AQA Further Maths

Hi guys

I am thinking about choosing Further Maths for an A Level, and I would really appreciate it if you could give me some information as to how it is, such as how you found it personally, especially the topics covered and its difficulty relative to normal maths (I got an A* in my mocks last year by the way if this helps)

Also, I heard that there is another Maths A Level offered (Additional Further Maths), would it be possible to take this if I choose to do AQA Further Maths?

Reply 1

Kezza Wilson

AFM is indeed possible for AQA.

Reply 2

TenOfThem

Original post by majmuh24

Also, I heard that there is another Maths A Level offered (Additional Further Maths), would it be possible to take this if I choose to do AQA Further Maths?

AQA only do Maths and FM

Reply 3

Flauta

We meet again. I do AQA Further Maths, haven't really found it too difficult and it makes Core Maths feel soooooo much easier :biggrin:

Which modules are you taking?

I THINK (not 100%) that you can take modules you haven't done with Edexcel then use those for Additional Further Maths.

Reply 4

TenOfThem

Original post by majmuh24

So would it be possible to do normal maths and FM with AQA and AFM with another board, say Edexcel?

Not that I am aware of

The units do not line up well so it would be difficult to ensure that you had no overlap

Reply 5

__Adam__

Further maths is pretty fun, a lot of what you do in Core will be covered in the FP modules and done in a lot more detail. (Not sure how much you know about the A-Level topics)

FP1 has:
- Drawing graphs where you have a polynomial divided by another polynomial
- Conics, which are graphs of circles, ellipses, parabolas and hyperbolas
- Imaginary and complex numbers (Anything involving square roots of negative numbers)
- Roots of quadratics, I'm not actually sure what these are supposed to do.
- Summations, (Adding up terms in a sequence, eg the sum of square numbers from 10 to 100)
- Integration and differentiation, (finding areas under a curve and the gradients of curves)
- Numerical methods, Finding approximate answers to equations you can't solve
- Matrices, which (in FP1) are ways of writing transformations of graphs.
Probably missed something, but that's pretty much everything.

Edit-
http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/mathematics/a-level/further-mathematics-6360/subject-content

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

Flauta

Original post by majmuh24

That's great bro, what topics have you studied? I've studied up a bit on the A Level topics as well and they seem alright so far :smile:

These are the modules my school make you take, copied from my school site, although I was thinking I could learn the additional ones myself if required :smile:

Do you think that this would be manageable?

Year 12 modules: C1 and D1 taken in January. C2, C3, M1 and FP1 taken in the summer.
Year 13 modules: C4 and S1 taken in January. S2, M2, FP2 and FP4 are likely to be taken in the summer; however the choices of possible module combinations for the summer are discussed with the students in case other modules would be more suitable for university courses.

You won't be taking them in January anymore since they got axed :tongue:

I do almost exactly the same modules, only difference is FP3 instead of FP4. Most people on here seem to prefer M3 to S2 so I don't know if you might? I prefer the statistics though, it's so much easier than mechanics

If Ten says you can't do additional further maths she's probably right, she knows her stuff :^_^:

Reply 7

Flauta

Original post by majmuh24

I think statistics sounds a bit boring for me, but I like how logical and precise it is, too many assumptions in mechanics to simplify the problem, don't really like it when things are dumbed down :frown:

I would probably like to do something Maths/Physical Science related in the future so I think mechanics would be better suited to me :smile:

What topics do you cover in FP3 and do you know what the differences are between FP4?

Fair enough :tongue:

FP3 is about polar form, differential equations and maclaurin series, I found it the most interesting module actually! FP4 is on vectors and matrices and doing stuff like determinants, eigenvectors, inverse matrices and vector products :tongue:

Reply 8

Flauta

Original post by majmuh24

Right, looked at a bit of Maclaurin series and DEs so that sounds good:P

Matrices are alright but I HATE VECTORS (DIE GEOMETRY :angry:

) As long as its something not too complicated it should be alright considering its mainly about matrices :smile:

They're great, and they open you up to so much additional reading like basic partial differential equations and other types of power series like taylor and laurent series :biggrin:

It's not too complicated, you'll be fine. Plus you'll have actual lessons for further maths, oh how I envy that :tongue:

Reply 9

__Adam__

I haven't finished the modules yet, but half of FP3 seems to be differential equations, which come up in engineering and physics. FP4 in all matrices and vectors, which you use when looking at 3D lines and planes, I know they have applications in physics and computer programming, never really thought about their applications beyond that.

(if interested) I did C1, C2, S1, FP1, D1 and S1 last year and I am doing C3, C4, M1, FP2, FP3, FP4, M2 and D2 (maybe) this year
I've only finished FP2 and started C3, FP3/4 and M1 so far though.

Also do you know if you'll be covering C1/2 before starting FP1?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 10

Flauta

Original post by majmuh24

Cool, FP3 sounds like the best bet for me atm so thanks for the advice :smile:

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that, how's self teaching going for you?

No problem :smile:

I'm sure other people on here will have different views on the modules however

It's great, but I still get forced to attend all of my Core Maths lessons even though I've learnt everything from them. I just sit at the back doing ma own thang :tongue:

Currently finished C1 C2 S1 D1 FP1, gonna retake FP2. Learnt all the content for C3 C4 FP3 S2, just learning M1 M2 and relearning FP2 :biggrin:

Reply 11

Flauta

Original post by majmuh24

Well they don't seem to be posting so I guess I only have your advice to go on :tongue:

I kind of do that for my maths lessons as well, gets a bit boring when you're not learning anything new :smile:

Do you think that having a teacher would help your understanding or are you finding it fine learning it yourself so far?

At the start it would have, I didn't even have a textbook for D1 or FP1 lol. However I think now it'd be a bit pointless because I just go through the textbook and it teaches me everything, if I don't understand it I can go and ask my teacher for help but that hasn't happened yet :tongue: