[audacious-ant]

Hey there! Hope everyone is having a lovely summer.

Anyway, I just wanted to hear some advice from the more experienced of us here. I've just finished Year 12, so AS Levels completed. I'm applying in September to study Physics and take Maths, Further Maths and Physics. So, considering I might be applying to Oxford and my Year 13 will be damn hectic, I thought I'd start my easier Maths modules in summer and see how it goes.

I did C1, C2, M1, M2, FP1, S1 this year.

We began C3 before the holidays in class and I completed the 4 first chapters on my own. It seems relatively easy, so I'm sure I'll have the book finished within a couple of weeks.

Since I'll have almost two months left from there, I've got some questions regarding other modules:

• Is FP2 as complicated as it looks at first glance? i.e. Is it a big jump from FP1 or could I manage on my own?
• Do I need any knowledge of C4 or FP2 in order to complete M3? I've had a look through the book and it seems relatively straightforward...
• Forgetting Maths for a second, are there any Physics chapters I could do on my own? E.g. we started circular motion in class and it's not that big a jump from last year's mechanics, so I'm sure I can manage that.

Thank you so much for the help.

[Phredd]

(Original post by audacious-ant)
Hey there! Hope everyone is having a lovely summer.

Thank you so much for the help.

A lot of this depends on the exam boards, and you're ability in the subjects. If you're going to apply to oxford, you're probably good at both maths and physics so that shouldn't be a problem .
I'm going to give some opinions as someone who has just finished year 13 doing the same subjects (+ chemistry) I did OCR (MEI) for maths and AQA Physics A, so what I say is mostly based on my experience from those boards. I suggest taking advice from as many people as possible...

Personally, i didn't look at all at other modules during the holidays, but that's not to say its not a good idea.

FP2 is quite a big jump up from FP1 in some areas, but there are other areas which follow on quite nicely. Even in the 'harder' parts, there is nothing stopping you just having a look to see whether you understand from the explanation given by the textbook, as long as you already have the textbook, that is.
A large part of FP2 is expanding the integration from C3/4, doing harder examples, so that is probably best left until you've covered that in the earlier modules.
Matrices in FP2 start out just by expanding what you did in FP1, going from 2x2 to 3x3 matrices, so this might not be too bad, but the rest of the chapter requires more understanding and may be possible to learn on your own but I'm not sure.
Compex numbers starts pretty much at the same level as FP1, but again quickly goes onto new material, so that is probably worth a look, to see how much of that you can understand on your own.
We did hyperbolics, which is what most people choose from this module i think, and that is all completely new. The concepts are probably best explained by a teacher, but worth a look at if you're interested.
Power series' and polar coordinates are things you could easily look at i think, but do require calculus.

With M3, if you look at the specification online it gives you a list of modules that contain assumed knowledge. M3 does have some C4 trig in it (mainly SHM), and some C3 calculus (mainly volumes of revolution), but not in every chapter. Dimension theory in particular is very straight forward for a lot of people.

That block of text may mean absolutely nothing if you're on a different exam board


Physics:
the mechanics stuff in particular should be easy enough to go through, as it is not as difficult as anything in the mechanics series in maths, especially if you decide to look at M3
Most of the other chapters in the first part of the A2 concern fields, which can be harder to understand. It took me a while. Always worth a look if you already have the textbook though. Capacitors might be OK if you're ok with electricity and and exponentials. The next unit is almost easier, i think. That may be beacuse I've just finshed it though.

Overall, if you have the textbooks and want to do work i would suggest looking through them to see what you can and can't do, just to see if the explanations they give are comprehensible enough.

[HouseStark]

As Phredd said, can you tell us which exam board you're on for each subject?

[audacious-ant]

(Original post by Phredd)
A lot of this depends on the exam boards, and you're ability in the subjects. If you're going to apply to oxford, you're probably good at both maths and physics so that shouldn't be a problem .

[...]

Overall, if you have the textbooks and want to do work i would suggest looking through them to see what you can and can't do, just to see if the explanations they give are comprehensible enough.

Yeah, I'm taking mine with Edexcel, but everything you've mentioned sounds just about right, so I guess they aren't that different. It's just that I flicked through my FP2 textbook and some of the stuff looked quite new and strange, whereas most of the M3 textbook looks familiar.

In that case, after C3, what would you suggest me to dive into next? M3 or FP2? Or maybe a mix of both - just the chapters I can handle?

Also, what will you be studying at uni? I'm asking because since I'm going for Physics, all my teachers have advised me to take M4 and M5 and they all think I can manage... but every student I know keeps telling me they're really tough and if I want a good grade in Maths I should scrap them and take D1 or S2 next year... What did you take and what's your opinion?

[audacious-ant]

(Original post by HouseStark)
As Phredd said, can you tell us which exam board you're on for each subject?

Yeah, sorry, again, it's Edexcel - I forgot to mention that.

[Phredd]

(Original post by audacious-ant)
Yeah, I'm taking mine with Edexcel, but everything you've mentioned sounds just about right, so I guess they aren't that different. It's just that I flicked through my FP2 textbook and some of the stuff looked quite new and strange, whereas most of the M3 textbook looks familiar.

In that case, after C3, what would you suggest me to dive into next? M3 or FP2? Or maybe a mix of both - just the chapters I can handle?

Also, what will you be studying at uni? I'm asking because since I'm going for Physics, all my teachers have advised me to take M4 and M5 and they all think I can manage... but every student I know keeps telling me they're really tough and if I want a good grade in Maths I should scrap them and take D1 or S2 next year... What did you take and what's your opinion?

I'm going to be studying physics at (hopefully) Durham. see my sig for more info on UCAS application if you want.

In year 12 i had no choices, and did the entire A-level maths plus an extra module: C1, C2, S1, M1, C3, C4, S2
In year 13 i did enough modules to complete further maths: FP1, M2, FP2, M3, D1. I had a choice between M3 and S3. Initially I was going to self-study M4 in addition out of interest, and as an extra module, but in the end i decided i didn't have enough time.
D1 and S2 would porobably be easier, but less intersting for you... its up to you i guess. I never really looked into M4 too much, and didn't even know M5 existed.

[scherzi]

(Original post by audacious-ant)
Yeah, I'm taking mine with Edexcel, but everything you've mentioned sounds just about right, so I guess they aren't that different. It's just that I flicked through my FP2 textbook and some of the stuff looked quite new and strange, whereas most of the M3 textbook looks familiar.

In that case, after C3, what would you suggest me to dive into next? M3 or FP2? Or maybe a mix of both - just the chapters I can handle?

Also, what will you be studying at uni? I'm asking because since I'm going for Physics, all my teachers have advised me to take M4 and M5 and they all think I can manage... but every student I know keeps telling me they're really tough and if I want a good grade in Maths I should scrap them and take D1 or S2 next year... What did you take and what's your opinion?

Why do you want to do FM modules before finishing C4? You need C4 integration in a lot of further modules, including M3 and FP2 (albeit not in every chapter). FP2 is harder than FP1, but easier than M3 imo. M4 and M5 are two of the hardest modules - do it if you enjoy mechanics and think you can handle it, but if making your offer is a concern consider taking stats. I don't think they're essential for physics anyway; FP3 would probably be more useful. Are all of these taught at your school or do you have to study them independently?

[audacious-ant]

(Original post by scherzi)
Why do you want to do FM modules before finishing C4? You need C4 integration in a lot of further modules, including M3 and FP2 (albeit not in every chapter). FP2 is harder than FP1, but easier than M3 imo. M4 and M5 are two of the hardest modules - do it if you enjoy mechanics and think you can handle it, but if making your offer is a concern consider taking stats. I don't think they're essential for physics anyway; FP3 would probably be more useful. Are all of these taught at your school or do you have to study them independently?

My school is pretty small, so our teachers have enough time to sort everyone out. This means that we can choose literally any module we want to take. This year we were a little limited because we didn't really understand how modules worked, so we took S1, M1 and M2 as the optional modules. But next year we do what we like.

See, I was told by my Physics teacher that M4 is essential for Physics at uni, and then my last module would be chosen depending on whether I want to go into more experimental Physics or Theoretical Physics. Apparently, if I want to go into the more theoretical side of it, I should take FP3, and if I prefer the experimental, I should take M5.

Also, I've heard M5 is easier to handle than M4, but that doesn't really make much of a difference, I guess..

So, you think before any other module, I should just do C4? The thing is that at school, we would get taught several modules at once separately, so, say, integration and differentiation I learnt in FP1 before I came across it in C1 or M1. Maybe I should just let my teacher teach me the rest of the modules as he sees fit?

Thanks, by the way.

[audacious-ant]

(Original post by Phredd)
I'm going to be studying physics at (hopefully) Durham. see my sig for more info on UCAS application if you want.

In year 12 i had no choices, and did the entire A-level maths plus an extra module: C1, C2, S1, M1, C3, C4, S2
In year 13 i did enough modules to complete further maths: FP1, M2, FP2, M3, D1. I had a choice between M3 and S3. Initially I was going to self-study M4 in addition out of interest, and as an extra module, but in the end i decided i didn't have enough time.
D1 and S2 would porobably be easier, but less intersting for you... its up to you i guess. I never really looked into M4 too much, and didn't even know M5 existed.

We are doing half and half, so this year I did 3 modules for Maths and 3 for F. Maths. That way, I guess, if I chose to drop F. Maths next year, at least I would have the AS Level.

A lot of people choose to do the exact same combination as you at my school because apparently S2 and D1 give really easy marks. And so, people around me divide into those who believe the whole point of Maths modules is to get your A* to get into uni, and those who believe that it is important to study the modules you need in your subject (e.g. mechanics for Physics), no matter how hard.

People keep trying to scare me by telling me the best mathematicians at my school (going to Oxford to study Maths) found M3 hard, and two years ago, one guy did M4, and he was supposed to be fantastic at maths and really hard working, and got a B in the module. No one else has done M4/M5 up to now haha. But there'll be two of us next year.

[scherzi]

(Original post by audacious-ant)
My school is pretty small, so our teachers have enough time to sort everyone out. This means that we can choose literally any module we want to take. This year we were a little limited because we didn't really understand how modules worked, so we took S1, M1 and M2 as the optional modules. But next year we do what we like.

See, I was told by my Physics teacher that M4 is essential for Physics at uni, and then my last module would be chosen depending on whether I want to go into more experimental Physics or Theoretical Physics. Apparently, if I want to go into the more theoretical side of it, I should take FP3, and if I prefer the experimental, I should take M5.

Also, I've heard M5 is easier to handle than M4, but that doesn't really make much of a difference, I guess..

So, you think before any other module, I should just do C4? The thing is that at school, we would get taught several modules at once separately, so, say, integration and differentiation I learnt in FP1 before I came across it in C1 or M1. Maybe I should just let my teacher teach me the rest of the modules as he sees fit?

Thanks, by the way.

If you have good teachers available for M4/5 and you have enough time to do them, it should be fine (but if you end up needing an A* I would still take some stats as backup). I think M5 is more unfamiliar and harder if you look at the book, but this year the M4 exam was a mind****. I highly doubt M4 is essential for uni physics, since relatively few people take it - probably the majority of physics people wouldn't have taken beyond M3. In my experience teachers know **** all about these things - look at the individual uni pages, they should have more info on prerequisites. It's likely that none of them are essential, but will be covered relatively quickly from scratch once you get there - this is what Oxford seem to say. Still if it were me I'd do FP3; getting to grips with more calculus and matrices before you start should be useful.

If you're wanting to cover modules during the summer, I'd think about S2 and S3 as backup to mechanics. They don't need any pure maths and should be relatively easy to do independently. About half of M3 needs C4 integration, and M4 needs FP2 differential equations too. So yeah, I'd either do some stats or do at least C4 integration before whatever.

[audacious-ant]

(Original post by scherzi)
If you have good teachers available for M4/5 and you have enough time to do them, it should be fine (but if you end up needing an A* I would still take some stats as backup). I think M5 is more unfamiliar and harder if you look at the book, but this year the M4 exam was a mind****. I highly doubt M4 is essential for uni physics, since relatively few people take it - probably the majority of physics people wouldn't have taken beyond M3. In my experience teachers know **** all about these things - look at the individual uni pages, they should have more info on prerequisites. It's likely that none of them are essential, but will be covered relatively quickly from scratch once you get there - this is what Oxford seem to say. Still if it were me I'd do FP3; getting to grips with more calculus and matrices before you start should be useful.

If you're wanting to cover modules during the summer, I'd think about S2 and S3 as backup to mechanics. They don't need any pure maths and should be relatively easy to do independently. About half of M3 needs C4 integration, and M4 needs FP2 differential equations too. So yeah, I'd either do some stats or do at least C4 integration before whatever.

My Maths teacher is only 32 and he's already sent off a rather large number of students to Oxbridge, and he's in charge of interview prep as well, so I would expect him to know a lot on this, which is why I listened to him. Also, his opinion is backed up by a 70-year-old Maths teacher who is the most fascinating person I've ever met and he has really seen it all.

Their views only differ in the fact that the old Maths teacher used to force anyone who takes F. Maths to take FP3.. but now he's retired, so it isn't really up to him.

I just don't know if I'm capable of all that. I'm really no genius, and if some pretty damn clever people in my school couldn't do M4, I wonder how I can manage that. :/

Hm.. I think I'll consider S2. D1 is also apparently a really easy module - probably even easier than S2.

Thanks, yeah, I think I'll do that.