how hard is Further Maths as a 4th???

I'm thinking of doing Law or Economics at university (top 10 such as UCL - not oxbridge). So for A-levels I'm thinking of doing Maths, FM, History and Economics with FM being my 4th. I'm either gonna get an 8/9 at GCSE for maths. But anyway, the main question: is FM manageable as a 4th? Does it feel like a whole different course or does it kinda of just feel like an extension to what youre doing in normal maths? thank you!!

Reply 1

ronakkumar7001

2

Hi i did Maths FM physics econ. Taking further maths as a 4th subject is challenging but it is very doable if you are passionate about maths. U have to do a lot of maths tho and it can get hard so make sure u are passionate about maths or are willing to become passionate. Doing 4 a levels with FM is very time consuming especially in year 13 as u have to balance it with writing personal statements and admission tests however if you work hard consistently in the two years it will be maneagable. But for econ degree top unis love FM so it can really help you out especially with how competitive econ is, and it complements your regular maths so it will actually make regular maths a lot easier. Yes some parts feel like extensions of regular maths like second order differential equations or further vectors but there's a lot of new stuff like complex numbers, matrices, hyperbolic functions etc. I say go for further maths but if u think it's too much work u can always drop it because it's not a necessity. Good luck for ur a levels feel free to ask me more questions happy to help

Reply 2

McGinger

20

Its about the only 4th subject worth doing if you are aiming at a Uni degree like Econ that may need it.
As above, you can drop it if you do realise it is too much and none of your Uni offers actually need it.

Reply 3

Labradoodle1

19

It's tough but you can do well in it if you're genuinely interested in maths and are good at it (an 8 or 9 in gcse maths is a good sign). And yeah as the above users said, once you decide what degree you want to do, you can drop a subject. If you decide on Law, drop FM and if you decide on Econ drop History.

Reply 4

georgia10201

OP

7

Original post by ronakkumar7001

Hi i did Maths FM physics econ. Taking further maths as a 4th subject is challenging but it is very doable if you are passionate about maths. U have to do a lot of maths tho and it can get hard so make sure u are passionate about maths or are willing to become passionate. Doing 4 a levels with FM is very time consuming especially in year 13 as u have to balance it with writing personal statements and admission tests however if you work hard consistently in the two years it will be maneagable. But for econ degree top unis love FM so it can really help you out especially with how competitive econ is, and it complements your regular maths so it will actually make regular maths a lot easier. Yes some parts feel like extensions of regular maths like second order differential equations or further vectors but there's a lot of new stuff like complex numbers, matrices, hyperbolic functions etc. I say go for further maths but if u think it's too much work u can always drop it because it's not a necessity. Good luck for ur a levels feel free to ask me more questions happy to help

thank you very much!! 😀

Reply 5

Holmes21

10

For Further Maths a passion and an advanced mathematical ability for problem solving is required for this subject. This subject improves your mathematical ability greatly as you will be doing 10 hours of maths a week with FM and Maths. I am currently going into Y13 and I am loving the 10 hours of maths - personally I do Maths, FM, Physics and Chemistry. I have found further maths quite straight forward this year - however I have struggled on certain topics like argand diagrams because their notation isn’t set out like typical graphs. However, once they’re cracked they are super straight forward, they do also appear in Y13 as well. Any ways I think that you have picked well if these are your choices and in all honesty you do NOT need further maths - however it is good to take. Just think about if you have 1 the ability and confidence to take the subject, 2 the skill for time management - this is a huge part of taking 4 A-levels because your revision will be far harder when taking 4 A-levels without a plan or time management! Then finally 3 the motivation to work on it in your free time if you don’t understand something - which is a trait that most people who take maths have because you are likely to run into things that you struggle with and need a bit of work on. Overall my take is that as long as you get a good grade in your GCSE maths then you should be good to go! If you are unsure whether to take it try it out for the first couple of weeks/months in your college/sixth form and then consider whether it is better to keep or drop the subject.

how hard is Further Maths as a 4th???

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