Why did you choose Maths?

Hello mathematicians,

If you're doing/have done maths or further maths at A-Level or above, me and The Learn Ranger want to know why you picked it, and what you love about it.

You don't have to write loads, but we thought up a few questions to get you going


What does maths involve?

How does A-Level differ from GCSE?

How are you assessed?

What skills have you developed?

What does doing maths lead to, either in careers or further education?

Do you have any advice for people thinking of picking maths?

Feel free to answer as many or as little questions as you like. We're thinking about writing a little guide to particular subjects - if we use any of your answers you will be credited

Hello mathematicians,If you're doing/have done maths or further maths at A-Level or above, me and The Learn Ranger want to know why you picked it, and what you love about it.You don't have to write loads, but we thought up a few questions to get you going What does maths involve?How does A-Level differ from GCSE?How are you assessed?What skills have you developed?What does doing maths lead to, either in careers or further education?Do you have any advice for people thinking of picking maths?Feel free to answer as many or as little questions as you like. We're thinking about writing a little guide to particular subjects - if we use any of your answers you will be credited

Maths covers the key 4 (sort of 5, depends if FM is taken)

Pure Core - deals with abstract thinking such as intersections of lines and curves, [computation...]

Further Pure Core - Everything from Pure taken slightly further (no pun intended). This deals with limits (for $2^x$ what happens if x tends to infinity?)

What skills have you developed?
Problem-solving, abstract logical thinking, data analysis... errrr... not even sure what else really.

The way maths is broken up at A-Level isn't how real maths is broken up.



at bolded. Surely you can see that you've just said "abstract" and then listed down a lot of concrete non-abstract computational stuff taught in core?



That's being a bit generous, it deals with computing limits, not what an actual limit is in terms of its actual definition. As with pretty much every other thing.



We must have rather different definitions of 'abstract'.

Why did you choose maths?

Do you have any advice for people thinking of picking maths?

What does maths involve?
Maths at A-Level covers the key 4 (sort of 5, depends if FM is taken) areas of Mathematics (honestly there are so many things! But nothing to be scared of!);

Pure Core - deals with intersections of lines and curves, finding the rate of change of various curves and lines (this is referred to as differentiation; or finding the gradient at a point of a curve), finding the exact area under curves (this is called integration), finite and infinite series (such as what is the value of 1+2+3+4+...+n), many more trigonometric identities that makes the rest of maths much simpler, new methods to integrate and differentiate, sketching graphs, being introduced to new things such as the modulus operation, and much more.

Further Pure Core - Everything from Pure taken slightly further (no pun intended). This deals with limits, general solutions to trigonometric functions ($sin(x)=\frac{1}{2}$ and similar have infinitely many solutions, the answer that the calculator gives is referred to as the 'principal' solution), introduces the complex numbers that opens up many much more sophisticated mathematical doors (including finding out why $e^{i\pi}+1=0$), sketching rational function graphs (such as $\frac{x+2}{x^2+2x+1}$), working with 2x2 and 3x3 matrices (which can be used to transform planes, lines and curves by rotation, reflection, shearing, enlarging, but not translating), more tricks to integrate more complicated expressions, sketching complex numbers.

Mechanics - deals with real life physical situations; pretty much the good part of physics. Here you work with forces, velocities of objects (gets trickier when relative velocity is involved; ie if we both run in the same direction, you would appear running slower to me than to someone who is standing still), power work and energy, circular motion, friction, pendulums and stuff like that.

Statistics - deals with data pretty much all the time. Easily applicable to real life in many sectors of work. Helps finding different distributions, probabilities, mean + standard deviation of data, and all that shiz.

Decision - deals with networks. Very useful within computer science. Helps find the shortest distance between A and B, can be used to apply to real life easily (ie, what path should a truck take to deliver the largest load while covering the shortest distance?), this is mostly full of algorithms to remember, game theory.

How does A-Level differ from GCSE?
Initially it is a big jump from GCSE to A-Level for most students, but pupil get used to it. A-Level tends to be much more general while broadening understand rather than only making you focus on completing a problem rather with a memorised method. An A grade is required for FM and a B for Maths which is a fair enough boundary.

How are you assessed?
Further Maths and Maths are two different A-Levels but they compliment each other well. For each of them, they are assessed with exams specific to the module (Pure Core, Mechanics, etc).

For those doing Maths only, over the 2 years they complete Core 1-4 (2 each year) alongside 2 applied modules (either mechanics, statistics, or decision; one per year).

For those doing Further Maths WITH Maths; the applied modules can be switched around between M and FM in order to maximise the candidate's grade (Maths takes priority over FM) therefore M+FM people might want to do numerous applied modules in order to have backup in case one module exam turns out terrible. Pure Core and Further Pure Core modules stay within Maths/FM respectively as they cannot be moved between the two A-Levels. M+FM people overall complete at least 12 modules over the 2 years (this is why Maths has so many exams) in order to get their Maths and Further Maths grades.

For those doing FM ONLY, they must do FP1, M1 and S1 before choosing what modules to do in their second year.

What skills have you developed?
Problem-solving, logical thinking, data analysis... errrr... not even sure what else really.

What does doing maths lead to, either in careers or further education?
Leads to very science based careers as Maths is the basis for almost all of them. Career wise, anything to do with problem solving and numbers; like accountancy in business. I am due to take Mathematics as my university course this September.

Do you have any advice for people thinking of picking maths?
It's really not so bad as people may make it out to be. I myself have not been amongst the high ability classes (maths wise) and have been expecting to scrape a B grade, but I have managed to get an A from vigorous studying (I think my GCSE paper was pretty much the first 75% all right then absolutely nothing for the other 25% of the paper lol). After failing to get into my History A-Level, I took on Further Maths along with Maths with the help of my teacher because I enjoy the subject and nothing else really interested me (not even sciences). I started from the bottom of my class initially as there were 5 of us but from studying, exploring, being introduced to new mathemtical ideas and ways to approach problems; I have quickly gained a lot of understanding within the subject and became one of the top 2 in my class ability-wise, and have been working to an A* standard in FM. So really, all it takes is practice of doing question's then you'll be good at Maths.

To answer the question; I picked it because I enjoyed the subject and nothing else interesting me enough to take priority over Maths.

I'm pretty sure they didn't tell you to break down A level maths bruh Plus this is a ****ing huge essay who's gonna read all of it

I read all of it.

I... I... #Speechless

Rekt.


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