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How hard is further maths a level?

I am currently choosing my a levels and have decided on maths, chemistry and computer science. How hard is further maths because I want to study computer science or something maths related so I know it will help me significantly. However, people say it's extremely difficult and not worth it as you have to sacrifice hours of time daily. I have older family members who received all grade 9s at GCSE but went on to drop further maths and get a grade B/C in maths. Thank you

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I don't do further math at a level but i've been told by my friends who've taken it in year 12 that it is quite easy. however, both maths and further maths have been described as impossibly difficult.
Reply 2
I did Further Maths at A level, and you have to really like maths to do it. Its not extremely difficult, in my opinion its just more maths. Its a little harder than the Maths A level but bc they're so similar its easy to study for, just do a lot of past papers. I definitely didn't study for hours daily and I did fine.
Original post by yasminos
I did Further Maths at A level, and you have to really like maths to do it. Its not extremely difficult, in my opinion its just more maths. Its a little harder than the Maths A level but bc they're so similar its easy to study for, just do a lot of past papers. I definitely didn't study for hours daily and I did fine.

What grade did you get at gcse maths if you don't mind me asking. Thanks
I studied Further Maths at A-Level. It's not prohibitively difficult, I found it to require about the same total amount of work as my Chemistry A-Level.

But you do have to be very mathematically inclined. It's designed to be a genuine challenge for the kind of student who cruises through to a top grade in the normal Maths A-Level without breaking a sweat. You know, how there's always those one or two nerds in the class who just seem to "get" Maths without trying, and are on another level compared to everyone else... Those sorts of people have to actually study properly for Further Maths as they would for any other A-Level, because they can't just get by on natural ability anymore.

If you can very comfortably consider yourself to be one of the top 10 mathematicians in your year, I'd say go for it.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by tazarooni89
I studied Further Maths at A-Level. It's not prohibitively difficult, I found it to require about the same total amount of work as my Chemistry A-Level.

But you do have to be very mathematically inclined. It's designed to be a genuine challenge for the kind of student who cruises through to a top grade in the normal Maths A-Level without breaking a sweat. You know, how there's always those one or two nerds in the class who just seem to "get" Maths without trying, and are on another level compared to everyone else... Those sorts of people have to actually study hard and put in the hours for Further Maths as they would for any other A-Level, because they can no longer rely on natural ability alone.

If you can very comfortably consider yourself to be one of the top 10 mathematicians in your year, I'd say go for it.

I am in the top set but definetly not in the top 10. Since year nine I have had a poor attitude because I have always naturally smart so I didn't put any effort in. But now, I have been doing maths daily and am being more and more confident. I think I'll try FM a level but drop it if i can't cope
Reply 6
Original post by Student786198
What grade did you get at gcse maths if you don't mind me asking. Thanks

I got A* in Maths and A* in Further Maths at gcse (they were my only A*s). At A level I got A* in Maths and A in Further Maths.
Tbf, if I was doing 4 A levels, I wouldn't have been able to do well in them.
One thing I found hard in Further Maths was that there were a lot of modules and I hated 2 of them and I couldn't find the time to study properly for them.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by de-culus
I don't do further math at a level but i've been told by my friends who've taken it in year 12 that it is quite easy. however, both maths and further maths have been described as impossibly difficult.


You cant do just further maths, that would be impossible as it builds on from regular maths A-level so if you do further you also do regular A-level maths.

Doing maths & further maths is very doable I personally found both maths & further easier then my 3rd subject.
It depends on how good you are at maths and how happy you are with spending time on it. If maths feels like a drag then stick to single maths. If you're applying to CS you should give it a think though
Original post by yasminos
I got A* in Maths and A* in Further Maths at gcse (they were my only A*s). At A level I got A* in Maths and A in Further Maths.
Tbf, if I was doing 4 A levels, I wouldn't have been able to do well in them.
One thing I found hard Further Maths was that there were a lot of modules and I hated 2 of them and I couldn't find the time to study properly for them.

People have said that physics a level would help significantly but I don't like it enough to study it for another 2 years. Is FM doable without physics as most people do these subjects together. I am currently working towards/achieving a grade 8/9 in physics GCSE
Original post by Student786198
I am currently choosing my a levels and have decided on maths, chemistry and computer science. How hard is further maths because I want to study computer science or something maths related so I know it will help me significantly. However, people say it's extremely difficult and not worth it as you have to sacrifice hours of time daily. I have older family members who received all grade 9s at GCSE but went on to drop further maths and get a grade B/C in maths. Thank you


I do maths a level and it’s quite easy getting A/A* so I’m assuming further maths would be slightly more difficult but if you’re good at maths and achieved an A* in your gcse further you should be fine
Original post by Student786198
People have said that physics a level would help significantly but I don't like it enough to study it for another 2 years. Is FM doable without physics as most people do these subjects together. I am currently working towards/achieving a grade 8/9 in physics GCSE


You definitely don’t need physics a level to do it (the maths helps the physics, not the other way round) I do physics for a level btw
Original post by mnot
You cant do just further maths, that would be impossible as it builds on from regular maths A-level so if you do further you also do regular A-level maths.

Doing maths & further maths is very doable I personally found both maths & further easier then my 3rd subject.


They’re talking about further maths at gcse
Original post by Aethomson
They’re talking about further maths at gcse

The person I quoted specifically mentioned A-level in their post, and this is in the A-level sub-forum.
Original post by mnot
The person I quoted specifically mentioned A-level in their post, and this is in the A-level sub-forum.


Sorry I quoted the wrong person
I do Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry:
Fun subjects!
FM is difficult, but the new linear A-level means, unlike normal maths, you can chose two modules (i am doing FM1/FM2 as physics helps :smile: )
Reply 16
I’d take it knowing that you can drop it later if necessary. I took it last year alongside my other 3 subjects (maths, bio, chem) and decided about halfway into the year that I would drop it at AS so I still had something to show for the work. My biggest issue with it was that it was really time consuming - the majority of people in my class spent the majority of their free time doing further work, but I struggled to fit it in alongside chemistry revision. If you take it and decide to drop it later, no harm done - and if you end up doing the AS, that can end up helping too, especially if you’re applying to places that use ucas points. (Unfortunately nowhere I’ve applied to will even look at my AS :cry: )
Original post by Student786198
People have said that physics a level would help significantly but I don't like it enough to study it for another 2 years. Is FM doable without physics as most people do these subjects together. I am currently working towards/achieving a grade 8/9 in physics GCSE

No I tried taking Maths, Further, Physics and Chemistry. The Maths was alright but Physics was awful. I dropped it in a while and I’m doing great with the rest
I have friends doing further maths A level and from what I’ve heard, it is significantly more difficult than any other A level. If you are mathematically inclined and you enjoy maths then definitely go for it but you need to be willing to put in a lot of extra work. Also, keep in mind that further maths isn’t usually required by universities, though it will make your first year of university a little easier if you’re studying a maths related course.
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 19
If you enjoy maths, go for it 100%.
I got an 8 in my GCSE (although, most people in my FM class got 9s) and I put a modest amount of work into it per week 5/6 hours including lesson time but this went up a lot during exam time and finished off with an A (pretty close to A*, but no luck with remarks :frown:)

It is most definitely not as hard as everyone makes out to be if you enjoy maths/are decent at maths. As long as you consistently put in hours every week, you will do fine. Some topics you might find difficult, but just power through it - it's worth it.

I'm currently doing a degree in computer science and maths and first year was relatively straight forward because of FM so I'd highly recommend it. I do different maths courses than the pure CS people, but I took a peek at the maths module the pure CS people do and it had a lot of complex numbers, matrices and other bits of pure - and while you can still learn these topics right there and then, if you've already done FM you'd have seen most of it before giving you one less thing to worry about.

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