The Student Room Group

Further Maths for UCL

I’m in a bit of dilemma whether or not I should drop one of my subjects. I do maths, chemistry and economics and I do AS Further Maths. I know in university I want to do a degree in Economics or something to that affect and I feel like to boost my chances I should drop chemistry and just do the full A level course for Further Maths.

I do OCR Chemistry and the grade boundaries are insanely high although I do enjoy the subject for what it is. Further maths however the grade boundaries are slightly lower and I could probably get away with getting 100 wrong out of the 300 marks and still get an A however FM is not a walk in the park and probably one of the more difficult A Levels and I’ve heard the AS Level papers are more forgiving. Right now AS isn’t horrible and I’m quite comfortable in it. If I drop chemistry I’ll get free periods etc but I just don’t know if it’s worth it.

Would doing the full a level further maths course boost my chances of getting into UCL potentially? If I can get away with doing chemistry I’ll probably just stay with my choices but I don’t know.

I’d like someone else’s opinion on this situation!
(edited 1 month ago)
From what I've heard anything math related will really help with economics. The main thing with Further Math is that you won't succeed in it if you don't have a genuine interest in math, but if AS is going ok, you should be fine.
Original post by imco195506
I’m in a bit of dilemma whether or not I should drop one of my subjects. I do maths, chemistry and economics and I do AS Further Maths. I know in university I want to do a degree in Economics or something to that affect and I feel like to boost my chances I should drop chemistry and just do the full A level course for Further Maths.
I do OCR Chemistry and the grade boundaries are insanely high although I do enjoy the subject for what it is. Further maths however the grade boundaries are slightly lower and I could probably get away with getting 100 wrong out of the 300 marks and still get an A however FM is not a walk in the park and probably one of the more difficult A Levels and I’ve heard the AS Level papers are more forgiving. Right now AS isn’t horrible and I’m quite comfortable in it. If I drop chemistry I’ll get free periods etc but I just don’t know if it’s worth it.
Would doing the full a level further maths course boost my chances of getting into UCL potentially? If I can get away with doing chemistry I’ll probably just stay with my choices but I don’t know.
I’d like someone else’s opinion on this situation!


AS Fm (IMO) is quite easy compared to A2. For econ fm would probably help quite a bit. Not giving advice but have u thought about dropping econ instead? As chemistry is also quite quantitative which would help as econ uni is decent but math and econ isn’t a required A level,at best preferred . So idk maybe check uni offer stats on which a levels most applicants did?
Original post by imco195506
I’m in a bit of dilemma whether or not I should drop one of my subjects. I do maths, chemistry and economics and I do AS Further Maths. I know in university I want to do a degree in Economics or something to that affect and I feel like to boost my chances I should drop chemistry and just do the full A level course for Further Maths.
I do OCR Chemistry and the grade boundaries are insanely high although I do enjoy the subject for what it is. Further maths however the grade boundaries are slightly lower and I could probably get away with getting 100 wrong out of the 300 marks and still get an A however FM is not a walk in the park and probably one of the more difficult A Levels and I’ve heard the AS Level papers are more forgiving. Right now AS isn’t horrible and I’m quite comfortable in it. If I drop chemistry I’ll get free periods etc but I just don’t know if it’s worth it.
Would doing the full a level further maths course boost my chances of getting into UCL potentially? If I can get away with doing chemistry I’ll probably just stay with my choices but I don’t know.
I’d like someone else’s opinion on this situation!


For ucl, not having a full FM alevel wont disadvantage you, so i would keep chem. However unis like cambridge and lse like fm alot
Reply 4
Original post by F!n411Yv!C!0u51Y
From what I've heard anything math related will really help with economics. The main thing with Further Math is that you won't succeed in it if you don't have a genuine interest in math, but if AS is going ok, you should be fine.

Thank you, I think I’m going to stay with AS Further Maths because I don’t think I’d be able to cope with 2nd year FM lol
Reply 5
Original post by Anonymous
AS Fm (IMO) is quite easy compared to A2. For econ fm would probably help quite a bit. Not giving advice but have u thought about dropping econ instead? As chemistry is also quite quantitative which would help as econ uni is decent but math and econ isn’t a required A level,at best preferred . So idk maybe check uni offer stats on which a levels most applicants did?

I agree, AS further maths isn’t bad at all. I have considered dropping economics however I believe personally that the knowledge of economics in A-Level would help me connect with the subject more, thanks for the suggestion though! I think I’m going to stick with my subjects for now.
Reply 6
Original post by Anonymous
For ucl, not having a full FM alevel wont disadvantage you, so i would keep chem. However unis like cambridge and lse like fm alot

Yeah, I sort of given up of the idea of Cambridge and LSE because the competition is really intimidating and I don’t know if I want to be in that environment. It’s comforting to know that UCL isn’t too bothered about FM but I bet the AS FM course still helps anyways. Thank you!

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