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Original poster

Any advantage in taking A2 Maths a year early in application to medicine?

29 replies

Gigimama · 23/10/2012 01:10

Dd is now in Year 11 doing her GCSEs. She took Maths GCSE in Year 10 & is doing additional Maths this year. Her teacher is encouraging her to do AS & A2 together next year with the view of doing Further Maths A level in Year 13. She is aiming for medicine and will take up Physics, Biology and Chemistry on top of Maths. She can of course drop one of the sciences after AS & and do Further Maths but she can also carry on with the 3 sciences and not do Further Maths. Just wonder whether there is an advantage, or disadvantage in doing A2 Maths a year early? Some universities state that they prefer all the A levels in one sitting but surely they are frowning upon retakes rather than doing a subject early! Anyone with any advice please.

OP posts:
prettydaisies · 23/10/2012 17:57

I think a lot of med schools will only consider, as part of their offer, 3 a levels taken at the end of y13. They like to see that you can work hard at three at the same time. Not a problem as long as you take 3 A2s at the end of y13 as well.

michaelaB · 23/10/2012 17:48

Be careful! Some Med schools insist on all A2s to be taken in the final year ie Y13 so by taking maths A2 in Y12 and further maths in Y13 you will be excluding these medical schools. Check their entry requirements.

Original poster
Gigimama · 23/10/2012 12:46

Thank you. Now I understand a little bit better. To take this option, the workload will be equivalent to 2 AS subjects in Year 12. That will definitely be too much to do alongside all 3 science subjects. So better stick to 3 sciences + Maths for AS and drop one of them at A2. Thank you again.

OP posts:
BeckAndCall · 23/10/2012 07:42

The way it works with Maths and further Maths is that they do enough modules in year 12 to gain an A2 but if they do carry on with further Maths they don't cash in the modules until after all the A2 modules have been done in year 13 so that they get the best combination of grades.

If they don't keep up the FM but have started off down that track then they would have enough to get a definitive grade at year 12.

So it more takes care of itself, than being an active decision.

If she is doing 3 sciences plus 2 Maths at AS stage, that would be a huge amount of work, tbh. Maths and FM is not just like doing more of the same - the different modules or 'types' of Maths do take individual learning: stats is not like mechanics - it all takes different learning.