How hard is Further Mathematics? (OCR)

I found AS Mathematics easy and I have self-taught C3 and about 2/3 of C4. So far it's been fairly straightforward. But everyone says that FM is the toughest A level. FP1 is supposed to be easy so what are the difficult parts of FM? FP2 and FP3?

Reply 1

Hashshashin

13

gangsta316

I found AS Mathematics easy and I have self-taught C3 and about 2/3 of C4. So far it's been fairly straightforward. But everyone says that FM is the toughest A level. FP1 is supposed to be easy so what are the difficult parts of FM? FP2 and FP3?

I did FP1-3, M2-3 and S2.

FP1 - surprisingly tough (virtually no jump between FP1 and FP2 in my experience). Topics are COMPLETELY different to C1-C4, no trig or logs or calculus at all.
FP2 - BIG module, lots to learn. The exam is usually straightforward if you`ve prepared well, though.
FP3 - A bit odd, this one. Only four topics but there`s a fair bit to each of them (especially the complex numbers work). Probably the toughest pure module.

M2 - a jump from M1 for me, but still not too bad. Once you get the hang of things it becomes very routine.
M3 - Started getting a bit tough here. Some of the work on Vertical Circular Motion and SHM can be very tricky. The collision questions are an absolute gift though.

S2 - Very short, only has a few topics. Once hypothesis testing clicks it all becomes wonderfully simple.

To summarise - Further Maths is tough, but if you find Maths A level easy then you`re good enough to do it.

Reply 2

pyrolol

Personally I found FP1-3 extremely easy (did best in FP3, but still did very well in 1/2) compared to even the lowish applied modules (2 onwards). Basically if you're good it's easy, if you aren't, damn hard. Bear in mind if you don't mind memorising rubbish D1/2 are a good way to help boost your mark.

Reply 3

Calira

I found FP1 to be the toughest pure module, oddly. Probably because it was so different from the Core modules. FP2 has a huge range of topics to learn which are barely linked to each other; but they generally don't go into huge detail.
FP3 I found quite simple; but as Hashshashin said, there's only 4 topics. If you struggle with one of them, it's going to be a large part of the exam (opposite of FP2, really).

I found M2 to be one of the bigger jumps in difficulty between modules. M1 is a breeze, but M2 refused to make any sense to me. It all clicked for M3 though, for some reason.

Other module I did was D1 - which was just learning stuff off by heart. Easy marks if you're good at that sort of thing.

If you do physics to A2 (I see you got a nice score at AS, congrats ^^), you'll find the mechanics side of it far easier than people who don't.

In short, I found FP2 the hardest to learn; but the exam this year was oddly simple. It's the toughest A-level I took, but looking at your AS scores for maths, you're in a similar position to me so you should be fine.

Reply 4

made_of_fail

1

From the sound of it, the OCR Further Pure modules are quite different to their MEI counterparts. FP2 was easily the hardest of all my maths modules, both in terms of the level and amount of material you had to learn. Plus my class didn't really have enough time left to learn it.

Reply 5

Calira

Yeah, I've looked at some of the MEI stuff and it seems far, far more complex.

Reply 6

Donnaa

I'm doing further maths, just started this september- it really isnt bad, its not harder maths- just different maths that we've never really come across.

How hard is Further Mathematics? (OCR)

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