A LEVEL maths is easy!!!!?

Sorry for the title...

I need to make a serious decision whether or not A level maths is for me. If you have done/are currently doing AS maths / A Level please tell me about what your maths GCSE grade was and how you find A level maths now. What grade are you working at/were working at in AS Maths and when did you start learning/revising the content yourself? How hard did you have to work to get to where you're at - How many hours for example every day or week?

Any advice for me (a year 11 student who has almost completed GCSEs and is around a grade C/B student)?

Many thanks.

It's not for you if you don't enjoy Maths and it's not for you if you're thinking of choosing it because it 'looks good'.


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Easy just make sure you practice regularly. As the great James Clerk Maxwell once said: There are three ways of learning propositions: the heart, the head, the fingers; of these, the fingers is the thing for examinations, but it requires constant practice.

That sums it up really. For A level maths all you need is the "finger method" - just regularly practice the material and past paper questions and you're pretty much guaranteed an A* due to how repetitive the exams are.

Hope this helps!

GCSE:
Maths: A
Additional maths: A

My individual modules at AS (UMS)
C1: 98/100, A
C2: 78/100 B
M1: 92/100 A

At A2 currently working around A's, few A*'s.

C1 is the **** easy exam normally (sorry if I make it sound like I'm bragging) and is the non calculator paper. C2 and M1 I would say are harder (and I hated last years paper for C2 clearly). During the exam season I did EVERY SINGLE past paper my college had available and in one of the exams it went back to 2005.

Early on in AS I was quite lazy as I basically did the homework and basic textbook revision but I got a range in homeworks and class tests of D's to B's. When I started doing past papers as revision (not loads at first) I was getting to A's. Basically do lots of past papers because some of the questions are hard in comparison to class tests.

In A2 apart from C3 and C4 I'm doing D1. This year is pretty much the same in revision except that exam questions are far more horrific if you do not do past paper revision. There was a long question which then said the following: show that cos(4*veta) + 4cos(2*veta) = cos^4(veta)+3. That question first time was horrific for me and I got it wrong with like 15 lines of workings. Did it several months later with exam practice and I did it in about 5 lines.

Maths you need to understand the formulas and how something works and then being able to apply it. If you don't understand something that you learn you need to clear it up with a teacher in a workshop etc and then you need to understand how to apply it since exam questions will make it far more complicated. If you struggle to understand topics and stuff already in maths you will have a very hard time at A level.

Advice for revision: if you have one of those large textbooks with knowledge and recap questions along with exam style, skip the knowledge and recap questions. I also wouldn't even use the textbook that much to read up on knowledge, just ask your teacher if you don't understand something. In A2 (can't say much about my AS XD) my very early revision used the textbook, later on (and including later AS) I NEVER used the textbook for revision.

The thing is I LOVE maths. It's just that my expected GCSE maths grade doesn't look amazing.
I plan on working incredibly hard at A levels from day 1 though, for someone like me is it recommended despite my GCSE grade if I really work hard during A levels?

Thanks!

Yes, if you're the type of person who can get A*'s given enough work. (If not then you could probably benefit from a "how to study" book; I recommend "building better study skills" which I got off amazon for like 20p )

I don't know anything about you apart from your GCSE predictions. Assuming you are capable of getting an A/A* at GCSE Maths then I think you are capable of doing A level maths.

I got an A at gcse Got an A at AS Predicted A* at A2

Nice! When did you start revising and for how long?

Thanks

I dont revise much tbh I try to but i get bored too easily , i hardly revise Maths because i dont find it hard :/ Ngl physics is hard! So i spend most time on that but i still struggle with Physics haha

Alright thanks mate!!
So if I do revise I'll be one step ahead!

Hello, i was a C/B grade student at GCSE. I wasn't great at GCSE (not a fan of wordy maths, much prefer algebra) and now i have just done 2/4 of my AS maths exams. I really love doing A Level maths, and i am much better at it than i ever felt i was at GCSE. Its by no means easy though. I've been working at B/A grades on C1 papers, C/Bs at C2 and C grades in mechanics and decision. My advice is if you like it, are willing to put effort in and need it for a job/uni etc. then its a good idea to do it at A Level. If you're only doing it because you think it will look good then don't bother


Posted from TSR Mobile

What did you end up getting at GCSE?

Yep, thanks! I feel like I can do it but there's always people saying not to do it and being negative about it which makes me think more about it... I really want to do it though.