Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

D2, S2 or M2? (OCR, non-MEI)

Hi folks,

I've been teaching myself Further Maths AS to add an extra string to my university-applying bow and, having covered FP1 in the past week and taken the exam (although I feel it went badly), I need to decide which module to take alongside D1 in the summer and would greatly appreciate any advice anyone has about selecting one.

Although I have a Physics GCSE, I don't do it at A Level and so, when I've covered M1 as part of my normal Maths A Level at school, I have found it challenging in the extreme. My tutor, who has given me a few sessions on FP1 and will do so on D1, wants to teach me M2, but I understand that this is ridiculously difficult for pretty much all Mathematicians. :P I was therefore wondering if anyone knew anything about D2 and its relative difficulty/content? As a Computing student I've found D1 much more interesting than M1, but if it's terrible I'd rather not go with it! The alternative is S2, but again I didn't particularly enjoy S1 at AS, and I don't know much about its content (as the spec on the OCR website is pretty much impenetrable).

None of my choices actually require this so I don't necessarily need a good mark, but I'd like to do my best to get an A none-the-less. So can anyone tell me about the difficulty of D2/S2 in comparison to M2 please? :smile:

Thanks very very much for your help.

tl;dr : I don't like M1, I must choose between D2/S2/M2, teacher wants M2, I would like to find out about difficulty of D2/S2 please.

Reply 1

Rational Paradox

S2 is really easy, provided you can remember/apply equations well - most of it is distributional approximations which is pretty routine, as well as hypothesis testing et al - i'd probably say S1 is harder than S2, just due to permutations/combinations stuff in S1

M2 i thought was the hardest mechanics module, although it is do-able - once you get used to mechanics and can visualise the situations, it becomes a lot easier; having said that, it took me a month before my exams to get used to mechanics! Once you can understand M1, you can get to grips with M2, and M3 is just a bonus module once you can understand the two

If you are just doing it for AS, then go for S2

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 2

salmon5193

D2's very similar to D1 :smile:

i didn't find it that much harder
Haven't had any experience with S2 or M2 - M1 was enough to put me off mechanics for life :P

Reply 3

BeekieBoo

Original post by AfterDeath

tl;dr : I don't like M1, I must choose between D2/S2/M2, teacher wants M2, I would like to find out about difficulty of D2/S2 please.

M2 - Easy if you enjoy it .. so maybe not.
S2 - Very much the same question 7 times on a paper, but slightly different, it's a bit strange.
D2 - Easiest module EVER. I'm sitting this on Wednesday and haven't revised one bit, it's so unbelievable straight forward and there really isn't a lot to learn. Definitely do D2!!!!

Whoooop!

Reply 4

Luke0011

I did D2 on AQA, and if it's anything similar it is SO EASY.
it's the only reason I got an A in further maths first year, cos i got 73, 77 on my other modules, and 94 on D2!

Reply 5

Jeppasloth

M2 isn't that bad but if you dislike Mechanics and like Decision then D2 is a no brainer.

Reply 6

xPixie

I want to stab M1! So I wouldn't particularly advise you to do M2 either, as you stated you don't particularly enjoy Physics at the moment.

I know someone who takes Computing who found D1 really easy & wants to do D2 (so I'm guessing Computing gives you an advantage).

Personally, I'd prefer doing S2, apparently it's very similar to S1..

Reply 7

AfterDeath

Sorry for bumping but just wanted to say thanks very much to you all for your help. :smile:

I'll go for D2.

Reply 8

Schoolio93

Mechanics is the easiest tbh since you only need to remember equations and how to apply them, whereas in decision maths you need to be good at it. But since you are telling me that you are a computer science freak I'd advise you to do D2 - you'd love it.