A level options

I've been thinking of doing maths, further maths and physics as my a levels in Yr12/13. However, as you know, not many universities would accept further maths as a 3rd subject. But, currently I'm doing A-Level Polish and will do my exams at the end of year 11, and I'm very confident that I'll do very well.Is this a good enough 4th A-Level?

hey! i’m in yr13 and doing maths, fm & physics as my alevels. further maths is most definitely a separate alevel, i’ve not heard of unis not accepting it? i’ve applied to all russel group for electrical engineering and they all have been fine with it. do you know what you’ll want to go into? i say go for the three

That's great to hear, it's just been rumours that I've been hearing certain people say that unis would question doing FM as a 3rd A-Level because of the 'lack of workload'. Would you say the workload that you get for further maths is equivalent to the workload of other subjects?

so i did my alevel maths last year (yr12), so im basically only doing two alevels atm. i definitely spend a lot of time on fm since i do 5 modules… though i find fm easier than physics so i reckon i spend close to equal time on them. but i’m fortunate enough to only have to worry about two subjects! further maths has a LOT more content than maths. it build on from maths, but doesn’t really share topics, if that makes sense? like you need the basics you’ve learnt in maths for further maths, but there’s not a lot of topic overlap (except vectors). i mean, a huge plus is that there is overlap with maths, fm and physics. maths mechanics & further mechanics overlap with physics mechanics for example. i would say the subjects are complementary, rather than not an extra alevel. if you enjoy it, i say go for 3. i considered picking a 4th for a long time (compsci) but ultimately decided against it. i’m on track to get 3A*s, and i don’t think i would’ve been able to get 4A*s so i’m quite glad i only picked 3!

That's very useful information, thank you for sharing it. Maths is my best and favourite subject, and I find physics very fascinating, so I will definitely strongly consider picking this subject combination. On physics, how does it compare to gcse physics? How do the topics compare, and how maths-based is it? Also, what are the exams boards for the subjects that you do?

I've been thinking of doing maths, further maths and physics as my a levels in Yr12/13. However, as you know, not many universities would accept further maths as a 3rd subject. But, currently I'm doing A-Level Polish and will do my exams at the end of year 11, and I'm very confident that I'll do very well.Is this a good enough 4th A-Level?

no worries! i feel the same about maths and physics, which is why i picked it and i love it! alevel physics is definitely much more difficult than gcse physics, in the sense that there’s a lot more content and mark schemes are more specific… but it’s defo a lot more interesting. there’s still a lot of topics that you’ve learnt in gcses but majorly expanded on (particles, electricity, waves, magnetism, mechanics). i would say it’s quite maths-based, around 50% of marks on a paper normally go towards maths. you don’t need any further maths knowledge for physics because the course is designed in such a way that you don’t need it, but you definitely need alevel maths (my school doesn’t allow people to do physics without maths). physics is a lot of work but i love it and would totally recommend it with further maths if it’s something that interests you!! my biggest tip is to keep revising topics you’ve done before and don’t let yourself forget them, because you’ll find there’s a bunch of overlap between topics. i do edexcel for maths & fm, and aqa for physics. hope this helps!

Thanks. Also, could you explain what are topics that you do in a-level physics. How do you choose the extra topic that you want to do?