Taking maths A level early?

I have just started year 10, but I have learnt all the GCSE content. I am also halfway through FM GCSE, and I am getting through it quite quickly (possibly taking it at the end of this year??)

I'm wondering if I should start teaching myself A level since I have had the Year 1 books for a while and don't have much to do in maths lessons, I would aim to take it in summer of 2026. Would it help with applying for maths at Oxbridge, since I'd be doing some of the A level work? For sixth form I would take FM, CS, and Physics.

The alternative is that I put less time towards maths and more time towards my GCSE's (especially subjects like english, biology, and geography, which I am less interested in). Which are more important? GCSEs or A levels?

Reply 1

Ellejules

Hi there! It’s great you’ve gone through all the gcse content, but personally, i would recommend focusing on your GCSEs first. Maybe to fill in the time you can have a go at some a level maths, but at this time i think its best to prioritise your GCSEs. Oxbridge wont know that you’ve been teaching yourself a level maths since year 10. They care more about the fact you’ve got the grades and suit their idea of a good candidate. They also consider your GCSEs, not in the same way they look at your a levels, but they do pay attention to it and expect you to have mostly (if not all) 7s 8s and 9s. So my suggestion is to focus on getting those grades first and if you find some extra time during revision with nothing to do, have a go at some a level maths content.

Reply 2

Muttley79

Original post

by Isa1088

I have just started year 10, but I have learnt all the GCSE content. I am also halfway through FM GCSE, and I am getting through it quite quickly (possibly taking it at the end of this year??)
I'm wondering if I should start teaching myself A level since I have had the Year 1 books for a while and don't have much to do in maths lessons, I would aim to take it in summer of 2026. Would it help with applying for maths at Oxbridge, since I'd be doing some of the A level work? For sixth form I would take FM, CS, and Physics.
The alternative is that I put less time towards maths and more time towards my GCSE's (especially subjects like english, biology, and geography, which I am less interested in). Which are more important? GCSEs or A levels?

I teach Maths and wouldn't advise this. Ask for extension work, do UKMT challenges and read around topics that interest you. Maybe ask about mentoring? https://ukmt.org.uk/enrichment/mentoring

Good GCSE grades across the board are also important.

Have you read any of Rob Eastaway's books: https://robeastaway.com/books

Reply 3

Muttley79

https://nrich.maths.org/recommended-books

https://nrich.maths.org/secondary-live-problems-and-recent-solutions

https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/neale/WhyStudyMathematics.html

Reply 4

Isa1088

Original post

by Isa1088

I have just started year 10, but I have learnt all the GCSE content. I am also halfway through FM GCSE, and I am getting through it quite quickly (possibly taking it at the end of this year??)
I'm wondering if I should start teaching myself A level since I have had the Year 1 books for a while and don't have much to do in maths lessons, I would aim to take it in summer of 2026. Would it help with applying for maths at Oxbridge, since I'd be doing some of the A level work? For sixth form I would take FM, CS, and Physics.
The alternative is that I put less time towards maths and more time towards my GCSE's (especially subjects like english, biology, and geography, which I am less interested in). Which are more important? GCSEs or A levels?

ONE YEAR UPDATE: (I've just started Year 11)

Incase anyone's curious, since FM GCSE is relatively light in term of content (compared to GCSE Maths), I finished learning the content around Christmas of Year 10 so my school entered me for the June exams. If you find yourself capable of doing it and really wanting to, I'd recommend taking it because as long as you can balance GCSEs and FM, nothing's really stopping you from getting both 9s in GCSE mocks and 9 in FM :smile:

)

Since the start of this academic year, I've spent my maths lessons independently learning A Level Pure content like I did for FM, and since there's a lot of overlap between FM and AS, I got through AS quite quickly and am about halfway through the A2 content now. I don't plan on taking the A Level Maths exam until Year 13 (which seems pointless to some 💔), but I find that learning A Level Maths and Further Maths content now makes it lots easier to learn more complex maths and to practice general problem solving (I do a couple of UKMT challenges every now and again).

So taking A Level Maths early might have been a stretch, but I find that working through the content that i find interesting on my own is so much more interesting than if I were to recap GCSE Maths every lesson 😅

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 5

Muttley79

Original post

by Isa1088

ONE YEAR UPDATE: (I've just started Year 11)
Incase anyone's curious, since FM GCSE is relatively light in term of content (compared to GCSE Maths), I finished learning the content around Christmas of Year 10 so my school entered me for the June exams. If you find yourself capable of doing it and really wanting to, I'd recommend taking it because as long as you can balance GCSEs and FM, nothing's really stopping you from getting both 9s in GCSE mocks and 9 in FM :smile:

)
Since the start of this academic year, I've spent my maths lessons independently learning A Level Pure content like I did for FM, and since there's a lot of overlap between FM and AS, I got through AS quite quickly and am about halfway through the A2 content now. I don't plan on taking the A Level Maths exam until Year 13 (which seems pointless to some 💔), but I find that learning A Level Maths and Further Maths content now makes it lots easier to learn more complex maths and to practice general problem solving (I do a couple of UKMT challenges every now and again).
So taking A Level Maths early might have been a stretch, but I find that working through the content that i find interesting on my own is so much more interesting than if I were to recap GCSE Maths every lesson 😅

You will become a much better mathematician by going outside the school curriculum.

Do you have a UKMT mentor now? Did you excel in the IMC and get to a NMSS? They would benefit you more and unis don't like GCSEs to be taken early.

Reply 6

Isa1088

Original post

by Muttley79

You will become a much better mathematician by going outside the school curriculum.
Do you have a UKMT mentor now? Did you excel in the IMC and get to a NMSS? They would benefit you more and unis don't like GCSEs to be taken early.

Ooh okay, I don't have a UKMT mentor because my school doesn't really let me do those sorts of things but I took the IMC last year and got like a next round thing or something (not a maths summer school though 😔); hopefully this year I'll do better!

Reply 7

Muttley79

Original post

by Isa1088

What's the issue with requesting a UKMT mentor for you? The school doesn't need to do anything beyond filling in a form.

https://ukmt.org.uk/enrichment/mentoring

You've missed it for this year sadly.

What support are you getting to explore outside the school curriculum?

Reply 8

Muu9

Original post

by Isa1088

Did you take the Kangaroo or the Olympiad? How did you do on them? You should do past papers of the IMC, reading the solutions for all the questions you got wrong or guessed or weren't confident in. For 2015 onwards, check out the "solutions and investigations PDF" which has additional practice problems to apply the knowledge you learned from the solutions