Economics without Further Maths

I noticed that many of the Economics courses from unis such as Cambridge, LSE and Oxford state you dont need further maths A-level as an entry requirement. However your chances are near zero for getting in without it (if your school offers it), so are there any other ways to increase your chances without doing the fm course?

I noticed that many of the Economics courses from unis such as Cambridge, LSE and Oxford state you dont need further maths A-level as an entry requirement. However your chances are near zero for getting in without it (if your school offers it), so are there any other ways to increase your chances without doing the fm course?

I noticed that many of the Economics courses from unis such as Cambridge, LSE and Oxford state you dont need further maths A-level as an entry requirement. However your chances are near zero for getting in without it (if your school offers it), so are there any other ways to increase your chances without doing the fm course?

While these courses don't explicitly require further maths a-level, this is largely to just cater to students from schools where FM isn't offered, rather than students who simply didn't choose FM.
Many of these unis also state that even if your school doesn't offer FM (or the desired modules from FM), you still have the opportunity to take using the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme. Cambridge's website says that if you've realized the importance of FM too late, they advise you to take FM at AS-level or do as many additional A-levels maths modules as possible.
In practice, if your school offers FM and you've chosen not to take it, then you have pretty long odds of getting an offer regardless of your performance in the TMUA. I know that Cambridge's own admission stats show most successful applicants achieved at least 3x A*s and 93% of successful applicants had done FM. I've seen a similar stat a while back for LSE that said 96% of successful applicants had done FM. Here, the residual is likely to be mainly those who's school doesn't offer it.

Unfortunately my school does offer it, so I wouldn't fit into that category. Would AS Further Maths be sufficient to compete with people doing Further Maths A-level if I also have A*s in physics, maths, economics and EPQ? I enjoy maths so learning AS fm shouldn't be a problem.

If you're aim is to do IB in the future, then there's no requirement for you to take a quantitative degree, and frankly, nowadays recruiters don't really care about the degree you do.
Coming from an economics student whose career mentor has been an IB for 10 years, I've been told that they are trying to recruit more people from non-STEM backgrounds to improve their diversity, so you will see more people with degrees such as English and History get into IB. What matters is the transferable skills and work experience you get out of your degree. (So taking a less academically challenging degree that doesn't require you to study 24/7 will allow you more time to apply for work experience) My mentor has also mentioned that they are looking for different skillsets nowadays because they see the same type people who have the same Economics/Maths/STEM degrees that frankly isn't bringing much else to the table. That does mean when they interview you (depending on the recruiter) they will tailor the technical questions for what you studied, and focus more on your motivations rather than technical knowledge which they'd ask for being with a higher quantitative background.
Also side note, I didn't do A-level FM and still got into Econ at Durham - however there's a reason why they prefer people to have FM and that's because the maths modules you take, even in your first year, is primarily FM content! Yes, you could learn it at uni but it definitely sets you back if you don't have that knowledge when you start, and I've not been able to get a true fresher uni experience as I've had to learn pretty much the majority of FM independently in less than 6 months.
If I were you, aim for the top uni but if you think that FM will set you back (especially if you find that you need to practive current A-level maths almost everyday to keep up) then don't focus too much on just applying for econ- definitely keep your options open. So a less quantitative course will definitely not put you at a disadvantage. You could do one of the best degrees in the world, but if you don't know how to transfer or showcase the skills you got from your degree, then you'd be at a disadvantage. (Also considering that there are thousands of other econ graduates aiming for IB so you definitely need to develop something that makes you stand out if you took this route, hence why non-STEM degrees are currently being targeted)
I'd also look into IB/Finance related degree apprenticeships. They are much more competitive, and that's for a good reason. They are a much 'easier' route into finance and they are mainly looking for your drive/passion, rather than technical knowledge, but its definitely worth a try to apply as this can get you into the industry much faster and help you climb that career ladder.

Thanks for the advice. Surely an economics degree at an elite target uni such as LSE or Oxford would give more opportunity to network with likeminded people though? Regarding the maths skills, numeracy is one of my strong points and I didn't take FM only because I wasn't sure if I wanted to go more down the physics route than economics. The main thing I'm debating is whether AS FM would offer any advantage to these quantitative courses, as while I know the 2 Year A-level course would be more beneficial, my other 4 courses are quite demanding so I don't think I would be able to cover all of the content in the full course.

So the aim is really to go to a target uni and show you can transfer the skills you have learnt from the degree to the job itself? At my sixth form they treat FM like any other A-level so suggested I join the class for stats year 1 this up until the summer and then learn pure from y12 class next year. This should mean it’s not too detrimental to my other A-levels.