Edexcel A Level Further Maths

CIE is known to be harder than most other exam boards for A-Level Maths, and EdExcel is considered one of the easier boards for it. Because of this, you should have no problem with studying EdExcel for FMaths, if you're doing CIE Maths.

Some tips for FMaths:
- Really think about what options you want to take (Further Pure, Further Stats, Further Mech, Decision). You can take two, either two from the same section or one from any two. e.g. FP1 and FS1, or D1 and D2. This is worth half your A-Level and it's not easy. Pros and cons of each one:
> Further Pure: good if you like Pure, but you'll have to cover most of the compulsory pure FMaths work before you can tackle the topics in Further Pure
> Further Stats: good if you're good at stats, or want to go into Economics and Business at uni. This is considered to be not the most difficult, as apparently it's the one you're least likely to make mistakes on.
> Further Mech: good if you want to do Physics/Engineering etc. at uni. Considered easier as well, but the Further Mechanics 2 is apparently quite difficult. But manageable.
> Decision: this is the one you probably won't have come across yet. it's like logic, problem solving, and has lots of things about networks and solving sets of simulatneous equations. It's less scary than it sounds, and is good if you want to go into Pure Maths at uni, or Computer Science. Personally, I take both of my option modules in Decision.
Take this into great consideration - the work you do may get you a headstart when you start uni, work well alongside other A-Levels you take, and if you can definitively explain why you chose the modules you chose in your personal statement for uni application, it show interest in your field of knowledge. Though it's not wider reading it still shows that you hold particular interest in that area of maths.

- The compulsory core pure part of FMaths is difficult in places, and easy in others. I haven't done second-year yet, but so far the main topics are matrices, vectors, and complex numbers - which all in turn connect. In the exam, the questions are often phrased as word problems, as such, rather than straight up maths questions. I remember in the mock paper I did, the question we did on vectors was phrased as a question on moving planets. It can be difficult to translate the word problem into straight-up maths. I found this a difficult part of FMaths. The way to do well at this is to do practice questions. These can be quite hard to find, but dig around on the internet and things do come up. The more practice questions you do, the better you are prepared, no matter how well you know the core concepts.

- There is some work on proofs in FMaths - learn how to do this really, really well as it comes up lots and is a really easy way of getting marks if you know how to do it properly. It's taught in textbook, and make sure to do the practice questions to get used to the way you're supposed to be setting out your proof, as easy or trivial as the actual question may seem.

I hope this helps. FMaths is tricky. But it's really rewarding! - the questions are really satisfying once you've solved them, because they take a while.
(:

Thanks a lot for a detailed response. By the way, can you recommend me some books?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edexcel-level-Further-Mathematics-Textbook/dp/1292183330/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=edexcel+further+maths&qid=1567611847&s=gateway&sr=8-1

this series is good - they have end of chapter mixed questions, and review exercises, and a past paper at the end. you also automatically get the online version when you buy them, and these provide a link to full worked answers, which are really helpful. They don't always have the best explanations of the things you have to learn, but I think that the workedanswers help. But I'd say it would be difficult to study this without any input from teachers/others who understand it. But it's a really good place to start.