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Further Maths + A2 maths in 1 year?

Hi, I'm thinking of taking a whole A-level in Further Maths, along with A2 Mathematics, Psychology and English Literature next year - in year 13, dropping Music and Music Technology at AS - and have been warned a lot that the workload will be way too much to cope with (we have to self-teach all of it, though I pretty much self-taught most of AS Maths as my teachers were pretty crap), so I'm just asking for your opinion on:

a) How hard these Mathematics will be in relation to AS mathematics (C1, C2 and S1 in my case, which I found relatively easy).

b) What the workload in combination with the other 2 A2s this will result in.

c) How much natural aptitude for maths is essential at this level as opposed to time spend revising and practicing.

d) Which material you would personally recommend (I'm on Edexcel and will have to but a few books for myself).

e) Advice in which modules would be the wisest to take: (I'm thinking of S3, S4, S5, D1, FP1 and FP2 for the FM, with the intention of studying either Psychology or PPE at university) does statistics get much harder after S2, and would it be a good idea to take M1 and M2 instead of S4 and 5? Or perhaps D2 instead of S3 as well?

f) Would hiring a private tutor be advisable? Why/why not?

Of course I don't expect anyone to know about my natural ability, how hard I will work, and how well this all related to degree-level Psychology (although it would be great if you had a decent idea for the latter), but a general opinion from someone like you would be rather useful. Thanks in advance. :biggrin:

Reply 1

Anonymous0155

10

Killer Bean

a) How hard these Mathematics will be in relation to AS mathematics (C1, C2 and S1 in my case, which I found relatively easy).

b) What the workload in combination with the other 2 A2s this will result in.

c) How much natural aptitude for maths is essential at this level as opposed to time spend revising and practicing.

d) Which material you would personally recommend (I'm on Edexcel and will have to but a few books for myself).

e) Advice in which modules would be the wisest to take: (I'm thinking of S3, S4, S5, D1, FP1 and FP2 for the FM, with the intention of studying either Psychology or PPE at university) does statistics get much harder after S2, and would it be a good idea to take M1 and M2 instead of S4 and 5? Or perhaps D2 instead of S3 as well?

f) Would hiring a private tutor be advisable? Why/why not?

a) A2 maths and FM is on a different level to AS maths.

b) Workload is huge, basically done every past paper and question in the book and re-revision before the exam. Takes a lot of time. A lot of independant study, i have teachers but theres no external pressure to revise or keep up; you have to otivate yourself.

c) I got A* in gcse a year early, 100% in all my AS's and am about low A in FM ish. I got like good ability but it depends on the person coz of course every ones different.

I did the resits to basically do FM and A2 Maths in my second year but the A2 stuff was light revision and stuff. You'll need like really good knowledge of C3 and C4 to begin to tackle the harder FP2 and M3 etc... and it does make FP1 easier.

d) Just past papers and the new spec textbooks with the exam-live CD. Which were a godsend and helped imensely.

e) Id reccomend;

D1, M1, M2, S1, S2 (+ either S3 or D2) I can't say for S3,4,5 though.

f) Depends, Hiring a tutor can help you keep on track and get through the tough parts in FP2 which is quite difficult to learn from the book. i.e. polar.

Reply 2

LZRSWRD

11

Killer Bean

Hi, I'm thinking of taking a whole A-level in Further Maths, along with A2 Mathematics, Psychology and English Literature next year - in year 13, dropping Music and Music Technology at AS - and have been warned a lot that the workload will be way too much to cope with (we have to self-teach all of it, though I pretty much self-taught most of AS Maths as my teachers were pretty crap), so I'm just asking for your opinion on:

a) How hard these Mathematics will be in relation to AS mathematics (C1, C2 and S1 in my case, which I found relatively easy).

b) What the workload in combination with the other 2 A2s this will result in.

c) How much natural aptitude for maths is essential at this level as opposed to time spend revising and practicing.

d) Which material you would personally recommend (I'm on Edexcel and will have to but a few books for myself).

e) Advice in which modules would be the wisest to take: (I'm thinking of S3, S4, S5, D1, FP1 and FP2 for the FM, with the intention of studying either Psychology or PPE at university) does statistics get much harder after S2, and would it be a good idea to take M1 and M2 instead of S4 and 5? Or perhaps D2 instead of S3 as well?

f) Would hiring a private tutor be advisable? Why/why not?

Of course I don't expect anyone to know about my natural ability, how hard I will work, and how well this all related to degree-level Psychology (although it would be great if you had a decent idea for the latter), but a general opinion from someone like you would be rather useful. Thanks in advance. :biggrin:

Wow this is going to be some effort, but it has been done before so you're not the first.

a) - A2 maths is a bigger step up than GCSE to AS put it that way. But with the right attitude it cancelled out and you may even find it easy, aslong as you are following up classwork with work at home and stuff. (sorry not answered very well)

b) Workload will be pretty considerable with 9 maths modules needing to be completed! I might take just further maths to A2 in a gap year and worrying about it, the only way I reckon would be to work through the summer and maybe try to get the easier modules out of the way ready for January exams, these would key and getting like 5 modules done in January to a good standard would be very useful as it gives you some breathing space in June and you if you do really well, will take off the pressure loads.

c) Of course natural aptitude is required, but heck I'm not even that good at maths and I should definitely get an A at A2 but this has come from alot of just hard work. If you have a really good ability, you will grasp modules quickly and get through them fast.

d) I feel the Pearson books are best, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edexcel-AS-Level-Modular-Mathematics/dp/0435519077/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276894622&sr=8-1

They have a CD with all the worked solutions to every question, so it makes it easy to self teach. Also, www.examsolutions.com has worked video solutions to alot of the core maths papers which I found really helpful. Make sure you are doin' alot of papers as you will not have time to do every module to the finest detail so doing alot of papers just gets you used to the types of questions that usually come up.

e) I find statistics modules the easiest personally, but this is your choice. S1/S2 and D1 I think are really easy to self teach maybe decide after these easy modules whether you prefer Mech. or stats.

f) I personally do not feel a tutor would be able to keep up with your pace (you need it if you're gonna do this!) but having someone you know you could see for an hour to go over some stuff may be helpful every once in a while, remember you've always got teachers at school. :biggrin:

Reply 3

Nathan358349573

Killer Bean

Hi, I'm thinking of taking a whole A-level in Further Maths, along with A2 Mathematics, Psychology and English Literature next year - in year 13, dropping Music and Music Technology at AS - and have been warned a lot that the workload will be way too much to cope with (we have to self-teach all of it, though I pretty much self-taught most of AS Maths as my teachers were pretty crap), so I'm just asking for your opinion on:

a) How hard these Mathematics will be in relation to AS mathematics (C1, C2 and S1 in my case, which I found relatively easy).

b) What the workload in combination with the other 2 A2s this will result in.

c) How much natural aptitude for maths is essential at this level as opposed to time spend revising and practicing.

d) Which material you would personally recommend (I'm on Edexcel and will have to but a few books for myself).

e) Advice in which modules would be the wisest to take: (I'm thinking of S3, S4, S5, D1, FP1 and FP2 for the FM, with the intention of studying either Psychology or PPE at university) does statistics get much harder after S2, and would it be a good idea to take M1 and M2 instead of S4 and 5? Or perhaps D2 instead of S3 as well?

f) Would hiring a private tutor be advisable? Why/why not?

Of course I don't expect anyone to know about my natural ability, how hard I will work, and how well this all related to degree-level Psychology (although it would be great if you had a decent idea for the latter), but a general opinion from someone like you would be rather useful. Thanks in advance. :biggrin:

I just wonderd weather you do OCR or AQA as i am doing OCR currenltly and i have tried to do this in the current year, leaving me with an astonishing 8 maths exams this summer! and if you are doing OCR i could help, but AQA i dont have a clue about the course so i do not know what would lie ahead

Reply 4

LZRSWRD

11

Nathan358349573

I just wonderd weather you do OCR or AQA as i am doing OCR currenltly and i have tried to do this in the current year, leaving me with an astonishing 8 maths exams this summer! and if you are doing OCR i could help, but AQA i dont have a clue about the course so i do not know what would lie ahead

Part d) - he says edexcel :p:

Reply 5

nkvuong

Killer Bean

Hi, I'm thinking of taking a whole A-level in Further Maths, along with A2 Mathematics, Psychology and English Literature next year - in year 13, dropping Music and Music Technology at AS - and have been warned a lot that the workload will be way too much to cope with (we have to self-teach all of it, though I pretty much self-taught most of AS Maths as my teachers were pretty crap), so I'm just asking for your opinion on:

a) How hard these Mathematics will be in relation to AS mathematics (C1, C2 and S1 in my case, which I found relatively easy).

b) What the workload in combination with the other 2 A2s this will result in.

c) How much natural aptitude for maths is essential at this level as opposed to time spend revising and practicing.

d) Which material you would personally recommend (I'm on Edexcel and will have to but a few books for myself).

e) Advice in which modules would be the wisest to take: (I'm thinking of S3, S4, S5, D1, FP1 and FP2 for the FM, with the intention of studying either Psychology or PPE at university) does statistics get much harder after S2, and would it be a good idea to take M1 and M2 instead of S4 and 5? Or perhaps D2 instead of S3 as well?

f) Would hiring a private tutor be advisable? Why/why not?

Of course I don't expect anyone to know about my natural ability, how hard I will work, and how well this all related to degree-level Psychology (although it would be great if you had a decent idea for the latter), but a general opinion from someone like you would be rather useful. Thanks in advance. :biggrin:

(a) A2 Maths will be harder than AS, especially C3-4 compared to C1-2. Somehow S2 is much more straightforward than S1, so you will find it easy. FP1 is just after C2, so quite easy, but FP2 will be challenging, with complex numbers and differential equations.

(b) If you are doing by yourself, then the workload is set by you, no problem at all.

(c) I don't think natural aptitude is as essential as hard-working and determination at A-level for Maths. Practice is the most important thing now

(d) The Heinemann book for Edexcel is good enough in my opinion

(e) Sadly, there is no S5, but you shouldn't do up to S4 (unless you are ready for all the t-test, F-test, goodness-of-fit). I would suggest you taking D1, M1, M2 and one more module, either M3 or S3. D2 would be lots tougher than D1, and it's not easy at all compared to S3 or M3 (I just finish both exams recently so that's my opinion).
If you are self-studying then all you need for A-level is doing all the exercises in the book (there are solutions on the CDs accompanying the Heinemann books) I'm finishing all 18 modules of Maths this year and have to do 6 of them by myself (D2, S3, S4, M4, M5 and FP3) and working with the book alone is helpful enough for me.

(f) You could always get answers and help from the Internet so private tutors won't be necessary (from my experience)

Reply 6

Ilyusha

Definitely do S3 over M3. S3 is enjoyable and perfectly possible to self-teach quickly to a high standard (poor teaching meant I had a very shallow grasp of the course, a day with the pearson textbook sorted out all my problems).

Reply 7

Nathan358349573

LZRSWRD

Part d) - he says edexcel :p:

sorry i did not read properly i guess lol :smile:

Further Maths + A2 maths in 1 year?

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