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Taking Further Maths for A-Level

So I am in year 11 and I am choosing my A-Levels at the moment to take for next year, and I know for certain that I want to take Music, Physics, Maths and potentially Further Maths. Further Maths has been the subject I am most torn about because:

I do love the subject, i find it so fascinating and enjoyable in lessons.

I am doing well in the GCSE Maths so far so that has given me a confidence boost.

I love my maths teachers as well - which always helps!

It also goes really well with A-Level Physics and I don’t what I am going to study for university but I would love to have the opportunity to apply for top unis.

However,
The major turn off for me is the time it will give me: I understand that it is NOT an addiction to A-Level Maths but a secondary amount of content to learn which does require hard work. I am also a Music scholar at my school so that does take up quite a bit of my time with extracurricular music, as well as the A-Level itself. Also Physics and Maths as well is going to be a lot to handle as well already. I would be doing 4 A-Levels so I have half the amount of frees that my friends will have since they are doing 3 A-Levels and an EPQ alongside.

Overall, I am a music loving, hard working student who also loves maths as well that is getting consistent 8s in her predicted GCSE grades for maths so I wonder if this is the right subject for me to choose and am I an ideal student for this A-Level also?
Reply 1
Original post by SDLC
So I am in year 11 and I am choosing my A-Levels at the moment to take for next year, and I know for certain that I want to take Music, Physics, Maths and potentially Further Maths. Further Maths has been the subject I am most torn about because:

I do love the subject, i find it so fascinating and enjoyable in lessons.

I am doing well in the GCSE Maths so far so that has given me a confidence boost.

I love my maths teachers as well - which always helps!

It also goes really well with A-Level Physics and I don’t what I am going to study for university but I would love to have the opportunity to apply for top unis.

However,
The major turn off for me is the time it will give me: I understand that it is NOT an addiction to A-Level Maths but a secondary amount of content to learn which does require hard work. I am also a Music scholar at my school so that does take up quite a bit of my time with extracurricular music, as well as the A-Level itself. Also Physics and Maths as well is going to be a lot to handle as well already. I would be doing 4 A-Levels so I have half the amount of frees that my friends will have since they are doing 3 A-Levels and an EPQ alongside.

Overall, I am a music loving, hard working student who also loves maths as well that is getting consistent 8s in her predicted GCSE grades for maths so I wonder if this is the right subject for me to choose and am I an ideal student for this A-Level also?

I recommend trying it and then drop it if the workload gets too high. There's no harm in trying it though.
Reply 2
Original post by SDLC
So I am in year 11 and I am choosing my A-Levels at the moment to take for next year, and I know for certain that I want to take Music, Physics, Maths and potentially Further Maths. Further Maths has been the subject I am most torn about because:

I do love the subject, i find it so fascinating and enjoyable in lessons.

I am doing well in the GCSE Maths so far so that has given me a confidence boost.

I love my maths teachers as well - which always helps!

It also goes really well with A-Level Physics and I don’t what I am going to study for university but I would love to have the opportunity to apply for top unis.

However,
The major turn off for me is the time it will give me: I understand that it is NOT an addiction to A-Level Maths but a secondary amount of content to learn which does require hard work. I am also a Music scholar at my school so that does take up quite a bit of my time with extracurricular music, as well as the A-Level itself. Also Physics and Maths as well is going to be a lot to handle as well already. I would be doing 4 A-Levels so I have half the amount of frees that my friends will have since they are doing 3 A-Levels and an EPQ alongside.

Overall, I am a music loving, hard working student who also loves maths as well that is getting consistent 8s in her predicted GCSE grades for maths so I wonder if this is the right subject for me to choose and am I an ideal student for this A-Level also?

Try it out - I did Music, Maths and Further Maths + EPQ for my A-Levels after taking Psychology for AS. I too had a tonne of musical commitments, so just try further maths and you can always drop it after a year if it becomes too much :smile:
Reply 3
I say go for it.
It is separate content - kind of. Some topics are extensions of A-level topics - e.g. differential equations, improper integrals, more on partial fractions. Skills you develop in doing further maths translate over to single maths, with the result being that you don't need to do as much work for single maths.
My daughter is in year 13 and takes maths, further maths, physics and chemistry and EPQ in particle physics(epq year 12). Further maths in year 12 about 4 weeks in, I remember her telling me it was really hard and was thinking of dropping it. I suggested she persevered until christmas and see how she felt then. Then during that time up until christmas it clicked :smile: She found her regular maths easier too. Shes applying to uni this year for physics and astrophysics in 2020.

For applying to top unis, it depends on where you want to go. If your looking at physics at Oxford, then taking further maths its not necessary, but it does help.

Physics and Maths go hand in hand. you need maths for physics. If, you do want to do physics however at uni, there are modules (if you check uni websites out and look at the course content) that you have to more maths and they quite often further maths anyway. So doing further maths gives you a real head start at uni.Physics can branch out into many things.

As you are music loving, i would have to weigh up what you want to do. Music, Maths or Physics, or even theoretical physics or astronomy cosmology or particle physics? Id advise having a look unis online and looking at whats involved in each course. does any of them get you more excited than the other?. Then choose a course. Sleep on it, and if you still feel excited about it a few days after that then its a good start into making a good decision. example of a link: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/mphys-physics-astrophysics/#course-content is yorks content in physics and astronomy and you can see whats involved with that.
Sorry also meant to add. if you work hard, please dont forget to play hard too. make sure you have time out for you and going our with friends in between.:smile:
Reply 6
Original post by MMFM411
Try it out - I did Music, Maths and Further Maths + EPQ for my A-Levels after taking Psychology for AS. I too had a tonne of musical commitments, so just try further maths and you can always drop it after a year if it becomes too much :smile:

Ahh that really helps thank you! 😊
Reply 7
Original post by Ghostlady
My daughter is in year 13 and takes maths, further maths, physics and chemistry and EPQ in particle physics(epq year 12). Further maths in year 12 about 4 weeks in, I remember her telling me it was really hard and was thinking of dropping it. I suggested she persevered until christmas and see how she felt then. Then during that time up until christmas it clicked :smile: She found her regular maths easier too. Shes applying to uni this year for physics and astrophysics in 2020.

For applying to top unis, it depends on where you want to go. If your looking at physics at Oxford, then taking further maths its not necessary, but it does help.

Physics and Maths go hand in hand. you need maths for physics. If, you do want to do physics however at uni, there are modules (if you check uni websites out and look at the course content) that you have to more maths and they quite often further maths anyway. So doing further maths gives you a real head start at uni.Physics can branch out into many things.

As you are music loving, i would have to weigh up what you want to do. Music, Maths or Physics, or even theoretical physics or astronomy cosmology or particle physics? Id advise having a look unis online and looking at whats involved in each course. does any of them get you more excited than the other?. Then choose a course. Sleep on it, and if you still feel excited about it a few days after that then its a good start into making a good decision. example of a link: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/mphys-physics-astrophysics/#course-content is yorks content in physics and astronomy and you can see whats involved with that.

Thank you so much for replying that really helps! I’m going to check that website too as I do as astrophysics is one of my favourite topics to learn in physics.
Original post by SDLC
So I am in year 11 and I am choosing my A-Levels at the moment to take for next year, and I know for certain that I want to take Music, Physics, Maths and potentially Further Maths. Further Maths has been the subject I am most torn about because:

I do love the subject, i find it so fascinating and enjoyable in lessons.

I am doing well in the GCSE Maths so far so that has given me a confidence boost.

I love my maths teachers as well - which always helps!

It also goes really well with A-Level Physics and I don’t what I am going to study for university but I would love to have the opportunity to apply for top unis.

However,
The major turn off for me is the time it will give me: I understand that it is NOT an addiction to A-Level Maths but a secondary amount of content to learn which does require hard work. I am also a Music scholar at my school so that does take up quite a bit of my time with extracurricular music, as well as the A-Level itself. Also Physics and Maths as well is going to be a lot to handle as well already. I would be doing 4 A-Levels so I have half the amount of frees that my friends will have since they are doing 3 A-Levels and an EPQ alongside.

Overall, I am a music loving, hard working student who also loves maths as well that is getting consistent 8s in her predicted GCSE grades for maths so I wonder if this is the right subject for me to choose and am I an ideal student for this A-Level also?

I would suggest taking F Maths - it gives you far more options after school.

You can always just do AS if if gets too much :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by Ghostlady
Sorry also meant to add. if you work hard, please dont forget to play hard too. make sure you have time out for you and going our with friends in between.:smile:

I definitely will :h:
If you're getting consistent 8s, and you achieve that in the real exam you will be fine in further maths as long as you put some work in. I would say go for it, you can always drop it if you think its too much. I personally take 4 subjects, 3 of them being physics, maths and further maths and im managing my time just fine (though to be fair, i'm not a musician so I don't have to do any of that stuff...).

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