Further maths….is it worth it?

[GoodnightJude1]

DD15 got a 7 in her maths mocks and has been invited to do the further maths certificate. Her teacher said that most students that do this manage to up their grade to an 8/9 in the GCSE.

DD used to love maths and is pretty good at it and had planned on doing it as one of her A levels at 6th form. She has since changed her mind and wants to do Eng Lit, Psychology and Philosophy. So she’s now thinking it may not be worth the extra work to do further maths if she’s not going to do it at A level.

What do you think? Obviously it’s her choice and I would never make her do it if she feels she’d rather have more time to concentrate on the subjects she wants to do.

Thanks for any advice!

It's worth doing because it really reinforces the grade 7/8/9 topics and makes it more likely your DD will do well in her maths gcse.

@Octavia64 Thanks for answering!

Is there lots more work? I think that’s what DD is concerned about that she’ll end up with so much Maths revision that she won’t have time to concentrate on the other subjects.

Most of the work is the same topics as harder work at gcse just taken a bit further if that makes sense.

So for example at the normal gcse they do expending brackets, up to two terms, in the further maths gcse they do expending brackets up to three terms.

So yes more work, but overlap with the normal gcse is nearly 100%.

Depends how fussed she is about doing well in maths.

If she was going for A level maths it would be an obvious yes (it makes the step up so much easier) but if she doesn't want A level maths or science it may not be worth it - is she the kind of person to get stressed about overloading?

At my DD’s school it was offered to top set, it’s an hour after school once a week so quite light? I think the curriculum is covered in one year, so in Y11 they’ve just been revising.

@Octavia64 She is quite stressy by nature but a very hard worker, very organised and I know she’d put all the effort in that’s needed. I suppose I’m just worried that if she doesn’t do it she may not achieve her full potential but if she does do it, it may take away time that she could put in to her other subjects. She got all 7/8/9 in her mocks so is doing well across the board.

@WarningOfGails yes, it’s the same at DD school, 1 hour after school once a week. I think she’s worried that the work may become too difficult and then she’ll struggle keeping up with that and everything else.

At my school they have the option to drop out at any point.

Probably only about half of them end up taking it but the extra hour after school basically takes care of your maths revision.

@Octavia64

Thats good to know. I’ll check with her teacher if she would be able to ‘give it up’ if it good too much.

Thanks for your help!

Maths A-Level keeps so many options open in the future - and it's a very well respected A-Level too.

Whereas Philosophy.... Hmmm....

@JaffaCake24 She always wanted to do Maths A level….we visited 3 of our local 6th forms and she was set on Maths. Then she had a taster day at the 6th form connected to her secondary school and she did Philosophy (for a whole hour 🙄) and came home with a new found love of all things related to philosophy!
I would rather she do Maths but she’s a sensible, hard working girl and I feel I’ve got to let her make this choice herself.

we are in wales so might be slightly different but they now do 2 whole maths GCSEs - the top set did both of these in year 10 and then spent year 11 doing additional maths GCSE so DS now has 3 whole maths GCSE's and is now doing Maths and Further maths A-levels.

I think it's pretty worthwhile, provided too much time doesn't get spent on it. Also not worth stressing about the grade, eg say an 8 in regular maths and a 5 in further would imo equate to a strong 8 overall in 'gcse maths'