Yearly warning not to take A-level maths with less than a 7 at GCSE

My sister (the aforementioned maths teacher) will admit that it wasn't until she got to degree level that she really had to work at it.

Same results and plans for my DD. She seems to just 'get' maths, certainly in a way I never did.

Results are on a bell curve, but there are different bell curves for different subjects at A-level because for some subjects more able people take the subject. Exam boards at Alevel use data they have for each student (how they performed at GCSE) to take into account the ability of the cohort doing each subject and do a bell curve accordingly. So if very able people do maths A-level, the bell curve will be around high grades compared to subjects which have weaker cohorts (psychology).

Pretty sure it doesn't really work like that. If you look at the grades achieved for FM, it gets by far the highest proportion of A stars and As versus other subjects. That's because they take into account somehow that nearly all the students taking it are very able mathematicians. Broadly, the 'hardest' subjects which get more able students taking them get more higher grades and fewer lower ones.

Hypothetically, if only students with grade 9 took A level maths, do they not issue results on a bell curve? So say the top 5% get A*, next 10% get A, next slice get a B etc etc.
Would that not mean all those grade 9 GCSE students would end up getting A,A,B,C,D,E because they couldn’t only give out A, A s.
Is it not an advantage to have a wider range of students taking GCSE as someone has to be in the bottom of the bell curve and get the lower marks - otherwise top candidates get them.
I’m interested in how it works.
I thought they standardise all the results incase a paper is harder one year, and give the marks to a certain percentage of candidates.

It can happen - dd was in one of the two middle sets (albeit at a GS) for gcse but got better as it became more mathematics and less arithmetic.
Also I'm not sure by year 10 mocks they'll have done many past papers and got their exam technique in order ... read the rubric and show your working for instance!

I got a B at GCSE and was in the 97% percentile in the country for an A at A level.

I personally found harder maths easier and you do get those sort

My DS has got a 7 in the year 10 mock last term so room for improvement before the actual exam next year??
He's also got put into the further maths group....

He wants to do computing so needs maths?

Is that looking good enough to consider the A level? Assuming he makes a step up to 8 from year 10?

My kid got a nine at GCSE. She really struggled at A-level and only with tutoring managed to get an A grade. She was not one of those kids for whom maths comes easily.

So I recommend caution.

We will struggle for a 4th. I have asked my sister (also a maths teacher) and she has said he would probably struggle.

I'll sit down with him later. (He has autism to just add to the situation)

Further maths GCSE a much more similar to maths A-level content wise than regular maths GCSE. To the extent that someone took further maths GCSE and did not enjoy it or worked hard at it but really struggled, then that would raise a question for me as to whether they were really suited to maths A-level. But if they quite liked it but didn’t take it too seriously because it was taught at lunchtime etc, I wouldn’t be worried.

Further maths GCSE is like the start of pure maths and much more algebraic than regular maths GCSE.

Yeah this has been the case even when I was at school. I breezed through GCSe maths. I found it ridiculously easy and got an A* but boy was in for a shock at a-level. It was crazily hard. Now admittedly I did the statistics paper (for the life of me I have idea!) but the step up from GCse to A-level was a mountain. I missed an A by 5 marks. Honestly unless you get a 9 at GCSe (8 at a push if you love maths) would seriously advise against doing it any further. I have advised against my own children doing it as I don’t think they like it enough to do it .

DS got a 7 in maths and 6 in FM .
He's down for A level maths and FM but I'm not sure he'll be doing both now.
Teacher is willing to let him try FM but as it's a 4th a level I'm not sure it's worth it?

I'd guess it's harder to get such a clean set of stats for the sciences because of double science vs single subjects

So she's done very well in maths - if she'd not done FM you wouldn't be worried, would you? Having done the FM, she should be in a better position starting A level than those who've not done it. As someone said upthread (might have been the OP) gcse fm is of limited predictive use because of the widely varying rigour of its teaching - often just one 'twilight' class a week and heavy reliance on the diligence of the students, I think.

I really want this info for the sciences. Is it anywhere?

It’s not really about being ok… more a warning about likely outcomes and volume of work needed.

Ds2 got an 8 in 2019 and found A level a challenge. He came out with a B; his teachers were honest and said an A was possible but he needed to work harder. But all he needed was a B so he focused on his degree choice instead of maths.

Someone with an 8 in maths should be fine to take A level; if they work hard, all grades are within their reach.

this thread is worrying me… DD has got an 8 (3 marks off a 9) in Maths and a low 7 in Further Maths. Presume she should be okay?

He would really struggle to pick a 3rd subject, if he dropped FM and couldn't do the other course he wants.

Gah. I'm at work trying to work this all out in my head,

One of the three.

Tbh I'd rather he didn't, but he is determined to do so.

FM with a 7 unless there is some massive reason for it (and it ought to have been an 8 or 9) is not a good idea tbh. Ds got 8 and changed his mind about FM (and was glad he did).

Is FM one of three, or is it a fourth and thus easily dropped?