Taking Further Maths as a 5th A level?

I was wondering that if it was worth it to take further maths as an extra AS level. I am currently taking Maths, Biology, Chemistry & Physics and i have hardly felt the pressure of these subjects yet. Also, I did additional maths at GCSE which covered a lot of the content in C1 C2 and some in FP1. Apart from having slightly less time for the rest of the subjects, what other drawbacks are there? I did quite well at GCSE so I can cope with the workload and it is something that might make me stand out from my peers and I quite enjoy doing maths. Opinions on this?

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Reply 1

Himtiaz

TL/DR : Is it worth taking an extra A level?

Reply 2

Plagioclase

What are you applying for at university and how confident are you about getting good grades at AS?

Reply 3

HopelessMedic

Take it if you want, but not because you are finding the workload easy atm cause you're barely a month into school. I took the same subjects as you last year and the content definitely gets harder.

Reply 4

Himtiaz

Original post by Plagioclase

What are you applying for at university and how confident are you about getting good grades at AS?

I'm thinking natural sciences, medicine or just physics. I got 10 A*s at GCSE but i've heard that its like 10x harder at A level so i'm a 7-8/10 for top grade

Reply 5

Himtiaz

Original post by HopelessMedic

Take it if you want, but not because you are finding the workload easy atm cause you're barely a month into school. I took the same subjects as you last year and the content definitely gets harder.

What did you get at AS and what do you want to do?

Reply 6

Plagioclase

Original post by Himtiaz

I'm thinking natural sciences, medicine or just physics. I got 10 A*s at GCSE but i've heard that its like 10x harder at A level so i'm a 7-8/10 for top grade

For NatSci and certainly Physics, taking AS Further Maths would be a very good idea. In fact you may want to consider taking A2 Further Maths if you're serious about physics.

Reply 7

Himtiaz

Original post by Plagioclase

For NatSci and certainly Physics, taking AS Further Maths would be a very good idea. In fact you may want to consider taking A2 Further Maths if you're serious about physics.

I'm not 100% about which route to take.
So would it be sensible to take further maths as an option to keep my routes open?

Reply 8

HopelessMedic

Original post by Himtiaz

What did you get at AS and what do you want to do?

AAA in Maths, Chem and Physics then a B in biology ( 1 mark of an A ). Ill be applying for medicine in less than a month

Reply 9

Plagioclase

Original post by Himtiaz

I'm not 100% about which route to take.
So would it be sensible to take further maths as an option to keep my routes open?

Yes. And I would also recommend to start seriously looking into possible degrees because as I say, if you're serious about Physics, you really want to be doing as much maths as possible.

Reply 10

Emma:-)

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Original post by Himtiaz

Id definitely go for it.
You could always drop it at the end of AS if you started to find it too much.

Reply 11

Alfoxd

Original post by Himtiaz

Remember 4a*s is better than 3a*s and 2 As or worse. So unless you're confident of above that then stick to 4.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 12

Himtiaz

Original post by Alfoxd

Remember 4a*s is better than 3a*s and 2 As or worse. So unless your confident of above that then stick to 4.

I was only thinking of taking it for AS, until I'm definite about what i want to do

Reply 13

harrisonchar

If you want to go into something physics related I would swap FM in with something else just because you're finding it easy now doesn't mean it'll stay that way and getting 4 sound A*'s is better then spreading yourself too thin and not getting the grades you want, even if it's only just up to AS level

Reply 14

Himtiaz

Original post by harrisonchar

I'm not sure what to swap it with though. I want to keep my option for medicine open which needs biology and chemistry. Also having maths, further maths and Physics basically count as 2 a levels instead of 3 with regards to work load since there is so much overlap

Reply 15

harrisonchar

For medicine you only need Chemistry and Maths and yes those three subjects do overlap but that doesn't decrease the work load at all it just helps you understand things more so I wouldn't just view them as 2 A levels instead of 3

Reply 16

carolinehj

I did the AS further maths last year, and it's so interesting, and isn't harder than AS maths at all really, just different. I also did additional maths which basically makes C1, C2, and M1 incredibly easy, so doing FP1, S1 and D1 as well really isn't a big problem. However what you should also take into account, is that (if you're in Y12), at the beginning of Y13 you'll have a much better idea of what you want to do at uni e.g. medicine or natural sciences. If medicine then you can swap out the physics for the AS further maths (since it'll be a lot easier for you anyway), and if natsci then you can swap out the biology for the maths, so you can always leave doing the AS further maths till next year. Also, side note, you don't need biology to do medicine.