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Difference between Maths and Further Maths

I'm going to be doing AS level Mathematics this year after my GCSEs. I'm thinking of doing further maths as well, it isn't necessary but it would be good for civil engineering at university. How different is A level maths from A level Further Maths in terms of difficulty level?

Thank you

Reply 1

ohgodwhatamidoin

Difficulty wise, AS Further Maths isn't too hard and is pretty similar to Maths (A2 Further Maths on the other hand will be considerably harder). The reason some people will struggle with it is that it's a lot of new ideas. Whereas regular Maths is mostly just an extension of things you already know, or at the very least similar kinds of things, Further Maths will bring in whole new concepts entirely different to what you know. If you're a capable mathematician and naturally good, then you should be fine. If you're struggling a bit with GCSE Maths, then you may still be alright, but I'd recommend looking up things like matrices and imaginary numbers and just FP1 in general. With a good teacher and some extra effort anyone capable of doing single Maths should be fine with AS Further.

Reply 2

B_9710

Further maths is a lot more interesting and I think that doing further maths makes normal maths a lot easier. When doing further maths past papers when revising, as long as you do FP1-3, you probably would't even need to do C3 or C4 papers, as a lot of C3/4 is assumed in FP1-3.
(FP4 module exists for AQA board.)

Reply 3

backtraced

Honestly, it depends on how you think and what modules you'd be doing. I struggle with physics based mathematics/mathematics where you have to apply the question to a real life sort of situation. Because of this, I found mechanics 1/2 immensely hard in regards to doing the exam. FP1 I found really easy though because I enjoy pure mathematics.

I'd possibly delve into finding out which modules you'd be doing and go from there. Each person will find it easier than the next for various reasons and sections. I was one of the only people to dislike mechanics, but the rest of my class hated FP1.

Reply 4

username2471155