Further Maths A Level applied options opinons Watch

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Aayush :)

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Essentially, I want to see what people think of each of the further maths a level applied options (this is for AQA)

The options are:
Statistics
Mechanics
Discrete

My school is doing Mechanics and apparently it’s very difficult. How do discrete and statistics compare in this regard ? And which is the most interesting of the 3 options ?

LiveOnTSR

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I'm doing Mechanics and Statistics (AQA). I don't think I have a choice though. If you do physics then doing mechanics might be useful?

Shiv7

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(Original post by Aayush :))
Essentially, I want to see what people think of each of the further maths a level applied options (this is for AQA)

The options are:
Statistics
Mechanics
Discrete

My school is doing Mechanics and apparently it’s very difficult. How do discrete and statistics compare in this regard ? And which is the most interesting of the 3 options ?

I'm with Edexcel. I've taken Further Stats 1 and Further Stats 2. Having pretty much done a majority of Mechanics 1 in Physics I can say the statistics is by far probably the hardest.

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ovo192

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I take mechanics and discrete. And it's pretty chill. There aren't many resources for discrete tho. I think the main problem with discrete is that there is lots of methods and terminology to remember and it can get fiddly at times. But not mathematically hard.

Aayush :)

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(Original post by LiveOnTSR)
I'm doing Mechanics and Statistics (AQA). I don't think I have a choice though. If you do physics then doing mechanics might be useful?

I think you're referring to the normal maths A Level. In that I definitively find mechanics far more interesting (Hypothesis Testing vs Kinematics).

LiveOnTSR

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No it's definitely further maths. For AQA, you choose two from mechanics, statistics and discrete.

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Aayush :)

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(Original post by LiveOnTSR)
No it's definitely further maths. For AQA, you choose two from mechanics, statistics and discrete.

Then you're doing the old a level. This post is for the new a level

LiveOnTSR

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(Original post by Aayush :))
Then you're doing the old a level. This post is for the new a level

I'm doing the new A Level - I've just started Year 12. We do two options from mechanics, statistics and discrete.

'Students must study two of these options. • Optional application 1 – mechanics (page 20) • Optional application 2 – statistics (page 23) • Optional application 3 – discrete mathematics (page 27) '

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resourc...67-SP-2017.PDF

Aayush :)

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(Original post by LiveOnTSR)
I'm doing the new A Level - I've just started Year 12. We do two options from mechanics, statistics and discrete.

'Students must study two of these options. • Optional application 1 – mechanics (page 20) • Optional application 2 – statistics (page 23) • Optional application 3 – discrete mathematics (page 27) '

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resourc...67-SP-2017.PDF

So why does each of the 3 have it's own seperate paper, and ALL OF THEM are labelled paper 3 ? Labelling mistake by AQA ?

Shahiriyo

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(Original post by Aayush :))
So why does each of the 3 have it's own seperate paper, and ALL OF THEM are labelled paper 3 ? Labelling mistake by AQA ?

You chose which 2 out of 3 options you want to do, then you do the papers for those options. You don't have to do all the paper 3s.

Last edited by Shahiriyo; 3 months ago

Gent2324

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(Original post by Shiv7)
I'm with Edexcel. I've taken Further Stats 1 and Further Stats 2. Having pretty much done a majority of Mechanics 1 in Physics I can say the statistics is by far probably the hardest.

is further stats 1 really difficult or just stats 2? at my school we're either doing decsion + stats or decision + further pure

zetamcfc

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#12

Discrete is by far the easiest, then stats, then mechanics.

Interesting depends on your own personal view.

Shiv7

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(Original post by Gent2324)
is further stats 1 really difficult or just stats 2? at my school we're either doing decsion + stats or decision + further pure

Obviously as you may know decision is the easiest of the lot so you should be fine with that. Further Statistics 1 is fairly straightforward to be honest, nothing compared to Further Statistics 2 which can get trickier. So yes, Further Statistics 2 is the harder one, whereas Further Statistics 1 is fine.
Hope this helps.

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Aayush :)

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(Original post by zetamcfc)
Discrete is by far the easiest, then stats, then mechanics.

Interesting depends on your own personal view.

Regarding interesting, for someone who likes to solve problems and prefers applying concepts rather than learning them entirely by rote, is mechanics the most interesting one ? Or is it one of discrete and statistics. I'm doing Physics A Level (OCR A) and tbh I'm a bit fed up with mechanics already simply because of how much I have been exposed to it, even though I do not find it particularly difficult.

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zetamcfc

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(Original post by Aayush :))
Regarding interesting, for someone who likes to solve problems and prefers applying concepts rather than learning them entirely by rote, is mechanics the most interesting one ? Or is it one of discrete and statistics. I'm doing Physics A Level (OCR A) and tbh I'm a bit fed up with mechanics already simply because of how much I have been exposed to it, even though I do not find it particularly difficult.

Not likely to find a question on an exam paper that cannot be done by just applying a rote learnt concept. I honestly would say in that regard probably mechanics is the more likely to give you a situtation to workout what you'll need to do rather than just apply a concept without thought. But if you're bored of mechanics discrete will either be a joy for you or monotonous boredom. Stat idk never really done much of it.

JackMac2904

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My opinions:
Mechanics is fun
Statistics is easy
Discrete is boring (Though, admittedly quite easy)

As I took all three for my A level, I performed best in statistics, second to mechanics and last was Discrete. Though, the range between scores on my exams for the A2 papers was only 9%.

FuryBall

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I take further mechanics 1 and further statistics 1. I'd say both are relatively similar in terms of difficulty. However, I took the AS exams and I performed better in further mechanics 1 (100%). The questions we straightforward and similar to the ones in the textbook. I'd say further mechanics 1 is very useful for physics. I don't know much about fm2. If you're thinking of doing computer science, decision maths might be useful too.

In any case, if you'd like to discuss more about further maths, feel free to PM me. We have a further maths specific server on discord.

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