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Is Further Maths actually hard??

I'm in year 11 right now & it's definitely time to fill in my applications for colleges. I know I want to study Economics at uni & the subjects I'm choosing for A-levels are quite risky as I have never done Economics before... It just appeals to me.
So I'm considering Maths, Further Maths, Ancient History & obviously Economics... I have to be honest, I'm average at Maths. I got a B overall for my end of year 10 exam. It's alright considering I did not revise for it as I had put all my concentration in Science lol.

I've done some past papers here and there during school and I've got A's which are in the middle. This was only in the calculator paper though... Um, I'm also doing a Statistics exam & as past papers go I have got nearly full marks in the tests; so A*... If I work hard, do you think I'm potentially capable of receiving an A* for maths? That's the requirement to study Further Maths at A-level... Does anyone study it? I am really scared because as much as I enjoy maths, I'm not the best with percentages & fractions... I'm good at harder questions in exams(B-A) but sometimes I literally loose marks on the D-E questions lol, idek but I'm practicing... It's just beacuse I never listened when I was younger and I'm facing the consequences now :frown:
What do you think? Am I capable still?

Oh, and my target grade is a B...
I know I can get an A at least on the real thing... Will it matter so much whilst applying for A-level? Entry requirements for just Maths is an A as well... I'm scared that I can't apply for Maths in general.
(edited 9 years ago)

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I do Further Maths, albeit in Year 13. It's not really any harder than normal Maths (depending on the Applied Modules you're doing). It's all calculator, unlike Core 1, so you're okay on that front.

Ask your potential sixth form about your issue with regular Maths and your target grade.
Original post by loperdoper
I do Further Maths, albeit in Year 13. It's not really any harder than normal Maths (depending on the Applied Modules you're doing). It's all calculator, unlike Core 1, so you're okay on that front.

Ask your potential sixth form about your issue with regular Maths and your target grade.


Thank god! I hope you're right & yeah I guess I will try to apply for it.
I'll just put it on the subject choices and hopefully I will get an interview to explain myself! :redface:
AS further maths is pretty easy as long as you put in the work.
A2 with FP2,3 etc. is where it becomes a mess.
if you're doing economics then just AS FM will be a big help to your application - A2 for economics is overkill. Statistics would be much more beneficial.
Reply 4
I'd say you definitely could get an A* if you put the work in. I pushed my baseline of a C to an A over the course of year 11 through hard work.

From what I've seen and heard, Further Maths is only as hard as regular Maths A level, just that because it goes twice as fast as normal maths, it has a lot more work involved.

I wouldn't fret over whether you're going to struggle - my college has entry requirements of B or above for regular Maths AS and everyone's finding it hard, lol.
Original post by tearteto
AS further maths is pretty easy as long as you put in the work.
A2 with FP2,3 etc. is where it becomes a mess.
if you're doing economics then just AS FM will be a big help to your application - A2 for economics is overkill. Statistics would be much more beneficial.


Thanks for your feedback! Yeah that sounds like a good idea but I want to get into a really good university, like Cambridge. It won't disadvantage me from other applicants would it?
Original post by suirrel
I'd say you definitely could get an A* if you put the work in. I pushed my baseline of a C to an A over the course of year 11 through hard work.

From what I've seen and heard, Further Maths is only as hard as regular Maths A level, just that because it goes twice as fast as normal maths, it has a lot more work involved.

I wouldn't fret over whether you're going to struggle - my college has entry requirements of B or above for regular Maths AS and everyone's finding it hard, lol.


Wow, congratulations!
That's really motivating to hear, fml. I just hope that if I were to do it I wouldn't be the only one struggling T_T
Reply 7
I wouldn't advise it if you get a B at GCSE. If you get an A then it is certainly doable.
I'd say do as well as you can this year, and if you get an A*, only then consider it.

Once you start, it's not that bad, it's just the amount of stuff you'll be going through so quickly that you'll have to keep up with. One of the pros is that when you do the harder stuff in AS like C3 and M2 as a further mathmatician, it makes modules like C1, C2 and M1 look like a joke. So you'll always be ahead of the curve. You want to make sure that you actually understand the maths rather than just learning the formulas and the procedures, because when it makes sense to you, it's just so much easier to understand and apply to questions.

Finally, start looking at the entry requirements of the universities you want to go to, because as someone else said, I think A2 further maths would be a bit too much. So another option would be to do normal maths for the first year, and then if you're results are good then you can do AS further maths the second year. Although it isn't a full A level, it gives you a flavour of further maths and it's a good thing to talk about in your personal statement, showing your initiative and stuff
Reply 9
Actually I'm doing some Further Maths as we speak. I'm in year 13 as my sixth form does not allow year 12's to do the course. In my opinion, FM is A LOT harder than the regular maths, purely because you are introduced to new topics such as 'Complex & Imaginary numbers, Matrices & Summations' and you really need to put in a lot more work to get that penny to drop and manage to get your head around it, added on the fact you need 2 more applied modules just triples the work load. I am doing (C1,C2,S1) + (C3,C4,D1)+(FP1,S2,M1)
Original post by kid_kangaroo
Thanks for your feedback! Yeah that sounds like a good idea but I want to get into a really good university, like Cambridge. It won't disadvantage me from other applicants would it?


not at all. Economics Maths and history is a solid set for cambridge. of course you would get bonus points for sticking up with 4, but few manage it so you can afford to drop FM for A2
Original post by heisenburger
I'd say do as well as you can this year, and if you get an A*, only then consider it.

Once you start, it's not that bad, it's just the amount of stuff you'll be going through so quickly that you'll have to keep up with. One of the pros is that when you do the harder stuff in AS like C3 and M2 as a further mathmatician, it makes modules like C1, C2 and M1 look like a joke. So you'll always be ahead of the curve. You want to make sure that you actually understand the maths rather than just learning the formulas and the procedures, because when it makes sense to you, it's just so much easier to understand and apply to questions.

Finally, start looking at the entry requirements of the universities you want to go to, because as someone else said, I think A2 further maths would be a bit too much. So another option would be to do normal maths for the first year, and then if you're results are good then you can do AS further maths the second year. Although it isn't a full A level, it gives you a flavour of further maths and it's a good thing to talk about in your personal statement, showing your initiative and stuff



Yep, I just looked at the entry requirements for Cambridge & they do prefer Further Maths although not much detail is given whether doing it the second year would be alright. I read somewhere that A2 Maths & AS Further Maths are quite similar for Edexcel (which is the exam board the college uses). Someone said they did both AS & A2 exams in the second year for Further Maths...
Original post by tearteto
not at all. Economics Maths and history is a solid set for cambridge. of course you would get bonus points for sticking up with 4, but few manage it so you can afford to drop FM for A2


YESSSSSS. Literally tears of joy for the news you have brought upon me!
Original post by kid_kangaroo
Yep, I just looked at the entry requirements for Cambridge & they do prefer Further Maths although not much detail is given whether doing it the second year would be alright. I read somewhere that A2 Maths & AS Further Maths are quite similar for Edexcel (which is the exam board the college uses). Someone said they did both AS & A2 exams in the second year for Further Maths...


I guess you'll have to go for the full further maths a level then

I do edexcel too, compared to what I hear from other people doing other exam boards, Edexcel's specification seems much more well laid out and I think it flows well from module to module For A2 maths, you have to take C3 and C4, there's no other alternatives. However, you can take modules such as D1 or M1 that you could do for AS maths, but do for AS further maths too.

Basically, you have 12 modules (or more if you want to do further additional maths, but that's definitely overkill for economics) to do in the space of 2 years, and usually the college works out what module is going to be done when. But you could do some adjustment here and there according to your preferences which you could talk to the college about. You'll probably do the majority of the 12 exams in year 12 since the modules in year 13 get harder and it makes doing resits if you need them a tad bit easier since you've got most of the modules out of the way in your first year. I guess you could do AS and A2 further maths in a year, but you'd probably want to get A2 maths done and dusted by the first year.
I failed AS Further Maths as I got Us in both Mechanics modules. AS Further Maths is essentially FP1 + storage for your 2 lowest module marks (outside the cores). FP1, which is actual Further Maths (the only one you do at AS), is doable. I got a C in that.

Other than that, unless you want to do Maths at a Russell Group University I really would not recommend it. Further Maths classes usually consist of about 12 or fewer people, and your Maths and Further Maths classes are likely to be exactly the same, so you might be stuck in a small group of absolute eggheads for 8 lessons a week. It's better to be a big fish in a big pond of small fish, not a small fish in a small pond of big fish...

I fully regret taking it and I'm not sure why anyone in the right mind would want to commit themselves to something so horrible for something as important as A-Levels. Have an easy life and don't do it.
(edited 9 years ago)
Further maths is a lot harder than regular maths. AS is actually not that hard... FP1 is harder than Core 1 and Core 2, but not that much harder. and for AS further maths you do 2 applied units which are generally not as hard as the further pures or cores (although can be for some). A2 further maths is sort of on another level. It will be maths that you've not really ever seen up until that point and will actually be difficult to understand. FP2 is extremely difficult and infinitely harder than core 3 and core 4.
Original post by heisenburger
I guess you'll have to go for the full further maths a level then

I do edexcel too, compared to what I hear from other people doing other exam boards, Edexcel's specification seems much more well laid out and I think it flows well from module to module For A2 maths, you have to take C3 and C4, there's no other alternatives. However, you can take modules such as D1 or M1 that you could do for AS maths, but do for AS further maths too.

Basically, you have 12 modules (or more if you want to do further additional maths, but that's definitely overkill for economics) to do in the space of 2 years, and usually the college works out what module is going to be done when. But you could do some adjustment here and there according to your preferences which you could talk to the college about. You'll probably do the majority of the 12 exams in year 12 since the modules in year 13 get harder and it makes doing resits if you need them a tad bit easier since you've got most of the modules out of the way in your first year. I guess you could do AS and A2 further maths in a year, but you'd probably want to get A2 maths done and dusted by the first year.


I'm assuming you're in year 13? How's it going for you?
Thanks for the tips! I'm definately going to ask if this is possible. I know it is though because I've just done some research and some schools actually make you do a full A-level Maths in one year and Further Maths the second year. I just hope it will fit in with the timetables :/ It's a big leap... So 12 exams the first year for AS Maths?
Original post by JamesTheCool
I failed AS Further Maths as I got Us in both Mechanics modules. AS Further Maths is essentially FP1 + storage for your 2 lowest module marks (outside the cores). FP1, which is actual Further Maths (the only one you do at AS), is doable. I got a C in that.

Other than that, unless you want to do Maths at a Russell Group University I really would not recommend it. Further Maths classes usually consist of about 12 or fewer people, and your Maths and Further Maths classes are likely to be exactly the same, so you might be stuck in a small group of absolute eggheads for 8 lessons a week. It's better to be a big fish in a big pond of small fish, not a small fish in a small pond of big fish...

I fully regret taking it and I'm not sure why anyone in the right mind would want to commit themselves to something so horrible for something as important as A-Levels. Have an easy life and don't do it.


Yeah I am scared to take it but considering that I want to get into elite universities I have to put myself through hell.
Original post by AG Singh
Actually I'm doing some Further Maths as we speak. I'm in year 13 as my sixth form does not allow year 12's to do the course. In my opinion, FM is A LOT harder than the regular maths, purely because you are introduced to new topics such as 'Complex & Imaginary numbers, Matrices & Summations' and you really need to put in a lot more work to get that penny to drop and manage to get your head around it, added on the fact you need 2 more applied modules just triples the work load. I am doing (C1,C2,S1) + (C3,C4,D1)+(FP1,S2,M1)


Wait... So did you do all of A-level Maths in year 12?
Reply 19
I'll be honest if you struggle with GCSE Maths you'll struggle with A level Maths and FM. Added to the fact you want to apply to Cambridge, you can't just do decent in them, you'll have to be hitting 90% and that isn't particularly easy with some of the grade boundaries out there and the fact that it isn't all easy, for me there was always that one topic I was a bit shaky on, that can and is the difference between an A and A*.

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