Want to do further maths (GCSE) but school doesn’t teach it?

Hi,

At the beginning of this year, a teacher at my school started teaching further maths and I was enjoying the challenge of it (although it was hard sometimes!) and wanted the extra GCSE. However, she left and no one else took over (since the maths department was really short of staff) which means I haven’t done it since.. I’m really wanting to do it as I want to study it at A level and I think I will need the knowledge from the GCSE course so I’m not completely left behind at A level (correct me if I’m wrong).

I was just wondering how I go about 1) teaching myself the course, 2) finding somewhere to sit the exams in year 11 (which I might be able to do in my school as 4 year 11s did this year but I’m not sure) and 3) if there is any point of sitting it at all and giving myself the extra challenge/stress of another exam..

Any tips or advice is appreciated

Thanks 😊

Btw... I’m in year 10 and currently doing 8 GCSEs and 1 BTEC

I don’t think further maths at GCSE is required to study it at A levels. The whole GCSE maths course is basically a few weeks worth of learning at AS level, many students at my school didn’t study further maths at GCSE and carried on to do A level further maths

Ohhh, that's good so I don't HAVE to do it if I do choose it for A levels . TBH though, now I kinda want to do the further maths GCSE for an extra GCSE and I'm sure it will help somewhat. Do you have any idea how I do this? Thanks! (this might be a really bad idea - tell me if it is 😂)

I’m not entirely sure, if you really want to study it you’ll have to teach yourself and you’ll most likely have to apply to do the exam elsewhere if your school doesn’t do it. But honestly, GCSE’s at the time are stressful enough and unless you can deal with it I’d just chill through it and do it at A level where you only have 2 other completely different subjects to focus on

I hadn't heard of GCSE Further Maths until TSR. It as very uncommon for it to be taught by the sounds of it. The majority of people who pursue Further Maths at A-Level will have not done Further Maths GCSE as, to my understanding, FM A-Level builds on top of the content of Maths A-Level, which itself doesn't require a study of Maths post GCSE. I could be wrong though as I don't even do Maths A-Level, just the majority of my friends do lol.

Hi there,

I did Further Maths GCSE and can confirm there isn't much additional stuff in the GCSE, the majority of it is standard maths GCSE, and we were taught it after school once a week for three months (so at most 12 hours of additional content), so it should be very easy to self teach if you wish!

Although your school doesn't "offer" it, they should still be able to enter you for it, it's as simple as entering you for any other qualification that they do teach you, apart from they just need to know you want to do it (inform the exams officer well in advance (probably January Y11) so that they have record of it) but there should not be any issue there, they should be more than happy to enter you, as it is their job to do so!

Hope this helped!

Just apply for the A Level. It sounds like you work hard and enjoy the challenge. Don’t create problems - if you find the A Level challenging tackle the problem when it arises.

I was actually in quite a similar position; a couple of us really wanted to do further maths but our school decided not to run it as they couldn’t afford to run a proper course. Basically we just went to speak to a few teachers and they agreed to enter us for the exam. They did end up running after school sessions but it wasn’t formally taught as such and we had to do a lot of it ourselves. Gotta say, I’m really so glad I did! Its a pretty small course (should be able to self teach in 3-4 months with the textbook) and although you dont need it for a Level so many people have said it really gives you a head start. If you enjoy it and are interested anyway it really shouldn’t be too stressful anyway.
Basically, IMO if you can, go for it! It’s definitely self-teachable and there’s quite a bit of overlap so you don’t actually have to learn too many entirely new concepts.

Hii, I accidentally left replying to this longer than I was gonna, but I'm glad I did because I got an opportunity to talk in depth to my friend who was doing further maths before with me but now feels too unconfident to do it . She really thinks I should go for it even though I told her it might be hard and I feel like it's aimed for people working at really high grades (e.g. high 8s + 9s). For some reason, she thinks I will achieve these grades (I'm currently at a 7) but I'm not so sure. - This makes me think further maths might not be a great option. Also, she said I should talk to the head of maths about what his opinion is + how to get the entered for the exam. I'm still very unsure Why do I have to be like this 😂

It does sound like many people do it after school (reading your comments) which makes me think that it wouldn't be too hard to learn the content, it's just a matter of whether I should go for it when I don't actually need to for A levels 😬. Ughhhhhh

I know that what I have already been told is all you can really say since its all there is to say, so I think my next steps should be asking other people who I think might be interested to go with me to ask about learning it or at least being entered for the examination. I might even persuade my friend to try it again

Thanks all for the help, it is greatly appreciated and it has been very useful

(BTW, I have bought a cheap further maths CGP book so I can look at the content and see how hard it is before going to the trouble of asking any teachers 😂.. I really hate talking to them :/ )

The other question - which may have been asked already but I’m about to get on a train and I’m just replying to the notification - is what you’re going to do after A Levels and whether this would help or not with whatever that would be for you.

my teacher called me fat and is also leaving so thats good but does that mean i have to leave school

That definitely shouldn't have happened! I'm slightly confused, why would you have to leave school because the teacher is? ...Maybe make your own thread to get advice - I'm rubbish at it :/

Hi,

At the beginning of this year, a teacher at my school started teaching further maths and I was enjoying the challenge of it (although it was hard sometimes!) and wanted the extra GCSE. However, she left and no one else took over (since the maths department was really short of staff) which means I haven’t done it since.. I’m really wanting to do it as I want to study it at A level and I think I will need the knowledge from the GCSE course so I’m not completely left behind at A level (correct me if I’m wrong).

I was just wondering how I go about 1) teaching myself the course, 2) finding somewhere to sit the exams in year 11 (which I might be able to do in my school as 4 year 11s did this year but I’m not sure) and 3) if there is any point of sitting it at all and giving myself the extra challenge/stress of another exam..

Any tips or advice is appreciated

Thanks 😊

Btw... I’m in year 10 and currently doing 8 GCSEs and 1 BTEC

I done A level further maths. GCSE further maths could help you with a few basics of the A level, but it’s not required what so ever by any sixth forms to do a level further maths. If I had it at my school I would’ve done it because at gcse maths I got a strong grade 9

Hi,

At the beginning of this year, a teacher at my school started teaching further maths and I was enjoying the challenge of it (although it was hard sometimes!) and wanted the extra GCSE. However, she left and no one else took over (since the maths department was really short of staff) which means I haven’t done it since.. I’m really wanting to do it as I want to study it at A level and I think I will need the knowledge from the GCSE course so I’m not completely left behind at A level (correct me if I’m wrong).

I was just wondering how I go about 1) teaching myself the course, 2) finding somewhere to sit the exams in year 11 (which I might be able to do in my school as 4 year 11s did this year but I’m not sure) and 3) if there is any point of sitting it at all and giving myself the extra challenge/stress of another exam..

Any tips or advice is appreciated

Thanks 😊

Btw... I’m in year 10 and currently doing 8 GCSEs and 1 BTEC