Better grade in further maths than in maths?

A lot of college/6th form math teachers tend to say FM is not harder maths, it's just more maths. I don't think that's true lol. Has anybody ever got, or heard of someone getting, a better grade in further maths than in regular A level maths?

Oh and also slightly off-topic but I may as well ask instead of making another thread. Would anyone reccommend a good graphics calculator for OCR MEI? Thanks.

Reply 1

rbilling

This year I did worse in Maths than FM.

Oh and the Texas Instruments TI-83s or TI-84s are solid and somewhat ubiquitous calculators.

Reply 2

JoMo1

well currently the modules I've done as part of my Further Maths beat my Maths modules by 2% when averaged, however this does involve applied stuff. Further Maths isn't harder if you're good at maths though, FP1 is as hard as C1/2, NM(MEI pure module) is about as hard as C3/4, if you get the material, if you don't get the material it'd be incredibly tough. It shouldn't be too hard to do better in FM than maths.

Reply 3

reductio

the old FP3 and FP2 were hard. Fp2 was alright when you got the hang of it, but fp3 requires lots and lots of thinking.

Reply 4

The Muon

apart from the core modules and further pure modules - you can shift the others around between your maths and further maths. At least, you can with AQA. If you get an A in Maths and a B in further maths, you just ring them up and they can swap it around. Most Uni's prefer maths to further maths so I dont know anyone that has done this.

Reply 5

Tallon

Is there any part of maths that's harder than further though?

Reply 6

pyrolol

It's extremely difficult to get a better grade in further maths, for various reasons. 1) it _is_ harder. Even if we ignore the increased abstractness of some of the content, the questions expect alot more from you, in general algebraic proficiency, and give less help. 2) The exam board will attempt to order the modules to maximise your maths grade, which as you can imagine makes it very difficult to get a better fm grade.

I've only used the Ti84; it's quite good. There isn't that much it can't do that's allowed, but I still used a FX-83ES(991 would be better though; the integrator on those things is amazing...Really. It may take forever, but the answers are almost exact (normally the whole ~12dp it stores), although it won't simplify complicated ones.) in exams as well.

Reply 7

Clarfairy

i got a better overall score in further maths than maths, but thats due to i did stats in normal maths, and oh god i failed quite hard. :frown:

without stats, i think i would've done better in normal maths though.

Reply 8

benwellsday

I think I did better in further maths than normal maths. I knobbed up C3. The further math modules went better because I revised it far more and didn't try to complete the papers in 45 minutes.

Reply 9

username165864

benwellsday

I think I did better in further maths than normal maths. I knobbed up C3. The further math modules went better because I revised it far more and didn't try to complete the papers in 45 minutes.

I am going to do that with C3 and C4 next year :p:

but I'm trying 30 minutes :p:

as I did with C1, C2 and M1 hehe.

Reply 10

tomkent

well for alevel you do the 4 core modules then 2 extra - i think on the whole the boards take your best two extra modules that aren't FP so usually you'll do better in normal maths

Reply 11

username167718

I don't know if this counts, but I've just finished AS maths and AS further maths last year.
I got about 90% in maths, and 91% in further maths.
Larger differences in scores (where it actually changes the grades) are rare, but possible.

Reply 12

schrodinger's cat

I know plenty of people you got slightly lower marks in maths than in further maths - but this has more to do with the way you can switch applied modules between them (e.g. putting harder modules you did worse in, in normal maths because that allows you to put easier ones in f. maths to bump up your grades). Further Maths (A2) is a huge step up from normal maths IMO (on edexcel at least) and it is crazy to think not.

In answer to your other question though, as far as i understand it, you cannot get a higher grade in further maths as the exam board sorts your modules out to give you the highest grade (not marks) possible in further maths and then sorts out the rest into further.

Reply 13

Swayum

schrodinger's cat

In answer to your other question though, as far as i understand it, you cannot get a higher grade in further maths as the exam board sorts your modules out to give you the highest grade (not marks) possible in further maths and then sorts out the rest into further.

Unless if you absolutely mess up C1 - C4 but do really well on FP1 - FP3 (however unlikely that may be) :p:

Reply 14

schrodinger's cat

Swayum

Unless if you absolutely mess up C1 - C4 but do really well on FP1 - FP3 (however unlikely that may be) :p:

That did actually run through my head as i typed that :p:

But without actually working it out properly, you'd have to mess up really badly on those, not retake them, and somehow have a brilliant knack for the FPs.... i somehow didn't think it was worth mentioning :biggrin:

Reply 15

Tallon

without the applied modules it barely ever happens then I assume?

schrodinger's cat

Ahh, I have different exam boards for maths and further maths so the exam boards wouldn't be able to sort out the modules, so it wouldn't be too hard to get a better grade. Not sure if anyone I know has done it though :hmmmm:

Reply 18

Hana_parsonss

I take further maths and maths and I’ve always got better grades in further maths. I think this is partly due to further maths having a lot lower grade boundaries than maths or maybe because further maths has the better teachers.