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What do I need for A-level Maths?

I am starting college in September and I'm not sure what to get for my maths course. What do I need to write on? Do I need square paper to write on or will normal lined paper be okay? What else will I need? Thanks for the help :smile:

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Reply 1

HopelessMedic

Squared or Lined is up to you, it really doesn't matter. You'll need a good calculator, and if you are definitely going to do A2 maths then it might be worth investing in a graphical one. Apart from that you don't need any other equipment, just a ruler and pen.

Reply 2

Rather_Cynical

If you don't mind the investment, a Casio FX 911ES PLUS will help tremendously in C2-4 exams (you can use it to check definite integrals, factorise, etc).

If you're on EdExcel, you'd definitely need the Pearson textbooks (whether you choose to download the Activebooks online, or purchase a used/new copy on Amazon/eBay/Waterstones).

I'd recommend getting familiar with the Physics and Maths Tutor website, ExamSolutions, as well as the Solomon/Gold past papers. Technically you can start teaching yourself some C1 and C2 material during the summer - I'd start with the algebra/quadratics/inequalities/calculus since they're fairly easy to self-teach.

EDIT - a laser printer with cheap toner/paper will be really important nearer exam time, you'd be surprised how many past papers are needed to achieve A and above grades at A-level.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

Ano123

Decent compass may help.

Reply 4

kkboyk

Original post by applewood9930

Anything appropriate is fine. Other than basic stationary objects that's literally all. Some sixth form provide textbooks, some don't, but there are pdf versions online you can download for free.

Reply 5

Ano123

I would say do some papers. Then you'll know what you need to improve on, and what the style of questions are.

Reply 6

Rather_Cynical

If you don't mind staying indoors when the sun's shining - doing some past papers sooner rather than later will mean you will definitely *not* fall behind during the year. Most people prefer a social life, but whatever floats your boat.

Do you feel you can self-teach it with online resources?

Reply 7

nomophobia

I would say do the easier ones, so around 2009, because if you do the 2015 ones, you're gonna lose all confidence and that's not what you want without a teacher :redface:

Also, have you definitely decided you're doing maths?

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Reply 8

34908seikj

Original post by applewood9930

I love wring on A4 dotted, and A5 Square

For paper my favourite brand is Rhoda, It's so soft. However Leuchtturm1917 makes awesome A5 notebooks, the paper feels different compared to Rhoda, it's not as soft but It's really a matter of preference.
Square:

Spoiler

Dotted:

Spoiler

Reply 9

34908seikj

Original post by Rather_Cynical

What's a social life?

Reply 10

Rather_Cynical

It's usually where you get drunk and queasy and throw up and gorge on fast food, with or without dancing/grinding on girls in clubs. Not necessarily in that order.

Reply 11

Professor L

Original post by applewood9930

I'd definitely look into getting a graphic calculator, mine helped me immensely in C2, C3, C4 and S1. I got mine for £10 on eBay :lol:

It helps for actually knowing you got an answer right when doing differentiation and integration (you're gonna love them) and trig (you're gonna really love this, especially if you're doing C3 with Edexcel :tongue:

) in C2-4 exams, which is quite reassuring :smile:

Do you know if your college has MyMaths? That was useful for me as well.

It brings a tear to my eye when I read this as this was me two years ago, just starting the journey into the maths A Level :moon:

I wish you the best of luck for your A Levels! :smile:

Reply 12

Retired_Messiah

Just get a ruler and a pen, then you're ready to go for pretty much every subject at A level. Type of paper doesn't matter for maths, but if your work is normally a mess you probably the mlg method of a bit of both types of paper (lined is better for making sure your numbers don't end up all over the place, and squared helps with making graphs not look like my dog's genitalia.)

Reply 13

nomophobia

Oooh, have fun! It's gonna be 1000 times easier than history, trust me :colonhash:

Oh yeah, definitely, when you do the paper I just had (June 2016) for your mock next year, you're gonna die. You could start from 2005 though if you like, I just started from 2009 because I didn't have enough time lol :redface:

yeah, or you could just swap the subject seeing as you've already started learning C1 (which is the easiest module) so you should have an idea of what it's going to be like.

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Reply 14

nomophobia

I felt exactly the same this year! History is far more interesting, especially if you have a good teacher, it's so content heavy that if yiu have a boring teacher you'll cry with boredom. And maths is just paper after paper after paper but don't be fooled! The jump is between GCSE and A-Level is huge and everyone struggles.

Idk, sorry, I did edexcel and there's loads of resources and since you've self taught it, you'll know which questions are irrelevant anyway. Btw I lied D1 is actually easier than C1.

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Reply 15

34908seikj

They've completely killed off D1 btw now. Since they moved to linear exams from from modular, they combined all the modules together except for the decision modules which are like, gone, dead, you get the point...

And "S" is statistics.

Reply 16

34908seikj

eh, fractions is sort of a general maths thing lmfao. But yes, statistics is that chance stuff. It doesn't really have anything to do with physics, at least compared to mechanics.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 17

34908seikj

Depends on what you want to do, it's sort of irrelevant now since they're both included in the linear exams. However for me personally, statistics is more useful, since I have no desire to do physics A-level or do anything remotely in the field of physics.
That's not to say mechanics isn't useful though, because it is.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 18

nomophobia

I just finished year 12 and did Biology and Chemistry too - chemistry was a killer and was nearly as hard as history (and chemistry and physics are infamous for being the hardest A-Levels) you're doing geography as well, aren't you? Apparently it's super easy but can get boring. Awww, haha, it'll become second nature in no time although a lot of things will throw you off in core 2 if that's the case (logs)

Sorry, D1 is Decision 1 and it's basically just loads of algorithms, so like set methods of doing something and you just repeat it over and over again but with different numbers. That's why it's so easy and it's not like they can make it hard. Ooh, mechanics is hard although I'm not familiar with either M or S - you're getting ahead of me already! XD and I wanna do further maths next year so this isn't looking good.

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