Level 2 Further Maths or Additional Maths AS Level ???

[Cratos]

Hi All,

I wondered if I could ask a couple of questions please ? My son is in Year 11 and he will study Maths and Further Maths A levels.
We are a little confused about Level 2 Further Maths and Additional Maths.

We are trying to decide which one we should request from his Secondary school to stretch his Math skills and which one would be best for him.

Does Further Maths bring Ucas points like any GCSE would ? (Perhaps not as high as a GCSE?)

Would Secondary schools offer Additional Maths ? I am asking since it is an A / AS level qualification. Or would Colleges offer Additional maths ?

Thank you very much

Some secondary schools offer Further Maths GCSE to their most able maths students. Some don't. If your school doesn't routinely offer this, they are unlikely to agree to offer it just for your child.

I'd suggest the conversation to have is how the most able maths students will be challenged during Year 11. I really wouldn't worry about UCAS points. He'll get university offers based on his A Levels.

We are trying to decide which one we should request from his Secondary school to stretch his Math skills and which one would be best for him.

What do you mean request from his school? Surely his school offers it or not?

FM is a level 2 qualification and does not attract UCAS points

Add maths is a level 3 qualification and does attract UCAS points (it's not an AS, it's less than that), but a kid who is going to study maths and FM A-level really shouldn't be worried about UCAS points in Y11 from an add-on maths course.

Thank you very much for your advice. Actually we asked the school despite the fact that they don't normally offer it and they accepted our request for Further Maths so we are grateful but at that stage we didn't know about Additional Maths and we were wondering if Additional Maths would be a better request.

Better for what?

I don't think there's a lot to choose between them, for the purposes of stretching a year 11, and there's a fair amount of overlap. Go with whichever the school is happier with (because they've taught it before/have the textbooks/whatever).

The exception might be if your son will move to a sixth form in a school where one of them is routinely taught to the top year 11 set, in which case it might be easier to be starting off with the same prior knowledge as everyone else. However in most sixth forms there will be a mix of those who have done neither or either, and it just means some have a head start on some topics. DD's further maths set has one who did each, and two who have come in from abroad: I think most topics in year 12 began with "who has seen this before?", and they seem to manage fine.

UCAS points get mentioned a lot, but in reality most offers are given in terms of grades.

@lanthanum thank you very much for the helpful advice. Our school is actually not routinely offering these options. My son will prepare for them on his own but he will have the exams at school. His school is booking the exam for him. He did a language GCSE in Year 10 like this as well.

Thank you very much for taking time to write back to us and for the helpful insight. His school doesn't offer these options but they agreed for him to take the exams at school. He finds GCSE Maths too easy and he would like to stretch his skills and study something more challenging.
We were trying to understand which of these options would prepare him better for A Level Maths and A Level Further Maths at College (and also giving him an advantage for Uni applications).
My eldest has struggled with Further Maths A Level at College although he had 9 from his GCSE Maths and A from his A Level Maths.

My DD did the level 3 additional maths and the foreign language both self taught but entered via school. The level 3 I think she gets 20 UCAS points for. She found it fine to self teach and felt she was learning whereas when she tried the Further Maths GCSE she found it easy and I think she said overlapping a bit and she didn't take that one in the end. The only thing is it was lots of exams and Add Maths is the very last one, think it was 1 exam. If he is strong in maths, good at self teaching, can cope with exam pressure then it's useful but it's definitely not essential and DD said her 6th form discourage it. DD started FM A level and dropped it and there is about a 50% drop out rate for that subject, which I think is maybe the highest drop out rate of any subject, mainly as she didn't enjoy it. She is aiming at joint Economics degrees so the Add Maths will help a bit with that. Her school did allow other very bright students to enter and self teach and some results were poor and probably the worst that child had so you do need to be confident they can self teach. She didn't find the workload bad at all but she loves maths.

@Silkiebunny that is very interesting. Thank you for sharing. Did your DD complete Level 3 Additional Maths when she was in Year 11 at Secondary school ?
As you say there are lots of exams when they are in year 11 and Year 13 and it shouldn't put other subjects at risk.

Yes was y11 and she did 12 GCSEs plus the level 3 Add Maths, changed schools end y10, I was having chemotherapy at same time but she pulled it off. But it does require a lot of self motivation and ability to teach self. I think it was something like 33 exams she had, it was a crazy amount. If yours managed to self teach the language fine, he might well be fine, and if he like self teaches for ukmt then should be ok if workload and stress is manageable. My DS is same intelligence but not self motivated.

@Silkiebunny well done to your daughter. That is an amazing achievement especially when you were going through a difficult period. Hope you are all fine now. I am not sure if my DS has that much self motivation. Perhaps we should stay with just Further Maths. Thank you for sharing your insight.

I don't think the extra qualification in year 11 will give any advantage for uni applications other than them being better prepared for A-level. Unis will be well aware that whether applicants have done an extra maths qualification in year 11 is basically down to whether their school offered it. If anything, it suggests that they are probably not in need of a contextual offer on grounds of their school background!

Thanks Cratos.

DDs school is one that qualifies for contextual offers.

Actually maybe it's not offers it's contextualised GCSE results she gets.

And in our case the school did not offer it, it agreed to enter DD and she was only entry. But she changed schools end y10 and first school offered it to brightest mathematicians, about top 10, but results went from A to U. DD found it needed minimal work but she did a lot of ukmt comps and had started A level maths in GCSE lessons.