Switching to A-level Further Maths

i’m taking psychology a-level (alongside biology, chemistry and maths) but i’m finding it a bit bland — despite the fact that i found the course outline quite interesting — and i’m realising that i might just be more hardwired for science. i’ve never considered further maths as a subject choice as i always regarded it as too difficult (i’m not amazingly wonderful at maths, but i do enjoy it to an extent) and i’ve been wondering that maybe FM would have been a better option for me than psychology. the thing is, it’s near the october half-term now and so they will have covered a considerable amount of content.

i was thinking that, if i taught myself everything they’ve covered so far (it’s still somewhat early stages so hopefully this won’t be too difficult?), my school might let me switch. can anyone who takes further maths tell me a bit about the subject and how i can go about self-teaching the content that’s been done so far? is the start of the course (i.e. the first half term) similar to pure or is there a lot of new material? would you recommend that i switch for this reason alone? i don’t want to go to any teachers until i’m certain.

any input from current year 12s and also year 13s would be greatly appreciated

I'm a yr 13 doing further maths. Further maths is difficult, but if you work hard it can be really enjoyable. It will be difficult for you to teach yourself the work before you approach a teacher, as there are many different modules in FM, such as Stats and Mechanics (as in A level Maths), but also many others, such as Decision. Also schools will teach the modules in different orders. At my school we did decision until about November, then moved to pure and then mechanics at the end of the year, but as these can be done in any order, I wouldn't start teaching yourself pure, as this may not be what the class is actually learning. If you want to look at some further maths work and decide if its for you before you ask a teacher, I would recommend watching a few videos by TL maths on YouTube. Dont watch in the order he puts them in though. I would start with some on AS complex numbers, and then try Argand Diagrams (these are the first two pure topics on the Edexcel spec and they are quite easy compared to the other stuff that comes further down the line, though I found them difficult at first). Hope this helps

i’m taking psychology a-level (alongside biology, chemistry and maths) but i’m finding it a bit bland — despite the fact that i found the course outline quite interesting — and i’m realising that i might just be more hardwired for science. i’ve never considered further maths as a subject choice as i always regarded it as too difficult (i’m not amazingly wonderful at maths, but i do enjoy it to an extent) and i’ve been wondering that maybe FM would have been a better option for me than psychology. the thing is, it’s near the october half-term now and so they will have covered a considerable amount of content.

i was thinking that, if i taught myself everything they’ve covered so far (it’s still somewhat early stages so hopefully this won’t be too difficult?), my school might let me switch. can anyone who takes further maths tell me a bit about the subject and how i can go about self-teaching the content that’s been done so far? is the start of the course (i.e. the first half term) similar to pure or is there a lot of new material? would you recommend that i switch for this reason alone? i don’t want to go to any teachers until i’m certain.

any input from current year 12s and also year 13s would be greatly appreciated

i’m taking psychology a-level (alongside biology, chemistry and maths) but i’m finding it a bit bland — despite the fact that i found the course outline quite interesting — and i’m realising that i might just be more hardwired for science. i’ve never considered further maths as a subject choice as i always regarded it as too difficult (i’m not amazingly wonderful at maths, but i do enjoy it to an extent) and i’ve been wondering that maybe FM would have been a better option for me than psychology. the thing is, it’s near the october half-term now and so they will have covered a considerable amount of content.

i was thinking that, if i taught myself everything they’ve covered so far (it’s still somewhat early stages so hopefully this won’t be too difficult?), my school might let me switch. can anyone who takes further maths tell me a bit about the subject and how i can go about self-teaching the content that’s been done so far? is the start of the course (i.e. the first half term) similar to pure or is there a lot of new material? would you recommend that i switch for this reason alone? i don’t want to go to any teachers until i’m certain.

any input from current year 12s and also year 13s would be greatly appreciated

right, thank you so much!

Ok so catching up is gonna be pretty hard but ig you might be able to do it basically in year 12 we do all the normal a level maths content then we start the fm content in year 13 (atleast thats how it works for me) the content you missed wont be hard as such however its alot like alot alot because the pace at which further maths move at is unreal

to put it into perspective my fm class has done 8 chapters from pure and 7 from stats whereas the normal maths classes have done about 4 or 5 for pure and like 2 or 3 for stats

Is there space in a FM group and does it fit in your timetable?

What grade GCSE did you get?

Hey there, I switched to further maths in April of year 12 and self taught myself the course over the summer to take my mock in September where I got an A. It's a very rewarding subject and you'd totally be able to catch up!

i’ve seen that with some colleges, but mine does further maths and maths over the course of two years as normal.

the pace would be faster for you i guess, as you do it all in one year? although the girls doing FM in my year are almost always doing maths in the mornings

ye well when u choose to do it your basically signing ur life away 😂

I will say so myself tho I love maths so all the pure maths even the further were gonna do Im actually excited about so as long as u can handle the work load and u believe youll perform well and u enjoy the subject then go ahead

i’m already signing it away, i want to study medicine

i love pure maths too, but i’m not completely enamoured with the subject. i do find it enjoyable when i can do it

the main thing is that i’m finding psychology slightly irritating as it’s almost like common sense turned into a whole load of content. i do enjoy learning about psychology and i find psychiatry fascinating (i’ll be starting my EPQ on neuropsychiatry soon) but i think psychology isn’t scientific enough for me.

my sixth form makes us do four a-level subjects up until the christmas holidays. i might regret taking FM, but i’ll drop it next year if it becomes too much.

I do 4 of the hardest a levels by choice 😂

give it a shot worst case scneario u find ur not up for the challange and u drop

let me guess… physics, chemistry, maths and further maths?

i think i might, although the next hurdle is self-teaching…

close enough 😂 instead of chem im doing cimputer science

if ur school does maths and further maths at the same time i dont think theyve gotten very far u should be able to do it during half term

i hope so. good luck with CS

nice, thank you! do you find that maths comes to you naturally, or do you have to put in a bit of extra work? i’ve been hearing that to get an A-A* in FM, you’d have to be naturally able — maths stresses me out sometimes but i can do it, to an extent?

I'm currently final year A level student and I just took up further maths this year after self teaching myself the content during the summer break.
I don't think it's too late to switch at all and at this stage if you are taking single maths you probably won't be too far behind what the further maths students are doing at your school.

For self teaching my biggest advice to you is to have a good look at the content and actually see if you like any of it. A lot of people will have probably told you this already but its going to be hugely difficult to study something you don't actually like especially if you are self teaching it during your own time. Another thing to consider is that if you do decide to do further maths, half of all your lessons from the moment you switch will be maths.

Once you have decided that you like the content (or not in which case probably don't bother with further maths ) go and ask your teacher what the further maths students have covered and plan accordingly. Set (realistic) targets and deadlines and fully commit to getting it done. A lot of your friends will probably be partying and messing around during this holiday but there probably will be times where you just have to stay home and do some work.

If you are still slightly unsure about your decision but want to go ahead anyway (I was very unsure as well since it is quite a large commitment) try studying the single maths materials that further maths classes have studied first before doing further maths topics and see how you get on.

I found that the best way to self teach further maths content was to look at the formulas they give you first, try some worked examples or look through them, then do practice questions. When I was self teaching further maths about 10 - 15% of the time was spent reading and the rest was spent doing questions. And be sure to leave a little time at the end to go through everything.

As for what further maths is like this is going to depend on what exam board your school uses and what modules you will do. From my experience further maths can be a really fun and challenging subject. I definitely do look foreword to studying a lot of the topics on my syllabus but the pace is usually pretty quick.

As for recommending you the subject. No one can really say. A lot of my friends make sour faces when I tell them I study Maths or Chemistry. Everyone is different, so I'm afraid I can't really recommend anything.

I hope I can help and if you have anymore questions don't hesitate to ask