Should I take Further Maths (Additional) ?

Hello guys :smile:

I am a year 12 student and I currently am doing Maths, Further Maths, French and German. However, I've been enjoying French and German less and since since September and I've started to dislike them, to be honest I've seriously considered dropping one of them at least 4 times since the start of the year.
This is legit gonna sound so nerdy but when I get home I watch maths videos when I'm bored and as a way to procrastinate- largely from doing languages homework, which happens a lot of the time cos we get so much of it.

My question comes down to:
Do I drop French and German at the end of this year, having sat the AS exams, and then go on to do Additional Maths next year?

My main concerns for this are:
a) Lack of resources - or at least easy to find ones
b) Not getting the grade- I don't want to brag and I considered not putting this in, but I've been told a few times by different teachers that I'm the best maths student they've seen at A Level but I'm not sure I meet the mark.

Thank you so much for your help :smile:

Reply 1

Kevin De Bruyne

21

Original post by Funspoiler

Hello guys :smile:

I am a year 12 student and I currently am doing Maths, Further Maths, French and German. However, I've been enjoying French and German less and since since September and I've started to dislike them, to be honest I've seriously considered dropping one of them at least 4 times since the start of the year.
This is legit gonna sound so nerdy but when I get home I watch maths videos when I'm bored and as a way to procrastinate- largely from doing languages homework, which happens a lot of the time cos we get so much of it.

My question comes down to:
Do I drop French and German at the end of this year, having sat the AS exams, and then go on to do Additional Maths next year?

My main concerns for this are:
a) Lack of resources - or at least easy to find ones
b) Not getting the grade- I don't want to brag and I considered not putting this in, but I've been told a few times by different teachers that I'm the best maths student they've seen at A Level but I'm not sure I meet the mark.

Thank you so much for your help :smile:

Be very careful about offering Maths, FM and AFM at A2. To my understanding this can be a very narrow range of subjects, even for maths/maths related subjects and even for the top unis (@physicsmaths - what do you think? I know you took AFM after Physics but still)

It's also difficult to commit to doing it, you may find that having to do M5 and FP3 and S4 is a bit too difficult... you can always buy or borrow the textbooks over summer and see what they're like.

I think if the above points are true then you're best off dropping one language and ploughing through it...

What do you want to do after A-levels?

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 2

trythis

11

OP, I'd recommend against dropping both French *and* German - uni's won't particularly like the M + FM + AFM combination as your only A2s. I'd recommend taking M + FM + AS AFM, and keeping either French or German as an A2. If you're desperate to drop the languages then you need to contact unis first.

I'm currently studying M + FM + German at A2 and self-studying AS AFM (I'm taking all the units except M3-5). Message me if you have questions about it. From my experience, self-studying is absolutely possible. However, resource-wise, there might be some issues, especially if your teachers haven't taught the more obscure units (S4, M4/5) because you'll have no-one to ask for help / to explain things. The textbooks can sometimes also be an issue - I'm on Edexcel and the D1/2 textbooks are very poor quality.

Reply 3

Funspoiler

OP

8

Original post by Kevin De Bruyne

What do you want to do after A-levels?

I want to go on to do at least a master's in maths.
How would doing this affect chances of getting offers in a bad way?

Reply 4

Funspoiler

OP

8

Original post by trythis

OP, I'd recommend against dropping both French *and* German - uni's won't particularly like the M + FM + AFM combination as your only A2s. I'd recommend taking M + FM + AS AFM, and keeping either French or German as an A2. If you're desperate to drop the languages then you need to contact unis first.

I'm currently studying M + FM + German at A2 and self-studying AS AFM (I'm taking all the units except M3-5). Message me if you have questions about it. From my experience, self-studying is absolutely possible. However, resource-wise, there might be some issues, especially if your teachers haven't taught the more obscure units (S4, M4/5) because you'll have no-one to ask for help / to explain things. The textbooks can sometimes also be an issue - I'm on Edexcel and the D1/2 textbooks are very poor quality.

My sister has a stats degree and she said she'd be happy to help me with S3, S4 if need be. Also, the "only" ones that my schools doesn't teach are M3, M4, M5, FP3, S3, S4. As I say, I can't see S3,4 being much of an issue, I really enjoy the stuff I've looked at in FP3 so far and pure maths is very much "once you get it, you get it". The only problem ones would be mechanics but even then there's quite a bit of M3 in physics so I'm sure the physics teacher could help cos he's v brainy :smile:

I have a good intuition when it comes to mechanics anyway and it is my favourite part of maths and was my favourite part of physics at GCSE (although my exposure so far has been quite minimal compared to what is out there).
I'm not trying to be rude, but if I've come across like that it's only because I'm trying to reason why I SHOULD do it.
Thank you :smile:

Reply 5

Kevin De Bruyne

21

Original post by Funspoiler

I want to go on to do at least a master's in maths.
How would doing this affect chances of getting offers in a bad way?

I believe the challenge would *only* be in getting an undergrad offer - post grad I can't say I know much, but I highly doubt it would be an issue then. This is because it helps to offer Physics or Chemistry (e.g. Imperial)

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/ug/courses/mathematics-department/mathematics-bsc/#entry-requirements

But actually having looked into this more, I'm not that confident that it's a very narrow combination that would significantly hinder you or how much doing a language instead of AFM would be better (than taking Physics or Chemistry) so... I'm not sure anymore :lol:

It may be worth getting in contact with unis that you might potentially be interested in and asking them what their stance is on offering those 3 subjects.

Reply 6

Doones

21

Original post by Funspoiler

I want to go on to do at least a master's in maths.
How would doing this affect chances of getting offers in a bad way?

Do an MMath (4 year integrated masters) rather than a BSc followed by an MSc. The student finance is better.

And as others have said, keep up one of your languages.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 7

Luke7456

20

I think I can comment on this since I have had this exact issue and pretty much contacted near every semi decent math course out there. I made a thread on it in the maths section.

There are a few universities that flat out refuse to accept Additional Further Maths. I believe it was Warwick Leeds and Loughborough.

However everyone else including Oxford and Cambridge were fine with Maths Further Maths and Additional Further Maths.

if you have a third/fourth subject which is not Math you should be fine. Not sure what they make of languages. If I knew how to link you to threads I would link you to my other thread.

Bath are reviewing their policy on this exact issue so next year they probably will not accept Additional further Maths and Bristol never got back to me.

However if you keep one one of the languages you should be fine regardless.

Reply 8

Med3

17

I did the 3 of them but did 5 subjects in total to keep a wide range. I wouldn't recommend it. A lot of effort and you aren't really throwing a wide net

Should I take Further Maths (Additional) ?

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