A-level Advice

[MizzBex]

I'm in my first year of A levels and I do physics, chemistry, maths and further maths. Physics is not too hard, and I've got really good teachers for it which helps Chemistry and maths are ok aswell. I've found further maths quite hard, the further pure modules seem to have a lot to learn so far, but if you have a good knowledge of maths then it would be a good subject to take. I've also done decision 1, which is really easy, just certain things to memorize really.

[Kardan]

Im on my 2nd year now (AQA) and i pretty much agree with Chippie. In the first year we did Further Pure 1, Mechanics 2 and Decision 1. The only hard thing there was M2 and that was because of 1) the pace and 2) M2 is really ****** hard. So unless you're able to work A LOT or have a good understanding of mechanics (i have horrible understanding), it will bring your grade down.

2nd year is the rest of the FPs (FP2, FP3, FP4) and so far everything is pretty standard. They're quite complicated, but if you're good at maths and particularly core/calculus, you should be fine. There's nothing i've come across yet which wouldn't stick in my head if i practiced it.


Also just gonna reiterate the fact that you really have to do work outside the lesson. In my college, we only have 3 periods of Further Maths a week, whilst every other subject has 6. So you're having half the lesson time with a lot more work. So you have to do something outside of that.

oh, and good luck with physics. blegh.

For AQA Further I did FP1, S1 and D2 at AS and FP2, FP3 and FP4 at A2. Really wanted to do S2 and M2 over FP2 and FP3 (We did FP4 in January). Got A's in FP1, S1, D2 and FP4, and got D's in FP2 and FP3 to get me a B overall :| We also had less time for Further because of scheduling issues, although we only had 3 students in the class...

As for the topic on hand, Maths is pretty straight forward and routine. Physics you may have practical coursework depending on your exam board, I did. We also had half of an exam that was multiple choice questions (although the questions were actually pretty hard). I found the courseworks a lot harder than the exams, but luckily, the exams are worth a lot more. This was with AQA by the way

Geography I tried for a month and dropped simply because I was into wordy answers and writing essays in exams and Biology I never took because it clashed with Further Maths

[Mr-Trainor]

i'm a bit confused is additional maths an extra gcse or a-level? i've got a B, possible A in my normal maths GCSE so it should suffice?:S

Additional maths counts as an extra A Level. At my college you needed an A at GCSE maths to do it, so if you've only got a B then it'd be best to just to maths imo (I.e. not further maths).

[Rixion]

Additional maths counts as an extra A Level. At my college you needed an A at GCSE maths to do it, so if you've only got a B then it'd be best to just to maths imo (I.e. not further maths).

Ohh so Add Maths and Further are one in the same, well they must be because the college i'm going to requires B for Maths and A for Further, it's fine anyway since i'm not going to be going near Further anyhow!

[Nemo]

For AQA Further I did FP1, S1 and D2 at AS and FP2, FP3 and FP4 at A2. Really wanted to do S2 and M2 over FP2 and FP3 (We did FP4 in January). Got A's in FP1, S1, D2 and FP4, and got D's in FP2 and FP3 to get me a B overall :| We also had less time for Further because of scheduling issues, although we only had 3 students in the class...

As for the topic on hand, Maths is pretty straight forward and routine. Physics you may have practical coursework depending on your exam board, I did. We also had half of an exam that was multiple choice questions (although the questions were actually pretty hard). I found the courseworks a lot harder than the exams, but luckily, the exams are worth a lot more. This was with AQA by the way

Geography I tried for a month and dropped simply because I was into wordy answers and writing essays in exams and Biology I never took because it clashed with Further Maths

We've almost finished FP3 and have finished FP2, and i can assure you that M2 was WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY harder than both of them put together. Then again, you managed physics so you might have been ok. You certainly didn't miss out either way. We too, only have 3 people in the class, last year had 4 . TIS A PRETTY POPULAR SUBJECT EH?

[Kardan]

We've almost finished FP3 and have finished FP2, and i can assure you that M2 was WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY harder than both of them put together. Then again, you managed physics so you might have been ok. You certainly didn't miss out either way. We too, only have 3 people in the class, last year had 4 . TIS A PRETTY POPULAR SUBJECT EH?

I still would have preferred my chances at M2 I reckon, I got an A in Physics and an A in M1. A girl who took M2 for Further Maths AS in her own time got an A in it aswell, but the other 2 people in my class wanted to do FP2/FP3 over it, so I still blame them now, they got D's aswell