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Further Maths Mechanics

Hi,
I am currently studying for my GCSEs, in year 11, and have decided to take A level maths, biology, chemistry and music. But I am doing GCSE further maths and really enjoying it. I told my maths teacher my A level choices and she thinks I should do further maths as maths A level will not stretch me much.
However, I hate physics and don't know whether I could cope with the mechanics units in further maths. Any advice? Are the units hard and how much are they based on physics?
Reply 1
Original post by Sassy_Bookworm
Hi,
I am currently studying for my GCSEs, in year 11, and have decided to take A level maths, biology, chemistry and music. But I am doing GCSE further maths and really enjoying it. I told my maths teacher my A level choices and she thinks I should do further maths as maths A level will not stretch me much.
However, I hate physics and don't know whether I could cope with the mechanics units in further maths. Any advice? Are the units hard and how much are they based on physics?


Hey!

Further Maths contains a lot of challenging stuff, and normal Maths A Level is made a lot easier when doing this. It also requires a lot more effort to understand concepts. For example there have been times where I've been sat staring at a question for literally 2-3 hours straight trying to figure out how to do it.

If you're enjoying GCSE Further Maths, then I would seriously consider taking it at A Level.

Mechanics is 100% Physics so in your position that isn't ideal, but it may be possible that your school will let you self study other modules instead, like S3.

In terms of difficulty, AS is fine but when you get to the A2 stuff it steps up quite considerably (depending on which units you take). For instance FP2 and FP3 contain some pretty tricky topics, but they are very interesting nonetheless.

Taking Further Maths was, personally, an amazing decision for me and I would definitely recommend it!

Hope this helped, and do feel free to ask if you have any more questions :smile:
Hi,

Thanks, that is really helpful :smile:
So what kind of things do you do in mechanics? As I struggle to conceptualise things such as electricity and forces. I understand how they work and can use formulas and such, so I might be able to cope?
Reply 3
Original post by Sassy_Bookworm
Hi,
I am currently studying for my GCSEs, in year 11, and have decided to take A level maths, biology, chemistry and music. But I am doing GCSE further maths and really enjoying it. I told my maths teacher my A level choices and she thinks I should do further maths as maths A level will not stretch me much.
However, I hate physics and don't know whether I could cope with the mechanics units in further maths. Any advice? Are the units hard and how much are they based on physics?


Original post by Sassy_Bookworm
Hi,

Thanks, that is really helpful :smile:
So what kind of things do you do in mechanics? As I struggle to conceptualise things such as electricity and forces. I understand how they work and can use formulas and such, so I might be able to cope?


I'm not sure you understand the concept of mechanics. You might want to look up past papers and see that it's much more purely mathematical than the calculations you do in physics, and there is no electricity haha. However you will need to gain an understand to get good marks in the exam, otherwise you'll read the question and won't even have a clue where to start.

If you were going to do A2s in both maths and further maths, you could do C1-C4, S1-2, FP1-2, D1-D2 and M1-2. This way you wouldn't have to do anything more complicated than M2, and M2 isn't that much of a step up from M1
Reply 4
Original post by Sassy_Bookworm
Hi,

Thanks, that is really helpful :smile:
So what kind of things do you do in mechanics? As I struggle to conceptualise things such as electricity and forces. I understand how they work and can use formulas and such, so I might be able to cope?


You're very welcome :smile:

Mechanics involves no electricity whatsoever. Forces however come up left right and centre. In mechanics you look at things like:

The behaviour of objects colliding
Projectile Motion
Working out the position of the centre of mass of objects
The bahaviour of an object attached to a spring/string

The list goes on. Here is a link to the Edexcel Maths specification:

https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/A%20Level/Mathematics/2013/Specification%20and%20sample%20assessments/UA035243_GCE_Lin_Maths_Issue_3.pdf

Mechanics starts at page 59 and ends at page 78.

M1-2 are for the regular Maths A Level (but could also be used for FM in certain situations) And M3-5 are exclusively FM
Reply 5
You wouldn't necessarily have to take any mechanics modules for maths or further maths. You could do stats a decisions and so you could just do that instead. However M1 is considered very easy and so if I were you I would at least try to do that module.
Thanks guys, this is really helpful :biggrin:
I'm currently taking AS Further maths and I remember I didn't enjoy physics that much last year in year 11, however I'm really enjoying mechanics this year so it's worth a look :smile:


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Reply 8
Original post by Sassy_Bookworm
Hi,

Thanks, that is really helpful :smile:
So what kind of things do you do in mechanics? As I struggle to conceptualise things such as electricity and forces. I understand how they work and can use formulas and such, so I might be able to cope?


Honestly mechanics isn't extremely difficult. I know that you've probably been told it's all physics, but think of it as only the calculation part of physics. To be quite honest with you the most difficult part of mechanics is not mixing up sin and cos xD Have a look at a mechanics past paper if you want an idea of the sort of questions.
Reply 9
Mechanics is tough. It's basically applied physics with lots of maths involved. I think the best way for you to know if it's for you is have a look at the past papers!
Hi guys, it's me again.
In case you were wondering, ive decided to take further maths a level after recieving advice from my teachers and looking at past papers. Thanks again for your advice!
Reply 11
Original post by Sassy_Bookworm
Hi guys, it's me again.
In case you were wondering, ive decided to take further maths a level after recieving advice from my teachers and looking at past papers. Thanks again for your advice!



That's brilliant! You certainly won't regret it :wink:
Original post by PhyM23
That's brilliant! You certainly won't regret it :wink:

I hope so 😄
I too HATE/HATED physics in GCSE and was dreading mechanics. But it's only one module and I personally found it to be my favourite module. It's not really very physicsy, it's mathsy too.

In the end I got full ums in m1/m2 so don't let physics put you off, go for it!!
Original post by Rabadon
I too HATE/HATED physics in GCSE and was dreading mechanics. But it's only one module and I personally found it to be my favourite module. It's not really very physicsy, it's mathsy too.

In the end I got full ums in m1/m2 so don't let physics put you off, go for it!!

You have no idea how reassuring that is! 😄

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