Further Maths at A-Level problem

I love Maths and at the moment, next year, I am doing Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Psychology at AS level (and another subject of which I am unsure). However, my school's Sixth Form only offers Further Maths at AS level (an afterschool club over years 12 and 13). The thing is, if I find that I really like Maths and Further Maths at AS, I would really love to carry on with Further Maths to A2 so I can have the option of doing a Maths degree at univeristy; without the full A2 I will be at a disadvantage due to high competition.

Is the Further Maths A2 possible to self teach?

I really don't know what to do because I can't go to college as it's way too expensive getting there and I didn't like the look of the place anyway. What shall I do?

Reply 1

RK92

2

what sort of unis are you looking at going for? for some high ranking unis, almost all applicants would be applying with a full a level in further maths and further maths a level would be a very useful for any potential maths applicant.

edit: just realised youre still a GCSE student.. i would say that you should take as much maths as possible if you think you might be interested in a maths degree (or even physics)... with regards to self teaching yourself A2... its do-able but would be much easier with a teacher obviously. do you know if you would be able to get help with it from any of the teachers there if you did decide to self teach? if not, try the googling the further maths network.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 2

ttoby

15

Have a look closely at the requirements for the universities. Some of the top ones say that they usually require further maths to A2, but if your school only offers it to AS then they have an alternative offer available, where you would usually make up for the lack of further maths by higher grades in other subjects.

Reply 3

Ch1pp0

12

Yes, as I'm doing my FM revision now I can tell you it is very easy to self teach yourself FM.
I would recommend the Hugh Neill and Douglas Quadling textbook though (if you're doing OCR).
And btw Unis aren't allowed to discriminate; If your school doesn't offer further maths it can't count against you.
However if the normal offer was A (Maths) A (Further maths), your offer may be: A* (Maths) A (Further maths - AS) (+ possibly a STEP grade).

Reply 4

Freakonomics123

10

Original post by chloooeee

I love Maths and at the moment, next year, I am doing Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Psychology at AS level (and another subject of which I am unsure). However, my school's Sixth Form only offers Further Maths at AS level (an afterschool club over years 12 and 13). The thing is, if I find that I really like Maths and Further Maths at AS, I would really love to carry on with Further Maths to A2 so I can have the option of doing a Maths degree at univeristy; without the full A2 I will be at a disadvantage due to high competition.

Is the Further Maths A2 possible to self teach?

I really don't know what to do because I can't go to college as it's way too expensive getting there and I didn't like the look of the place anyway. What shall I do?

I think you should be fine to self teach all modules except for FP2/FP3 and M2/M3/M4 obviously you only need to do one of fp2 and fp3 and you probably wont take M3 or M4.

Reply 5

AmroTT

Original post by Freakonomics123

I think you should be fine to self teach all modules except for FP2/FP3 and M2/M3/M4 obviously you only need to do one of fp2 and fp3 and you probably wont take M3 or M4.

Original post by Ch1pp0

I would recommend the Hugh Neill and Douglas Quadling textbook though (if you're doing OCR).

Both of the above are good advice. On OCR you need 12 modules for full A-level Maths & FM:

C1, C2, C3, C4
FP1
One (or both) of FP2, FP3
And the remainder being applied modules: M1-4, S1-4, D1-2.

My advice would be to try to knock A-level Maths out of the park in the Lower Sixth, then do FM in your A2 year. However, I appreciate timetabling doesn't sound like it'll allow that: so try doing both AS Maths and FM in Lower Sixth, and both A2s in Upper Sixth.

In terms of module combinations, I'd recommend doing M1/S1/D1 as well as the mandatory C1, C2, FP1 in Year 12 (if that's how you're going to do it).
Then when it comes to Year 13 you know which out the of Mechanics/Statistics/Decision Maths routes you like the most, because you're going to need three modules out of M2-4, S2-4, and D2 for Maths and FM A2.

If I had my time again and did FM off-timetable (I wouldn't do my School's version of FM which involves 14 modules when you only need 12), I'd do C1-C4, FP1, FP2, M1-3, S1, S2, D1. Partially because I really like Mechanics and can't stand Decision Math. However much you like a 'route' though, I wouldn't advise doing FP3, M4, or S4 if you can avoid it, because they're all difficult to get good grades in (the raw/UMS conversion is unforgiving, as everyone who tends to do those modules gets 60+ raw marks).

But best of luck, it is perfectly doable! :smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Further Maths at A-Level problem

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you