Is it possible to do all modules/topics for further maths in 1 year???

Lucky school ur going to!

Yep, I'm doing them all in one year at the moment

It is? How so?

99% of people studying further maths do all 6 modules in 1 year, its nothing special.

Unless you mean doing all the maths and further maths modules (12 modules) in 1 year, which is just stupid.

99% of people studying further maths do all 6 modules in 1 year, its nothing special.

Unless you mean doing all the maths and further maths modules (12 modules) in 1 year, which is just stupid.

Incorrect and yet another one of these "because I did it you will find it easy" posts

Nice! Which exam board are you doing?

I never said it would be easy, I just said most people do all 6 FM modules in 1 year (or, AS maths/fm 1 year followed by A2maths/fm the next year).

No, you stated 99% of students did it in a year which is incorrect and then stated it was "nothing special" which is subjective and will not in itself be the view of many.

it is 'nothing special' though. It's fairly common i.e. many people manage it, it's doesn't take a genius to do FM in year and get top marks

Not a genius, no but someone who is pretty handy, driven and who can fit it in with 2,3 or 4 other A levels. These are not 10 a penny in the UK these days. 6 Additional modules on top of additional studies and making a good go of it is challenging for some, unrealistic for lots and simply not even possible for the majority being streamed out of GCSEs in the currents 'education' system

No, you stated 99% of students did it in a year which is incorrect and then stated it was "nothing special" which is subjective and will not in itself be the view of many.

haha ok then sure

I must be special then Are you special too?

Well the fact of the matter is that only the best from the GCSE system (Not the greatest way to judge who would be suitable but still reasonably good ) are allowed to take FM at their sixth form (A* Maths GCSE usually). Also for people who do the whole FM A-Level in one year, the VERY vast majority have done the whole maths A-Level in the previous year. If they managed an A* in that around all their other AS Subjects then an A* in FM is certainly on the cards. Of course, it's harder than normal maths but they would have had a years worth of more maths experience at this point in comparison to when they started the Maths A-Level. They should have also developed intellectually over this time so all in all, it's certainly possible to do well considering almost 50% of students taking FM got an A last year. I reckon the A* will be around 2/5 of those candidates so it's not as much of a challenge as you may be suggesting.

The 99% thing was an overstatement however, I agree with your point on that.

No, just a mature adult who enjoys a good level of conversation

more interestingly..



I would love to think it operates like that but bums on seats in recent years have seen all 3 of my local A level centers take on students who 10 years ago wouldnt have got a look in, both for A level and further...Ahhh the changing times.
This years GCSE paper for edexcel is no measure of anything beyond a string year 9 scheme of work.....thats a whole different debate though

I'm not certain but are you not contradicting yourself here? You're saying that these colleges would not have accepted some of the students for FM 10 years ago, does that not suggest that either they think that FM has gotten easy or GCSE maths is a better indicator of a person's capability to do well in FM now? The latter is quite unlikely as you've already pointed out, GCSE maths is a joke and I'm sure they are aware of that, but the fact that they centers are accepting more students for FM despite this suggests that they think that FM is easy thus why they are less reluctant to decline requests to study it. This surely goes against the argument you had that suggests that doing FM in a year is fairly special, surely the centers think otherwise else they wouldn't accept so many people.

No, my point is the gap between ability and suitability from GCSE maths to A level is growing yet the A level exams are not getting THAT much easier.

So A star student now walks onto A level FP course and in reality their knowledge base is not close to that of an A star student 10 years ago in many cases yet the standard of A level is not dropping like GCSE math is.

My nephew is a very average mathematician but has scraped an A star from last year and is so far out of his depth at further (and not comfortable at A level) its scary.

I supose I am also looking at this from a perfromance perspective.
What grades are people talking about obtaining here? their max potential and really understanding the course and subject or just getting through the qualification?

Ah ok, I see. The post I quoted was ambiguous as in it could also be interpreted in the way I did. I think I'm gonna have to disagree, compared to papers from 10 years ago, the current maths A-Levels are very easy. I think this has been as a result of the general decline in the difficulty of a-levels across the board. Even STEP I seems to be getting easier :/. As for your nephew, it's not unusual for any student to struggle with A-Levels when they start out besides it depends on how they are taught the subject i.e. are they programmed to learn specifically to answer exam questions or to understand the (rather simple) maths behind it so they can apply their knowledge to other more unusual situations. Is it's the former then it's not surprising that they appear to struggle because at A-Level it helps to understand your stuff. Other than that, statistics show that around 26% of students who take maths get an A, which suggests it's too easy nowadays and further is even worse at around 43%-50% get an A so I wouldn't say they are getting harder but rather declining in difficulty.