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Should I drop A-level further maths for med?

The subjects I'm taking are bio, chem, maths and further maths and I want to do medicine in the future. I know further maths is not required for medicine, and so far, I've found the lessons quite stressful. Further maths takes quite a lot of time, because I have about 4 hours of lessons every week and homework usually can take up to about 5-6 hours to complete. Plus, I'm not naturally good at maths; I got a decent grade for gcse maths but for maths competitions, like the ukmt, I typically get a bronze or participation.

However, I thought that perhaps taking further maths would help me to become better at 'ordinary maths'. Further maths covers the content in maths a lot quicker, so I assumed that I would have become better at maths when it comes to it. I like maths but only to an extent, i.e. I enjoy maths when I finally figure out how to do the question, and some aspects of it are just intriguing. But I don't want maths to eat up my time when there are so many other things I could be doing for 10 hours every week, coupled with the fact that it won't really help me for the degree I want to do.

Another consideration is taking further maths as an AS level (I think my school offers it). However, just the idea of sitting an official a level exam gets me on my nerves, and considering how horrible of a place I am in now, I don't think I'd even pass the exam if I were to sit it in less than a year from now.

Any advice?
Reply 1
Original post by unsure-student
The subjects I'm taking are bio, chem, maths and further maths and I want to do medicine in the future. I know further maths is not required for medicine, and so far, I've found the lessons quite stressful. Further maths takes quite a lot of time, because I have about 4 hours of lessons every week and homework usually can take up to about 5-6 hours to complete. Plus, I'm not naturally good at maths; I got a decent grade for gcse maths but for maths competitions, like the ukmt, I typically get a bronze or participation.
However, I thought that perhaps taking further maths would help me to become better at 'ordinary maths'. Further maths covers the content in maths a lot quicker, so I assumed that I would have become better at maths when it comes to it. I like maths but only to an extent, i.e. I enjoy maths when I finally figure out how to do the question, and some aspects of it are just intriguing. But I don't want maths to eat up my time when there are so many other things I could be doing for 10 hours every week, coupled with the fact that it won't really help me for the degree I want to do.
Another consideration is taking further maths as an AS level (I think my school offers it). However, just the idea of sitting an official a level exam gets me on my nerves, and considering how horrible of a place I am in now, I don't think I'd even pass the exam if I were to sit it in less than a year from now.
Any advice?

I was in quite a similar position to you and have just completed A levels in Bio, Chem, Maths and Further Maths. I got AAAB respectively and I am going into medicine. My Maths A level was done a year earlier than all my other A levels which definitely helped in managing my revision as I knew I could put all my effort into Bio and Chem for second year (which helped because there is so much content in second year). But this did mean I let go of my Further Maths grade slightly. I will say that focusing on math first year has made math way more intuitive for me and I didn't have to put in as much effort for a lot of the calculations in Chem and Biology. Also I will add that my Biology and Chemistry grades suffered in first year! my self-esteem was really low and it felt impossible to get above a C grade which could be something to consider.

Another point to add is that I really enjoy maths! (It may be an acquired love), but doing Further Math was something I really enjoyed which made it bearable regardless of how difficult it was. When it came to maths competitions I was just like you and only ever got participations and one bronze award. When it comes to doing medicine, A lot of websites say that Further Maths will increase your likelihood of getting in, this may be the case if the admissions office are deciding between identical candidates in terms of interview performance, admissions test performance in which case Further Math would make you a more appealing candidate, (Also looks good on the personal statement), but I think with the extra time I would have had from dropping Further Math, I would have done much better on my Admissions test and had more time to prepare for interviews which has a much larger impact on your chances of getting into medicine than doing an extra A level. For Further Math AS, I had a friend who regretted not doing the full A level because of how much he enjoyed it.

Overall I don't regret doing Further Maths, I think in my case I was just bad with managing my time because my friend who did the same subjects as me did really well on his admissions test and got way better grades than me!
I hope this helped in any way because I remember nearly dropping Further Math in year 12 due to the intensive workload but I am really glad I stuck with it.
Original post by unsure-student
The subjects I'm taking are bio, chem, maths and further maths and I want to do medicine in the future. I know further maths is not required for medicine, and so far, I've found the lessons quite stressful. Further maths takes quite a lot of time, because I have about 4 hours of lessons every week and homework usually can take up to about 5-6 hours to complete. Plus, I'm not naturally good at maths; I got a decent grade for gcse maths but for maths competitions, like the ukmt, I typically get a bronze or participation.
However, I thought that perhaps taking further maths would help me to become better at 'ordinary maths'. Further maths covers the content in maths a lot quicker, so I assumed that I would have become better at maths when it comes to it. I like maths but only to an extent, i.e. I enjoy maths when I finally figure out how to do the question, and some aspects of it are just intriguing. But I don't want maths to eat up my time when there are so many other things I could be doing for 10 hours every week, coupled with the fact that it won't really help me for the degree I want to do.
Another consideration is taking further maths as an AS level (I think my school offers it). However, just the idea of sitting an official a level exam gets me on my nerves, and considering how horrible of a place I am in now, I don't think I'd even pass the exam if I were to sit it in less than a year from now.
Any advice?

I would drop it - you need high grades in three A levels :smile:

[Btw I teach Maths]

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