The Student Room Group

Where can i find FREE A-level maths books online?

So I'm in year 10 and ready to move on to A-level maths.I have a few questions to start:
What are the modules/units and what do they include?
How much of them can I learn at a relatively steady pace in a year?
Are there any free PDFs to download online because I don't want to bother my parents to buy books
THANK YOU for any help in advance :smile:
Reply 1
Original post by maninblack00
So I'm in year 10 and ready to move on to A-level maths.I have a few questions to start:
What are the modules/units and what do they include?
How much of them can I learn at a relatively steady pace in a year?
Are there any free PDFs to download online because I don't want to bother my parents to buy books
THANK YOU for any help in advance :smile:


If you can cope with GCSE maths and are able to answer a lot of the A* questions, then you should find A-level maths relatively easy (well for me anyway)

The modules covered in AS level are C1 and C2 (core 1 and core 2)
There's also M1, S1 and D1 for mechanics, statistics and decision maths.

If you wish to self-teach yourself A-level maths, start with C1 and then. if you feel confident in doing past C1 papers, move on to C2.

There are no online books that I know of, but there is this: http://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/a-level-maths-papers/c1-solutionbank/
This contains questions from each chapter of one of the Edexcel C1 textbooks and also contains solutions. It's good if you want to test yourself on what you have learnt.
As for learning the material, Examsolutions is a great YouTube channel/website for learning A-level maths, so you might want to check that out :smile:

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
Remember, if you need any maths help, you can also post your question on the forum and we'd happily help you out!

Good luck with it! :smile:
Reply 2
There's plenty of videos on YouTube covering most,if not all of the A-level content, regardless of the exam board. Which exam board are you doing?
Search on Google for the specification that you need. It will be the new specifications because they are all changing and it will affect you as you're in year 10. There are 6 modules in total and 4 compulsory modules core 1-4.
Then you pick 2 applied modules out of mechanics 1-2, statistics 1-2 and decision 1-2. It have to do C1-4 but you can pick any combination of the applied modules.
To start A-level maths you must have a good understanding of some of the basic concepts - algebra, surds, solving quadratics, completing the square. Without these concepts it will be impossible to do A-level maths. Have you done any GCSE maths papers or have you got a grade in GCSE maths? I ask this because some people think that it will benefit them if they do A levels in year 11 - but it doesn't. Some unis and some courses require you to have done your A levels only 2 years - so year 12 and 13. So if you are thinking you may want to do an a level in maths before year 12 it may not be a good idea.
If you cannot do GCSE maths and get an A* every time and get pretty much 100% (dropping maybe 1 or 2 marks only from mistakes and not understanding) then you should definitely not start doing A-level.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by B_9710
There's plenty of videos on YouTube covering most,if not all of the A-level content, regardless of the exam board. Which exam board are you doing?
Search on Google for the specification that you need. It will be the new specifications because they are all changing and it will affect you as you're in year 10. There are 6 modules in total and 4 compulsory modules core 1-4.
Then you pick 2 applied modules out of mechanics 1-2, statistics 1-2 and decision 1-2. It have to do C1-4 but you can pick any combination of the applied modules.
To start A-level maths you must have a good understanding of some of the basic concepts - algebra, surds, solving quadratics, completing the square. Without these concepts it will be impossible to do A-level maths. Have you done any GCSE maths papers or have you got a grade in GCSE maths? I ask this because some people think that it will benefit them if they do A levels in year 11 - but it doesn't. Some unis and some courses require you to have done your A levels only 2 years - so year 12 and 13. So if you are thinking you may want to do an a level in maths before year 12 it may not be a good idea.
If you cannot do GCSE maths and get an A* every time and get pretty much 100% (dropping maybe 1 or 2 marks only from mistakes and not understanding) then you should definitely not start doing A-level.

Yea pretty much the reason why I want to learn is that I've got an entrance exam for sixth form at the start of year 11 and I've look at some papers and they look pretty much like a level papers to me. I definitely have no interest in doing my a levels early but I just want to be ready for when I take the test. I've done GCSE papers and always get A* with 1 or 2 marks off mistakes but I understand all of the maths involved with GCSE maths.
Reply 4
Original post by maninblack00
Yea pretty much the reason why I want to learn is that I've got an entrance exam for sixth form at the start of year 11 and I've look at some papers and they look pretty much like a level papers to me. I definitely have no interest in doing my a levels early but I just want to be ready for when I take the test. I've done GCSE papers and always get A* with 1 or 2 marks off mistakes but I understand all of the maths involved with GCSE maths.


Ah ok. There are loads of videos online. Examsolutions is a YouTube channel that covers a level maths. A channel I found useful was ukmathsteacher - goes over a lot of the spec. Check these channels out and see if they're what you're looking for.
Original post by maninblack00
So I'm in year 10 and ready to move on to A-level maths.I have a few questions to start:
What are the modules/units and what do they include?
How much of them can I learn at a relatively steady pace in a year?
Are there any free PDFs to download online because I don't want to bother my parents to buy books
THANK YOU for any help in advance :smile:


You will do 3 modules in your first year (C1, C2, etc) and a furher 6 modules in you second year. If you practice and do your homework you should be able to breeze through the year.

There is some free material on websites like markit.education. Not buying the books means you will have to make use of as much online material as possible.

Quick Reply

Latest