If your DC is doing further maths at a super-selective sixth form ...

[mozzybite]

... did they make the y12 mock ridiculously difficult?

My DC said theirs was like the hardest final question from every A level paper ever, all put on one paper, plus at least one question that went beyond the syllabus. He said several students were in tears, and even the Oxbridge most-likelies thought it was ridiculously difficult.

DC is pragmatic - knows that if everyone found it hard, the results will be scaled to take that into account, but it sounds like some of the others were a bit knocked out by it.

I think it's a combo of:

• they want to shock them into working harder;
• they expect them to love hard maths;
• they want to frighten anyone not in line for an A or A-star into either dropping FM at the end of y12 or opting for the AS option instead.

Not for the faint-hearted though. 😬

Ds did A1 in the first year, so like a full maths A level then the FM syllabus in yr 13.

Teacher.

We didn't do this as standard. Past paper questions put together with a range of difficulties.

Each school will be different though - we wanted to hang on to our further mathematicians to keep the course viable.

But it was still Covid so different.

Yup, that's the sad thing about it. Everyone on the FM course at this school got a 9 for GCSE, and would be near-top of FM classes at many other schools, so it seems wasteful of their talent to scare them off.

Does the school argue that they have to do it in order to be able to differentiate the super bright, the super super bright and the super super super bright. I know it is FM but one or two will still find it annoyingly easy.

hardest final question from every A level paper ever A level is a knowledge based exam and does not have hardest question.

Maybe your DS just found it hard because it’s different from GCSE maths but he thought it would be the same but a little bit harder?

😂A-level Maths is mostly about applying logic and problem solving. While it does require a wide range of subject knowledge the papers most definitely have some harder/more complex questions than others

We would put a range of questions on the paper but I've come across some maths teachers that seem to take pleasure from putting their students through the ringer. It does mean they cope with the final exam better though (it will probably feel a lot easier!)

My son is Y13 in a selective private sixth form (not sure it's super-selective though) and has sat 2 FM papers so far with 2 to go. He didn't do great in his mocks in January for who knows what reason but he has said that on the 2 papers he has sat already the mock was probably accurate in terms of level even though he thought it was very hard at the time. I think FM is just hard and you need to keep plugging away at it relentlessly to be in with a chance of the top grades!

For context, they do an accelerated course at his school where they do the Maths A-level in one year (y12) and the FM A-level in one year (y13) so he already has an A* in Maths and is decent at the subject. I just think FM is a whole different beast!

Good luck to your son.

Yep, I think that's the motivation. Apparently one if the maths teachers was invigilating and gave a comedy evil snigger as he looked through the paper.

9 for maths GCSE doesn't necessarily mean you will find A Level maths and FM easy. It's one subject where notoriously there is a huge jump in needed knowledge/understanding.

It makes sense at a super selective to include the hardest questions on the A Level paper - frankly the students should be churning through the easy ones without having to think too much, so it's arguably a waste of their time.

Also remember that, unlike other A Levels, the syllabus gets more challenging as you go along and Year 13 will be harder than Year 12.
Does the school insist on 4 A Levels if you take FM? I'm wondering if they are trying to weed out the ones that will struggle to get A* in the A Level (as this is a super selective with stellar results to protect) so they can "encourage" them to drop FM?

(An anecodote for you. I was a bit of a maths whizz at school but one of our Year 12 maths exams was so hard that I only got 65% having never got less than 90% on any maths paper before. It did spur me on to work harder in my final year and, undoubtedly helped me when studying university maths as I hadn't otherwise found school maths remotely challenging. Which might be another reason that schools throw in hard exam papers).

@redskydarknight"Does the school insist on 4 A Levels if you take FM? I'm wondering if they are trying to weed out the ones that will struggle to get A-star in the A Level (as this is a super selective with stellar results to protect) so they can "encourage" them to drop FM?"

Yes, exactly this. They have no shortage of further maths students (3 classes, so around 90) and they do have conversations about taking a step back with students at the lower end of the cohort.

In the past the school did maths in y12 and further maths in y13. They stopped doing the maths exam in y12 when one uni (Cambridge?) said they would only consider fourth A levels if they were all taken at the same time. So then for a while they did both exams in y13 and anyone who did badly in their y12 mocks had to repeat the course rather than doing the FM. However now they do both subjects in parallel, with the option to switch to AS FM if struggling.

But their definition of struggling is skewed by their cohort and the pace they learn at.