the deadline. Have you been to that location? If you answered yes, then this suggestion is for you!
During exams and preparation, students frequently encounter this issue: they fail to manage their time and thereby sabotage their grades. Some even ignore the sensible syllabus for F.S and so spend their time studying full ICS textbooks. You must not continue in this manner, sir. Make sure you use the internet to assist you to create an appropriate timeline for studying the smart syllabus for ICS books. For the same goal, a professional student counselor is accessible for you - contact Nearpeer at 0311-1444734.
As you already know that ICS is a two-year program, the board of education offers separate exams for both years (annual exams). Basically, you will give two final exams during your ICS (the 1st year and the 2nd year exams. All the education boards from Pakistan like Lahore Board, Sahiwal Board, Gujranwala Board, Rawalpindi Board, KPK Board, etc. are responsible for conducting ICS exams. The college that you will be studying in will send all of your details to the respective board for your exam registration. After registration, you will soon find the date sheet of the ICS exams uploaded on the website of your respective board such as Lahore Board or BISE Lahore (Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore).
The date sheet will consist of the date for the exam of all subjects in your ICS study group. Keeping this in mind, you must start studying immediately because once you’ve received the date sheet, you’re not left with much time until exams. About 1 or 2 weeks before the final exams, you will be informed to receive your roll number slip either from the board itself or your college. In exceptional cases, you might even receive your roll number slip right at your doorstep.
All you need to know about the overview of what will be included in the final exam is three things: objective, subjective, and practical. There will be two types of final exams in both 1st year and 2nd year: theoretical and practical. There are two sections in the theoretical part; objective and subjective. The objective part includes MCQs or “Fill in the Blanks,” and the subjective part includes short and long questions.
Before anything else, you must know what the “Pairing Scheme” means. It’s nothing but a scheme to help students in passing their examination with amazing marks and it’s provided to the students by none other than the board of education itself. So, the pairing scheme coming from the Lahore Board (BISE Lahore) will be applicable to the students registered from it. But how does it help students anyway? What’s so special about it?
You’re probably familiar with the pair of questions in a question paper, usually after question no. 5 and beyond (long questions). These questions are usually labeled as ‘a’ and ‘b’ and have different weights such as the ‘a’ part of the question holds 8 marks and the ‘b’ part holds 4. That makes the total weightage of the whole question equal to 12. The part ‘a’ of the question appears from one chapter and the part ‘b’ of the question appears from a different one. The pairing scheme tells exactly out of which chapter the pair of such questions will be made.
For example, the pairing scheme can tell that question no. 5 will include a pair of questions one out of which will appear from chapter no. 3 and the other from chapter no. 8. This is how you know which two chapters you must pay attention to in order to nail question no. 5 on your exam day.
Important Note: The question paper of the subject Computer Science doesn’t include any parts of long questions and the chapter for each long question is pre-defined for the students for excellent preparation. However, that of the rest of the science subjects INCLUDE 2 parts of long questions as labeled as ‘a’ and ‘b’.
| Chapter No. | Chapter Name | MCQs | Short Questions | Long Questions |
| 1 | Basics of Information Technology | 2 | 4 | |
| 2 | Information Networks | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 3 | Data Communication | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | Application and uses of Computer | 1 | 3 | |
| 5 | Computer Architecture | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 6 | Security, Copyright and the Law | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | Window Operating system | 2 | 3 | |
| 8 | Word Processing | 1 | 3 | |
| 9 | Spreadsheet | 1 | 3 | |
| 10 | Fundamental of the Internet | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Q1: MCQs:
Q2: Chapter 2,3,5,6,7
Q3: Chapter 8,9,10
Q4: Chapter 11,12,13,14
Q5: Chapter 1
Q6: Chapter 4
Q7: Chapter 8
Q8: Chapter 11
Q9: Chapter 12 (Program)
Paper Pattern Computer Sciences Part-II, 2021
| Chapter No. | MCQs | SQs | Long Qs | Question Details |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Microsoft Access |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 3 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 5 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 6 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 7 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 8 | 2 | 3 | 1 | Descriptive |
| 9 | 2 | 3 | Descriptive + Output + Code/Error | |
| 10 | 2 | 3 | Descriptive + Code + Output | |
| 11 | 1 | 3 | 1 | Descriptive + Code + Output |
| 12 | 1 | 3 | 1 | Descriptive + Output + Conversion |
| 13 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 14 | 0 | 1 |
Q1: MCQs:
Q2: Chapter 2,3,5,6,7
Q3: Chapter 8,9,10
Q4: Chapter 11,12,13,14
Q5: Chapter 1
Q6: Chapter 4
Q7: Chapter 8
Q8: Chapter 11
Q9: Chapter 12 (Program)
Online learning provides a lot more advantages than you would imagine. Selecting Nearpeer as your instructor is the simplest yet most efficient approach to studying books in ICS online. We record high-quality ICS lectures from competent professors in a variety of subjects in order to provide academic and other courses to your mobile devices at a very low cost. Check out our amazing process of content creation!
Explore Nearpeer to discover more about Pakistan's top online ICS training, view demo ICS lectures, meet our instructors, and browse our ICS courses. These low-cost, easily accessible courses that cover the ICS smart curriculum will help you fall in love with learning and allow you the flexibility to select what to study, how to learn, when to learn, how much to learn, and how fast to learn.
Do you have any inquiries? Please contact us at 0311-1444734 at any time; our counselors are always happy to help!