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Should Maths A-level be COMPULSORY

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I work in Mechanical Engineering producing components.

So you would suspect I would use fairly complicated mathematics all the time. Wrong. I brush on trigonometry every so often but that's about as far as it goes. Ive never had to differentiate nor integrate.
Original post by Dariaandahsfan
No, I achieved 5A*, 5A 1B and 1c at GCSE. The c was for none other than maths. Maths a level would be suicide. Excuse the crude usage of the word.

As one of the commenters in the article put it:

"This is ridiculous, I got a science degree but was absolute ****e at maths, I could however beat anyone when it came to english and science though. Not everyone is the same, not everyone has the same interests or abilities, lets nuture our differences rather than trying to put us all in the same box shall we!"

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I take maths A level, and even the smart kids get B's. My AS class had about 24 people when we started the year, come A2 that number has dropped to about 10, the 10 people in that class got A* at GCSE, and even then we scraped B's.

To the point: If maths A level is to be compulsory, then they have to do a ton of work to the GCSE syllabus, otherwise everyone who takes it is going to come out with a U.
Reply 82
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MrJAKEE
5
I think there should be a bigger push from schools to not take foundation maths and push through the full gcse maths course. Also further pure maths at igcse I think paves the way for what the top mathematicians should do.. It's got some A2 stuff in there for goodness sake.


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Reply 83
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Zacken
22
Original post by MrJAKEE
I think there should be a bigger push from schools to not take foundation maths and push through the full gcse maths course. Also further pure maths at igcse I think paves the way for what the top mathematicians should do.. It's got some A2 stuff in there for goodness sake.


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Meh, I took that IGCSE course that you were talking about. It wasn't particularly interesting. Very routine questions, some co-ordinate geometry, bit of integrations and differentials, sets (I can't even call it set theory, that's how crappy of a topic it was), basic applied calculus (kinematics, etc...), basic trig (identities, proving them, etc...), basics of vectors (although it could get quite complicated and interesting when relativity got involved, still routine though).

All in all, I wasn't very impressed with it.
Original post by XI Ki11JoY IX
I take maths A level, and even the smart kids get B's. My AS class had about 24 people when we started the year, come A2 that number has dropped to about 10, the 10 people in that class got A* at GCSE, and even then we scraped B's.

To the point: If maths A level is to be compulsory, then they have to do a ton of work to the GCSE syllabus, otherwise everyone who takes it is going to come out with a U.


If "Even the smart kids get B's" then maybe they aren't that smart? I don't get why people say A-level is so hard. I did advanced higher, and that's supposed to be harder then A level, and it wasn't that bad. Nothing compared to what we do at uni anyway
Original post by Zacken
Meh, I took that IGCSE course that you were talking about. It wasn't particularly interesting. Very routine questions, some co-ordinate geometry, bit of integrations and differentials, sets (I can't even call it set theory, that's how crappy of a topic it was), basic applied calculus (kinematics, etc...), basic trig (identities, proving them, etc...), basics of vectors (although it could get quite complicated and interesting when relativity got involved, still routine though).

All in all, I wasn't very impressed with it.


You did relativity in IGCSE? I'm guessing you mean Galilean Relativity?
No. The schools simply can't teach maths well enough such that every student can succeed in A-level maths.
Definitely. I do A-level maths and it's great; because every single person in the class wants to be there and wants to learn (either just because they like maths or because they need maths A-level to get into their course). If maths A-level became compulsory, I think that those who actually want to do maths won't get the grades that they need or deserve simply because of the distraction of the people who don't want to be there.

Plus, for those made to do maths, it'll take away from the time they spend on the subjects that they actually did want to do and then those grades might suffer.

I don't see anyway to win by making maths compulsory at A-level.
Reply 88
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Zacken
22
Original post by langlitz
You did relativity in IGCSE? I'm guessing you mean Galilean Relativity?


No, no, no, no mechanics at all. Relativity in the stupid sense, y'know, vectors. The boats speed relative to the water is 5 m/s, the speed of the water is blah blah, find the time taken to cross the river. Stuff like that.
Original post by langlitz
If "Even the smart kids get B's" then maybe they aren't that smart? I don't get why people say A-level is so hard. I did advanced higher, and that's supposed to be harder then A level, and it wasn't that bad. Nothing compared to what we do at uni anyway


Ok, I'll admit, my B is counting the core 2 module that I messed up on (got a D)

A level is hard when you think about where you stand, you're at uni right?, well to me right now GCSE math is the easiest exam paper I've ever done... go back 4 years and I would tell you something different.

Same with you, I bet if I look back at calculus at this level in 4 years, I'd be laughing to myself. the point is: if smart kids can semi-fail a paper and still get a B, then imagine the other kids that can't do calculus without crying.
Original post by Zacken
No, no, no, no mechanics at all. Relativity in the stupid sense, y'know, vectors. The boats speed relative to the water is 5 m/s, the speed of the water is blah blah, find the time taken to cross the river. Stuff like that.


Yeah... Galilean relativity.
Original post by German123
Stuff like? Care to elaborate to perhaps enlighten my understanding?


Well say you were building a staircase, and needed to work out how many steps to put, or which angle to cut the wood, etc. You'd need trigonometry for that. That's just a very simple example.
Original post by felamaslen
Well say you were building a staircase, and needed to work out how many steps to put, or which angle to cut the wood, etc. You'd need trigonometry for that. That's just a very simple example.

I would not like to think so.
Reply 93
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MrJAKEE
5
Original post by Zacken
Meh, I took that IGCSE course that you were talking about. It wasn't particularly interesting. Very routine questions, some co-ordinate geometry, bit of integrations and differentials, sets (I can't even call it set theory, that's how crappy of a topic it was), basic applied calculus (kinematics, etc...), basic trig (identities, proving them, etc...), basics of vectors (although it could get quite complicated and interesting when relativity got involved, still routine though).

All in all, I wasn't very impressed with it.


Well I know you would most likely be in the minority with regards to that...


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Original post by German123
I would not like to think so.


Is this better: mathematics is necessary, I'm right, you're wrong.
Original post by felamaslen
Is this better: mathematics is necessary, I'm right, you're wrong.

I did not actually state it is not necessary but only stated that trigonometry and sims equations are not that beneficial as basic maths and percentages is needed in the real world.
Original post by felamaslen
Is this better: mathematics is necessary, I'm right, you're wrong.


Jesus Christ, get a room you two!.

Maths is important, I totally agree, but should we have people dwell into more advanced fields?, Calculus is only going to help certain career paths, and isn't really that important in everyday life. you could argue that no maths is, I disagree.

However, kids should understand the basic principles of geometry and algebra, at a bare minimum. but going into really advanced stuff might not help as much.
Reply 97
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MrJAKEE
5
Actually that's a point, if we are going to scrap large parts of the content in Maths we can also scrap English Literature.


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Reply 98
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Zacken
22
Original post by XI Ki11JoY IX
Jesus Christ, get a room you two!.

Maths is important, I totally agree, but should we have people dwell into more advanced fields?, Calculus is only going to help certain career paths, and isn't really that important in everyday life. you could argue that no maths is, I disagree.

However, kids should understand the basic principles of geometry and algebra, at a bare minimum. but going into really advanced stuff might not help as much.


I agree with this. So one question to ask is whether we should make A-Level Maths a requirement to taking Physics, Economics and other subjects that depend heavily on mathematics. I don't have a view on this yet, what do you guys think?
Should Maths A-level be COMPULSORY? No.
Not everyone is the same and nor should they be. You only use basic maths at work anyway. And calculators are everywhere.
End of thread.

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