Is it possible to do Further Maths in a year if doing it with 2 Alevels you’re retaking

[Sprinkle5]

and 1 was maths Alevel which you had a B in?

DS has had an awful few years and was very unwell during his Alevels. He wants the grades he should have had in order to get into the unis he was aspiring to before.

Would it be ludicrous to try and do Further Maths in a year having not done it before alongside A level Maths (he’d like to get his B up to an A).His third Alevel would be Computer Science retake. He has a C in psycology but thinks doing further maths instead of retaking psycology with its essays would be easier.

Thoughts?

if he got a B in maths, he should be ok to do further maths. have to warn you though, it's not for the fainthearted. I did all science a levels + maths and further maths and it was definitely the most challenging one.

Hmmm some retaking psycology would be better instead.

depends on the courses he is aiming for at uni. and also I would suggest looking at the further maths curriculum to see how he feels about tackling it.

Worth contacting the departments at the universities he would like to attend to see what advice they give for the course he wants to take.

Many (if not most) students do further maths in a year anyway. At our school they do 'normal' A level in Y12 and Further Maths A Level in Y13.

It sounds like it might be doable, if his school or college does it the way @dootball describes. My DDs did maths and FM in parallel over 2 years so there it wouldn't have been possible.

He’d be doing it online.

It might be doable - at our local 6th form A levels that can be done in a year are Business, Psychology, FM (but only if 8s in GCSE Maths and 3 sciences) and English. If in his GCSEs he was much stronger in maths / science types subjects and weaker in essay ones FM might be the easier option. But if that isn't the case or he didn't get an 8 or 9 at gcse he might struggle with it. I would maybe look at content of both and see what he thinks. FM has a 50% drop out rate at the local school but the ones who do it find maths A level very easy then. If he wants a maths based degree it could make sense to do FM. I would also consider how well he can teach himself subjects if online and what he will work on, if he's more interested in FM and has the ability would veer towards that. Could he discuss with his former teachers?

Absolutely but will be a lot of work. My DS took up FM in year 12 in the February and had to catch up on the missed syllabus in his own time whilst learning the new content with the rest of the class. This was alongside 3 other A Level subjects.

FM hands down took the most of his time but like the previous poster said as he lived and breathed maths it helped his regular maths at the same time.

No. If he struggled to get a B in maths he'll really struggle to pass the further maths part. Do a different science A or AS instead. A large part of it is organisation and workload, much more so than for other subjects

A lot of schools have students do Maths in the first year and then Further Maths in the second year so Further Maths in one year is definitely doable.

However, If he only got a B in single Maths doing it over two years he will find Further Maths incredibly hard and is very unlikely to get a high grade and may not even pass. Further Maths builds on single Maths. All of our Further Maths students get A stars in their single Maths (in one year) and then even some of them struggle with Further Maths.

Retaking psychology would be far easier than doing Further Maths

You could consider physics rather than further maths - there is a lot of overlap with the mechanics side of the maths course.

Is he doing it online with a school, like interhigh, or on his own using a programme like Uplearn?

My son has also been very ill during his alevel years and is repeating a year so I know the frustration. The goal shouldn’t be to get the grades he otherwise should have got (that ship has sailed) but to get grades to go to the next step. There are loads of courses from very good universities in clearing this year, with a letter explaining his circumstances he might be able to move forward with his BBC. Once he has his degree his alevel grades will be a lot less significant.

If he is applying for a competitive course, doing 4 a levels over 3 years will not be viewed the same as doing it in 2 years, especially with resits.
I would also be very wary of the FM.

If you have evidence of ill health, especially if he needed a lot of time off, the universities will take that into account. If you can get a letter form the GP or consultant you can use that as evidence for exceptional circumstances.