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is A level maths hard?

i want to do a level maths in college incase in the future i want to go into a finance related uni degree but i’m scared it’s going to be too hard and i’m going to fail. in my mocks of gcse i consistently got 6’s but i feel as if my real gcses went well. someone care to inform me of the workload and if it’s drastically different to gcse?

Reply 1

Sinnoh

You ask this on the day of the hardest A-level maths exam there has been in years lol

If you want to get the top grades, yes it's hard, like any subject. Here are the main differences between GCSE and A-level maths:

- there's a distinction between pure maths and applied maths. You cover pure maths, and then you cover statistics and mechanics and there are separate papers. Statistics involves actual calculation, very different to GCSE where the most advanced thing you do is draw a histogram.
- questions are longer and give more marks, but there are fewer of them. The emphasis on problem-solving is greater.
- new topics introduced in A-level, but that's a given. Calculus is the biggie.
- quadratic equations everywhere. You should be able to do them without a thought. Same goes for completing the square.
- huge variety of questions

Think of GCSE as the training to do A-level. You may not necessarily recap all the content, but it helps to have your GCSE knowledge perfected when you start.