Further maths

Original post by Aaman.

I have just finished my first year of my further maths course and am being told that the courses our school have chosen for us are further pure 1 and further mechanics 1. We have been allowed to take other courses from the edexcel exam board but it would have to be in self-study. I just wanted to get some opinions on what are the most enjoyable because i have looked at all the content and it all interests me but i don't want to choose one that will be hard to study by myself.

Why can't the school offer a free choice? It's perfectly possible ...

Reply 4

TypicalNerd

18

Original post by Aaman.

I have just finished my first year of my further maths course and am being told that the courses our school have chosen for us are further pure 1 and further mechanics 1. We have been allowed to take other courses from the edexcel exam board but it would have to be in self-study. I just wanted to get some opinions on what are the most enjoyable because i have looked at all the content and it all interests me but i don't want to choose one that will be hard to study by myself.

I’d probably recommend sticking to FP1/FM1, but if you want to do an additional paper, you should consider what sort of degree you are interested in.

If you are looking into a physics or engineering degree for example, it would perhaps be an idea to look into FM2.

Reply 5

OP

Thank you for responding!
Just curious but you recommended picking up an extra subject if i'm struggling with the chosen subjects already. Why is this? Is it to lessen the effect that a bad mark in FM1 or FP1 would have? Buts as for mechanics, i certainly found that easier than statistics but statistics was definitely more fun in how different it was to all the maths i have done (except i am terrible at stats) but i am curious as to what topics you chose and how you found them?

Original post by _gcx

My advice would be to just start with FP1/FM1 and if you find you're struggling with one of them, pick up FS1 or D1 as a self-study. (or maybe FP2/FM2, though you might struggle to get teacher support with FP2 and will have a bit less practice material)

If you're good at physics and quite liked the mechanics in that, then there's no reason to think you'd dislike FM1. FS1 is a bit trickier, I'd say you'd only get a good indication of whether you like it when you hit hypothesis testing in AS (single) maths. The exam I found was fairly predictable (applying the same methods to different numbers) and similar to the textbook.

Reply 6

OP

I am probably going to do medicine which makes anything extra to do pointless but i do enjoy maths which is why i chose further maths. I am definitely torn between whether i want to do something engineering related or not. If i find FM1 good this might influence my choice (both in my career progression and subject) and i might pick up FM2. Thank you for responding!

Original post by TypicalNerd

I’d probably recommend sticking to FP1/FM1, but if you want to do an additional paper, you should consider what sort of degree you are interested in.

If you are looking into a physics or engineering degree for example, it would perhaps be an idea to look into FM2.

Original post by Aaman.

Thank you for responding!
Just curious but you recommended picking up an extra subject if i'm struggling with the chosen subjects already. Why is this? Is it to lessen the effect that a bad mark in FM1 or FP1 would have? Buts as for mechanics, i certainly found that easier than statistics but statistics was definitely more fun in how different it was to all the maths i have done (except i am terrible at stats) but i am curious as to what topics you chose and how you found them?

I was more suggesting you would take FS1 or D1 instead of a bad paper - I assumed this is what you meant by your school letting you do further modules as a self-study. It has been possible in the past to take 3 or more papers and have them pick the best combination, but I am not sure if the rules on this will have changed in recent years (perhaps @Muttley79 will know?) and I'm unsure it's a reasonable strategy for the vast majority of people anyway. It seemed like a very administrationally unusual thing to do and it didn't seemed to be advertised, some people I knew of managed it in 2019. If you are to self-study another paper, I would really advise you do it in place of either FP1 or FM1.

I did FP1 and self-taught FS1 a few years ago.

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Muttley79

Why can't the school offer a free choice? It's perfectly possible ...

Sorry i'm not too sure what you mean by this? could you clarify?

Reply 9

OP

Thank you for your insight! i will definitely take this into account. Also how is decision maths? I hear its useful for Computer Science but other than that i'm not too sure of the maths it contains other than a few topic names.

Original post by mskr710

although i do d1 and fm1, i think doing fp1 and fm1 would sound fun, maybe fp2, i'd say just stick to what ur school is teaching bc then it means you wont have to study the whole module all by urself

Reply 10

Original post by Aaman.

Sorry i'm not too sure what you mean by this? could you clarify?

Where I teach students can chose any of the allowed combinations [Edexcel] - we teach them the modules they want to take.

Reply 11

OP

Original post by Muttley79

Where I teach students can chose any of the allowed combinations [Edexcel] - we teach them the modules they want to take.

I think it is to do with not splitting up the class as there are like 9 people that take further maths so it is easier to teach everyone the same modules

Reply 12

Original post by Aaman.

I think it is to do with not splitting up the class as there are like 9 people that take further maths so it is easier to teach everyone the same modules

We don't split the class we just teach more than one module at a time - it's not hard.

Reply 13

OP

Original post by Muttley79

We don't split the class we just teach more than one module at a time - it's not hard.

That's true, I might double check just to see why we can't choose our own topics. At your school do you have one teacher who teaches each module to the students?

Reply 14

Original post by Aaman.

That's true, I might double check just to see why we can't choose our own topics. At your school do you have one teacher who teaches each module to the students?

We have two Further Maths groups - one does Maths in Year 12 and then F Maths in Year 13 - the other does both A levels over two years. Several of us can teach F Maths - we usually share the teaching of all A level groups. So in a shared F Maths group we ask what they want to do of the optional modules then decide how to deliver this. I prefer to teach anything but Stats although I can teach it if required but other colleagues would be happy to teach stats.

Reply 15

mskr710

12

Original post by Aaman.

Thank you for your insight! i will definitely take this into account. Also how is decision maths? I hear its useful for Computer Science but other than that i'm not too sure of the maths it contains other than a few topic names.

id say the content isnt too bad, its more so the exam itself. It's quite time constrained and there are plenty of long algorithms to do. It's a tiny bit useful for cs at the moment, since we are looking at sorting algorithms, linear programming etc. The content is pretty straightforward (tho having said that, i dont get 100% lol). some students don't really like d1 since they think its boring but i think its not too bad

Reply 16

Notnek

21

Original post by Muttley79

Why can't the school offer a free choice? It's perfectly possible ...

It would be nice if more schools do this but I think it's pretty rare.

Original post by Muttley79

We don't split the class we just teach more than one module at a time - it's not hard.

Do you mind sharing how this works because I'm not familiar. Are you saying that in a single class you could teach one option to part of the class and another option to another part of the class in the same lesson?

Reply 17

Original post by Notnek

It would be nice if more schools do this but I think it's pretty rare.

Do you mind sharing how this works because I'm not familiar. Are you saying that in a single class you could teach one option to part of the class and another option to another part of the class in the same lesson?

Yes - why not? Those doing the same option sit together ...

In the days of three tier GCSE I taught a group that was half Higher and half Intermediate - two boards - one board each. When modular we taught all 18 modules.

Students and parents love it

Reply 18

Notnek

21

Original post by Muttley79

Yes - why not? Those doing the same option sit together ...

In the days of three tier GCSE I taught a group that was half Higher and half Intermediate - two boards - one board each. When modular we taught all 18 modules.

Students and parents love it

Do you set any limits or could you in theory have 16 different options sets in a single year group?

Reply 19