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How hard is A level maths?

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I got an A* at GCSE and maths is ok if you put the work in
Practise, practise, practise all year around it's really a subject that you have to keep on top of from day 1 and you'll be screwed if you leave it late
Also the exam questions are so random and applying what you learn is extremely hard under timed conditions
for instance I did every c3 past paper 4/5 times as well as Solomon papers but nothing could have prepared me for c3 aqa this year which really felt that most of my hard work went to waste 🙁
Single maths? Just C1/2/3/4 M1/2 or S1/2 or D1/2 ?

Easy. C1/2 are a cakewalk. So are M1/S1/D1. If you ace these then getting an A overall is easy.

The content of single maths is really not difficult. Its like 60% calculus with some trig seasoning. If you just do all the past papers and a million questions you can do very well quite easily. The core modules are very repetitive and formulaic - you can easily train yourself to do them even if you lack a mathematical talent.

I would say, of the applied modules S1/2 are the easiest imo. D1/2 are soul crushingly boring and M2 is all over the place. If youve got the engineering bug then mechanics is the obvious choice and i know people who could get 95+% on every M2 and M3 paper easily. However, S1 and S2 are just a matter of learning the distributions and the copy+paste responses. Dont take D1 and D2. Everyone will say "Oh, decision maths is the easiest" and yeah, it probably is but bubble sort is worse than grating my own nose off.

If you get 90% in C1, C2 and 2 applied modules then you only need 60% on C3 and C4 to get an A overall which is easy. If you want the A* then just do past papers constantly.

Oh, i did OCR maths and idk if every exam board has this modular structure so i could have just spoken a load of nonsense but basically only the last 20% of single maths is particularly challenging.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 22
Original post by Marked Target
Single maths? Just C1/2/3/4 M1/2 or S1/2 or D1/2 ?

Easy. C1/2 are a cakewalk. So are M1/S1/D1. If you ace these then getting an A overall is easy.

The content of single maths is really not difficult. Its like 60% calculus with some trig seasoning. If you just do all the past papers and a million questions you can do very well quite easily. The core modules are very repetitive and formulaic - you can easily train yourself to do them even if you lack a mathematical talent.

I would say, of the applied modules S1/2 are the easiest imo. D1/2 are soul crushingly boring and M2 is all over the place. If youve got the engineering bug then mechanics is the obvious choice and i know people who could get 95+% on every M2 and M3 paper easily. However, S1 and S2 are just a matter of learning the distributions and the copy+paste responses. Dont take D1 and D2. Everyone will say "Oh, decision maths is the easiest" and yeah, it probably is but bubble sort is worse than grating my own nose off.

If you get 90% in C1, C2 and 2 applied modules then you only need 60% on C3 and C4 to get an A overall which is easy. If you want the A* then just do past papers constantly.

Oh, i did OCR maths and idk if every exam board has this modular structure so i could have just spoken a load of nonsense but basically only the last 20% of single maths is particularly challenging.


What did you get at GCSE?
D1 is not even really maths, it's more puzzle solving with mathematical logic in my opinion
Try hard with c1 and c2and you'll thank yourself at a2
For an A you don't need much at a2 if you smash AS
Original post by studentproblems2
D1 is not even really maths, it's more puzzle solving with mathematical logic in my opinion
Try hard with c1 and c2and you'll thank yourself at a2
For an A you don't need much at a2 if you smash AS


You still need to put in lots of work though A2 is much harder and you still need a good percentage of the marks to get a good overall mark at A2. That's why some people can get like a c at As and still get an A overall at A2
You're right what I meant was that it is easier to pick up the ums marks at AS than a2 since c1 and 2 are considerably less difficult
Original post by studentproblems2
You're right what I meant was that it is easier to pick up the ums marks at AS than a2 since c1 and 2 are considerably less difficult


Yeah i know i agree with you I've heard c3 c4 are a lot harder, did you end up resisting any modules from AS yr 13?
Original post by james Thompson56
Yeah i know i agree with you I've heard c3 c4 are a lot harder, did you end up resisting any modules from AS yr 13?


I'm assuming you meant resitting 😂 And no I did well in AS, got 90-something UMS in c1 and c2 and 86 UMS in D1
Apologies if I've assumed wrongly 😂
I did c3,c4 and s1 in year 13 and got 80,84 and 100 UMS respectively

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