How good at maths do you need to be for a level geography?

[PossumInAPearTree]

Dd wants to change her options to geography. She's predicted an a* for gcse geography. Enjoys it and finds it easy.

Sixth form say to do geography a level you need at least a B in gcse, and a 6 for maths and English. I think she's more likely to get 5s in both maths and English. In fact she's not doing the higher maths paper so can't get a 6. Maths teacher said she was border line for which exam to put her in for but because of it being the first year of the new maths gcse and nobody knows what to expect in the end went for the lower paper.

Current geography teacher said she's more than capable of doing a level. However she's going to a new school for sixth form. Is it worth ringing and talking to them?

[simbobs]

Definitely talk to the new school! My DD got an A in geography and a B in maths and didn't have a problem. However, I would not be happy if my borderline child was put in for the foundation level in maths in view of it being a new exam. If anything, the mark scheme is more likely to be more lenient in this case, rather than tougher, and she may do better than a 5. Can you challenge this?

[PossumInAPearTree]

Well she only got a 4 in her maths mock and I hear that it's thought it will be easier to get a 5 on the foundation rather than the higher. I think a 6 is unlikely even if she did the higher.

[Shadowboy]

We require a B in geography now that the new specification has started as they have to do some stats or graphical questions in the exam such as spearmans rank correlation coefficient and they need to be able to use co-efficient graphs.

It's a lot more mathematical than the legacy syllabus. Both the human and physical paper will have maths skills on them. (I work for 2 of the exam boards as a team leader)
So I would say a solid C would OK but to get them confident and happy I would ideally be looking for a B in GCSE maths (or it's numerical equivalent)

[Shadowboy]

A B in maths on our geography course (sorry I phrased my reply badly)

[PossumInAPearTree]

I do think she'll get a 5 which is equivalent (I believe) to a high C / low B.

Thanks both. Will ring new school tomorrow.

[noblegiraffe]

Geography departments may need to rethink these entry requirements when they lose a bunch of potential candidates due to them sitting the foundation paper. A 5 is a low B, so if the previous entry requirements were for a B, then a 5 should suffice. Students sitting the Foundation paper and getting a 5 will have been taught trigonometry, factorising quadratics and plotting reciprocal graphs and so on. It's a lot harder than old Foundation, much more like old Intermediate.

[PossumInAPearTree]

That's what I'm hoping.