A level Maths - will all the top grades be taken by those doing Further Maths?

[kittybelle]

Ds thinking about Maths for A level - but worried that top grades will be out of reach if he is competing alongside others who do FM as well. Is this the case?

He is at a grammar was in 3rd Maths set (of 4 so 2nd lowest) and got an A. We havent spoken to the school yet about ds specifically - but at the A level selection talks earlier in the year - the Maths head said the subject is really tough - and just because you have an A does not mean that will cope or do well at A level - and demanded that the boys have a very frank "look you in the eye" conversation about their specific ability. Do you think this is a bit OTT?

I have looked at the A level syllabus and seems most is "pure maths" what does this mean...?

At the grammar where DS is just about to start 6th form, A level Maths is taken in the first year and then Further Maths in the second.

Like many of,the above posters, he has been warned how,hard it will be......

When I asked the Head of 6th Form for the best piece of advice he said,that whilst with GCSEs it is possible to revise for a couple of months earlier, for A levels you have to revise and work hard continuously.

I'm so glad I'm not 16........

My DS got an A at GCSE maths, and then a C for AS, and an A for A2 !

Mindgone Thats very encouraging. My DD1 just got a solid B for AS and was a bit disappointed it wasn't an A - so hope for her yet. Also an A at GCSE.

Re the further maths comments about Unis not recognising it as a separate subject. I thought the issue was when maths A2 taken in yr12 it may not be counted in the offer for some of the higher Unis as they want to see 3 in one sitting. So if not dropping an AS, the 3 in yr13 would include FM, which may not be as high a grade as the maths.

Those taking FM at DDs school take AS and A2 maths modules in yr12. not sure why they do it this way, as understand that only C1 and C2 are pre-requisites for the AS further (FP?) modules, so would be just as well continuing with these in yr12 rather than C3 and C4.

In the main, universities do now recognise that a full further maths A level taken in year 13 is equivalent in difficulty to maths A2 + further maths A2 done in year 13 these days, though it has been a problem in the past, and may well still be in a few places.

The advantage of doing C3 and C4 in year 12 is if you want to start preparing for STEP (Cambridge + Warwick extra difficult entrance papers) earlier. Until you have covered the C3 and C4 work you are quite a bit more limited in which STEP questions you can tackle, so I think doing them in year 12 gives those candidates more time to practice STEP.

Further maths is definitely a full A level (unless only taken to AS level). I think UCL only like it as a fourth A2 for their medicine offers simply because they want to see more breadth of subjects from their applicants, rather than that they don't accept it as a full A level. Cambridge recognise that for able mathematicians maths + further maths isn't as high a workload as two different subjects but I don't think even they have a firm requirement for the fourth A2 although they do note it is useful to take a fourth for some subjects if it's available.

I think the concern is that if you are offering three A levels, double maths does not provide much breadth. It simply says you are good at maths. Probably fine if you want to study maths, but if you want to study an applied subject (medicine, economics etc) some Universities will want to see two other subjects alongside the maths.

And in fairness if you are good at maths, double maths is not nearly as heavy a workload as say, two essay subjects or even art.

Circular, I'm glad if that helps to reassure you. He re took C1 and C2 in year 13 and improved his marks enormously, getting full marks for one, and nearly for the other. He says that these two are really difficult in Y12, but so much easier after you've done C3 and C4! Best of luck for your DD.