Anyone heard of/taken Level 2 Functional skills Maths or English?

[ALittleCrisp]

I'll need to take these. Hopefully I'll be enrolling for both the Maths and English on the 29th.

Are they tricky? I don't want to make presumptions. I'm horrendous at Maths. My English is very good, I think. I was always predicted A's for it.

Famously predicted D/E for Maths when I was in school Nobody had seen quite a dramatic difference in English and maths ability before. Top for English, bottom for maths.

I do not understand numbers well at all, and I've really tried! I'm hoping now I'm an adult, I can see beyond it all and pass.

I teach the Edexcel spec. You can see past papers here to see the style of question.

Pass mark is about 75%.

Happy to answer any questions!!

TheFallen Thank you so much!

Can I ask, if you get over 75% and pass, is that it? Or is it graded? For example, when I was in school you'd pass the higher tier paper by getting a C mark, but it was marked at a C.

Is the Functional Skills graded in the same way or do you just Pass or Fail?

I teach Level 2 Maths to adults, having previously taught GCSE Maths at school. It's definitely a lot easier, without a lot of the more abstract stuff (especially algebra). It focuses on things like interpreting data, percentages etc. which you'll likely be more comfortable with.

It's getting an upgrade soon and like the GCSEs they will be increasing the amount you need to cover so definitely get it done and dusted soon to avoid that!

Tends to be based on practical maths, so problems based on money, time, reading timetables etc.

Honni Fab, thank you! I was going to start it in September but thought it's best to get it done now I'm glad I had that thought

LIZS Thank you, you seem to know the answers to everything I need you in my life

It's just Pass/Fail. No grades. It's quite different to GCSE, especially now. The biggest hurdle for my students is literacy, as you have to read a lot of blurb to work out the maths you need to do. So you should find it more straightforward. From that page you should also be able to find the specification, which tells you what Maths topics are involved.

Other exam boards also do FS, so worth knowing which board you are doing.

I’ve done it. There was nothing about timetables or time though

I found it fine and I was appalling at maths. It was a smaller class so we could ask lots of questions and the teacher had enough time to go through it lots of times if someone didn’t understand.

I feel quite a fool... I was getting quite confused at some of the papers.

Then I realised I couldn't answer a lot of the questions because I simply didn't have the booklet with the graphs in. Looks like you need an addition paper with certain information in to answer some of the questions.

It was saying things like 'here is a timetable for swimming' but there wasn't one. So it just be on an addition piece of paper. That I don't have the link to

I also teach this. We use city and Guilds. Same curriculum as edexcel but different order of topics and wording. Level 2 requires a good practical understanding of measure so help yourself by memorising metric to metric conversions eg 10mm equals 1 cm and do on.

Have a look at the IGCSE. It's not counted in state school performance measures (so not offered by state schools), but is certainly more "old style" maths questions, with less of the blurb.

I've recently done it and also English. Passed both first time but I'm really struggling with the level 2 IT which I've already failed twice.

I found the maths hard, I won't lie but then I'm horrendous at maths. I actually got quite emotional before I sat it as I just didn't understand pie charts etc. Couldn't get my head round it. Then there wasn't even that question in the bloody exam. It's luck of the draw!

I found the English a lot easier but funnily enough my maths result was higher!