OCR Free Standing Maths Qualification (FSMQ)

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My child has been offered the opportunity to study the OCR FSMQ. Has anyone's child done this - is it worth it?

DD did this a few years ago. She had to teach herself the content as it wasn’t offered at her school. She enjoyed it (but she loves Maths!) and found it a really useful stepping stone to A level Maths.

My daughter is sitting the paper on 18th June. It covers a lot of the first year of A’level, so it’s very useful if they want to take A’level maths. At my daughter’s school, approx half the year sit the exam. She’s really enjoyed it. Top mark is an A.

I agree, my eldest also found it a good stepping stone to A level, although A level work was still a clear step up.

We tried AQA futher math and OCR FSMQ with two children.

AQA futher math is easy and helps with A level math , I recommend if he is doing A level math as it helps as he will find first couple month of A level easier.

OCR FSMQ was really hard , the boy got really low mark while he achieved 9 in math gcse in the same year . also google OCR Fsmq it is equivalent of A level (it is level 3 ).
we learned the hard way that not everything the school recommend we need to listen to, As he spent long time on OCR (the book is huge) . He could used that time to lift his other gcse subject.

Our daughter has been very lucky & her school have really prepared her well. She finds maths easy, so the jump hasn’t been too much for her. 🤞🏻she’s taking maths & further maths A’levels.

To answer the OP’s specific question, it is worth it if your kid loves maths, but not if they don’t.

My ds did this, he found it very useful as a precursor to A level , sort of gave him a turbo boost into A level content . He did find it a real step up from the GCSE content but all of the top set maths did it at his school, so to be honest it was the norm. The other slight issue was that it meant that apart from the people doing obscure languages the maths people finished their GCSEs last as it tend to be after the end of GCSEs ( only by a few days)

Also he has always enjoyed maths but is not a scientific mathematician. He got a 9 at GCSE , a B in FSMQ and an A at maths A level but his other A levels were arts subjects so I think you don’t need to be a maths whizz and if you are planing non maths A levels ( ie not physics or FM) it’s a good confidence boost and a grounding.

OCR Fsmq it is equivalent of A level (it is level 3 )

Of course not, there are different Level 3 qualifications, music grade 6, for example. OCR FSMQ is level 3 certificate, not equivalent to A level. Both AS and A level are Level 3 qualifications, by the way.

I think its more equivalent to the old AO qualification

Just as an update, she will be doing the FSMQ. She's predicted high marks in all her subjects and is a UKMT gold award type. She was shocked that I thought she wouldn't want to do it or that it might be too much.

They go into school at 8am for the extra class and the school pulls them out if their other grades suffer and they can also do all the classes without sitting the exam. So if she's happy to get up at stupid o'clock, I'm happy to let her go for it.

Good luck to her . I hope she enjoys it and do well .

My DD did this though was self taught, she got an A, but there were quite variable results amongst the others who were also getting 9s at GCSE.

Quite a few do it in my DC's school - they don't have an extra lesson though, they cover it in normal maths lessons. They can drop out before the exam if they've found it too challenging.

Yes about half the pupils at dcs grammar school do it.It is taught in normal lessons and most get top grade.