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Edexcel Maths Exams (independent candidate)

I'm self teaching myself A Level maths, looking to sit at least the AS exams in 2019, preferably I can sit these over 2 years, since I'm in a full time job and want to take my time and get the right results. I'm going to study the new 2017 Edexcel spec.

The Pearson's/Edexcel website isn't overly clear what constitutes the full A level for this new spec, can anyone here clarify?

Looks like I need to sit the following to get the full A level, and I can sit them over 2 years, can anyone confirm?

- AS Level (2 Papers)
Mathematics Paper 1: Pure Mathematics
Mathematics Paper 2: Statistics and Mechanics

- A Level (3 Papers)
Mathematics: Pure Mathematics 1
Mathematics: Pure Mathematics 2
Mathematics: Statistics & Mechanics
(edited 6 years ago)
Looks about right, although I can’t fully confirm as I’m on old spec. Just a little word of warning, my teacher has A LOT of trouble collecting materials to teach his AS class the new spec, because edexcel hasn’t even made their resources yet... So good luck. Physics and maths tutor (the website, google it) will be of a lot of help
Original post by Shoegazer92


A Level (3 Papers)
Mathematics: Pure Mathematics 1
Mathematics: Pure Mathematics 2
Mathematics: Statistics & Mechanics


If you want to get the full A-level, you just sit these 3 exams. You don't need to do the AS, it is just an extra qualifciation that won't count towards the A-level.
Original post by TheMythicalBeast
Looks about right, although I can’t fully confirm as I’m on old spec. Just a little word of warning, my teacher has A LOT of trouble collecting materials to teach his AS class the new spec, because edexcel hasn’t even made their resources yet... So good luck. Physics and maths tutor (the website, google it) will be of a lot of help


Thanks. I Suppose I will at least have this years paper to look at and anything else Edexcel produce by the time I do the exam!
No you don't sit all those papers. For the new A level courses in all subjects you take all exams at the end of the course. The AS doesn't count towards the full A level any longer. If you want the full A level you would take the 3 papers you have listed under A level. If you want the full A level it isn't worth taking the AS (especially if you have to pay to take it) as it is a totally stand alone qualification.

The exam website has four specifications -AS maths, A level maths, AS further maths and A level further maths. If you want to take the full A level you only need to look at the A level one, not the AS one as well.
Original post by TheMythicalBeast
Looks about right, although I can’t fully confirm as I’m on old spec. Just a little word of warning, my teacher has A LOT of trouble collecting materials to teach his AS class the new spec, because edexcel hasn’t even made their resources yet... So good luck. Physics and maths tutor (the website, google it) will be of a lot of help


That's just not true - Edexcel has provided masses of resources.
Original post by 2childmum
No you don't sit all those papers. For the new A level courses in all subjects you take all exams at the end of the course. The AS doesn't count towards the full A level any longer. If you want the full A level you would take the 3 papers you have listed under A level. If you want the full A level it isn't worth taking the AS (especially if you have to pay to take it) as it is a totally stand alone qualification.

The exam website has four specifications -AS maths, A level maths, AS further maths and A level further maths. If you want to take the full A level you only need to look at the A level one, not the AS one as well.


Thanks for clarifying, I’m on old spec I thought they still did AS!

Original post by Muttley79
That's just not true - Edexcel has provided masses of resources.


It seems like it on the website, but other than books my teacher couldn’t get his hands on anything and he spent hours trying to get it sorted on the phone
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by adam_winterb
If you want to get the full A-level, you just sit these 3 exams. You don't need to do the AS, it is just an extra qualifciation that won't count towards the A-level.


I didn't actually know this, I thought the full thing was weighted 40% as 60% A Level?

either way I haven't formally sat down to learn advanced maths before (although I've been forced to pick up some stuff during my day job), so I'll need to learn it anyway, and suppose if I get the AS it shows partial work towards the actual qualification.
ok, the general consensus seems to be I only need the final 3 exams

I'll still need to learn the year 1 stuff though as earlier mentioned, since A2 assumes you'd know that content.

I suppose I can decide nearer the time (e.g towards the end of this year) if I'll bother sitting the AS or not, depending if I manage to get to the A2 content in time I might just rush it all in May/June 2019

Thanks for the help everyone.
Original post by Shoegazer92
I didn't actually know this, I thought the full thing was weighted 40% as 60% A Level?

either way I haven't formally sat down to learn advanced maths before (although I've been forced to pick up some stuff during my day job), so I'll need to learn it anyway, and suppose if I get the AS it shows partial work towards the actual qualification.


You are still thinking of the old style A levels, where the AS was part of the A level. Now the AS doesn't count and you sit all the exams together at the end of the course. Only a few schools are making their students sit the AS levels - and often only for a 4th subject which they are going to drop for the second year. Some private schools (and I guess maybe grammar schools) are making students take the AS, even if they are carrying on with a subject - mainly because Oxbridge said they would like to see the results
Original post by 2childmum
You are still thinking of the old style A levels, where the AS was part of the A level. Now the AS doesn't count and you sit all the exams together at the end of the course. Only a few schools are making their students sit the AS levels - and often only for a 4th subject which they are going to drop for the second year. Some private schools (and I guess maybe grammar schools) are making students take the AS, even if they are carrying on with a subject - mainly because Oxbridge said they would like to see the results


To be honest, a friend at work told me the exams had changed like this.

But I didn't fully believe him, how exactly can universities measure how good someone is at maths if the student doesn't sit an AS exam? How will they decide offers?

For me personally, this actually works out in my favour, since I'm only focusing on one subject and have more time than the average student for it. But seems a lot of pressure to put it all down to the second year?
Original post by Shoegazer92
To be honest, a friend at work told me the exams had changed like this.

But I didn't fully believe him, how exactly can universities measure how good someone is at maths if the student doesn't sit an AS exam? How will they decide offers?

For me personally, this actually works out in my favour, since I'm only focusing on one subject and have more time than the average student for it. But seems a lot of pressure to put it all down to the second year?


A levels were linear [all exams in Y13] until 2000 - so modular was a recent change and now we're back to linear.
Original post by TheMythicalBeast
Thanks for clarifying, I’m on old spec I thought they still did AS!



It seems like it on the website, but other than books my teacher couldn’t get his hands on anything and he spent hours trying to get it sorted on the phone


Is he signed up to the teacher website? There is an interactive scheme of work and lots of stuff ...
Original post by Muttley79
Is he signed up to the teacher website? There is an interactive scheme of work and lots of stuff ...


Yeah, when he called up they said it wasn’t ready yet for the new spec. It was a couple of months ago though, maybe they finally sorted it out
Original post by TheMythicalBeast
Yeah, when he called up they said it wasn’t ready yet for the new spec. It was a couple of months ago though, maybe they finally sorted it out


It's been sorted for months! I'm a teacher ....
Original post by Muttley79
It's been sorted for months! I'm a teacher ....


Hah well my teacher isn’t a GREAT teacher so I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t even know about it or was doing something wrong...
Original post by Shoegazer92
I'm self teaching myself A Level maths, looking to sit at least the AS exams in 2019, preferably I can sit these over 2 years, since I'm in a full time job and want to take my time and get the right results. I'm going to study the new 2017 Edexcel spec.

The Pearson's/Edexcel website isn't overly clear what constitutes the full A level for this new spec, can anyone here clarify?

Looks like I need to sit the following to get the full A level, and I can sit them over 2 years, can anyone confirm?

- AS Level (2 Papers)
Mathematics Paper 1: Pure Mathematics
Mathematics Paper 2: Statistics and Mechanics

- A Level (3 Papers)
Mathematics: Pure Mathematics 1
Mathematics: Pure Mathematics 2
Mathematics: Statistics & Mechanics


It is just the last three - download the specification for A level from here:
https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-a-levels/mathematics-2017.html#tab-1
(edited 6 years ago)

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