Psychology and economics A Level

For my Alevels i picked psychology, economics and business (looking to drop business to do either maths or english language). I need maths for majority of the unis in the uk to do a finance related degree. I got a grade 5 at gcse due to not bothering to revise. I could have gotten a high 7 low 8 with it but due to how my school works they require a 6 to even take the course. Is there anything i can do extra curricularly in order to get into a good uni in replacement of an a level in maths?

Reply 1

iive

Original post by Jamieomearanash

I think unfortunately if they asked for the A Level, then they will require it as part of their offer or it puts you in a weaker position compared to other candidates.

If you want to increase your maths knowledge, you could do Core Maths? I know some schools offer it and others don't but I think you should be able to buy textbooks for it online and then enter the exam as a private candidate? You could also retake the GCSE as well to boost your grades.

There's also different maths competitions aimed at your problem solving skills such as Ritangle, and the UKMT series and there's loads of nerds posting in different forums on the internet if you want to try some of those problems!

Edit: If you really still wanted to take the A Level you could apply as a private candidate and study the subject in your own time. BUT this is not a walk in the time and A Level while still having some links to GCSE is still a big jump both content wise and commitment wise compared to A Levels. Schools have those minimum GCSE requirements for a reason because they think some who achieved a grade 6 will be committed enough and capable enough to handle doing well in the A Level. The choice is upto to you at the end of the day and doing resits and entering as a private candidate can be expensive (which may be a factor for you or not).

Either way I wish you all the best and I hope you enjoy Y12!

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 2

Jamieomearanash

Original post by iive

I think unfortunately if they asked for the A Level, then they will require it as part of their offer or it puts you in a weaker position compared to other candidates.
If you want to increase your maths knowledge, you could do Core Maths? I know some schools offer it and others don't but I think you should be able to buy textbooks for it online and then enter the exam as a private candidate? You could also retake the GCSE as well to boost your grades.
There's also different maths competitions aimed at your problem solving skills such as Ritangle, and the UKMT series and there's loads of nerds posting in different forums on the internet if you want to try some of those problems!
Edit: If you really still wanted to take the A Level you could apply as a private candidate and study the subject in your own time. BUT this is not a walk in the time and A Level while still having some links to GCSE is still a big jump both content wise and commitment wise compared to A Levels. Schools have those minimum GCSE requirements for a reason because they think some who achieved a grade 6 will be committed enough and capable enough to handle doing well in the A Level. The choice is upto to you at the end of the day and doing resits and entering as a private candidate can be expensive (which may be a factor for you or not).
Either way I wish you all the best and I hope you enjoy Y12!

Hello thank you for your reply, since then I have been able to convince my head of math department teacher to let me retake the gcse maths past paper in order to get a higher grade 7-9 to get accepted. I will be taking it on Monday. Do you know any resources that will be beneficial to me. Specifically for non maths papers as that's what im doing and edexcel.