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Sixth Form Maths

Sinque

Sinque

Sinque

Soldato
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I'm going to be going to a sixth form college, starting in september, and I've chosen to do Maths, Physics and Goverment and Politics. But for maths there are loads of different sections:

Maths - Pure & Mechanics
Maths - Pure & Statistics
Maths - Pure & Decision
Statistics
Further Mathematics (with Maths)

I'm not sure which to take but i'm thinking Pure & Mechanics or Further Maths. I've heard that Mechanics goes hand in hand with Physics but I'm not entirely sure.

I'm planning to go into the RAF to train as a pilot after college (possibly university) so I'd prefer my subjects to be revolved around that.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
 
Do Mechanics or Further.

Further is basically 'double maths'.

You'll do the entire A-Level maths course in one year, then more the next year.

When I did it, I did P1, P2, P3, M1, M2, S1 over two years as 'Maths'

Further Maths would have seen me do P4, P5, P6, M3, M4, D1/S2 as well.

P has been replaced with C now though, which works differently.

Only do Further Maths if you're good at Maths and like it :p

Otherwise, do Pure and Mechanics, because Mechanics will serve you better.
 
Pure + Mechanics will help lots with Physics and overlap in parts. Are you sure you can take Further Maths without doing another normal Maths on its own? I don't think that was allowed at my 6th form.
 
DB_SamX said:
Pure + Mechanics will help lots with Physics and overlap in parts. Are you sure you can take Further Maths without doing another normal Maths on its own? I don't think that was allowed at my 6th form.
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Generally the subject 'Further Maths' includes Maths and takes a double helping of time slots. That's how it was at my college, you didn't do Maths and Further, you just took Further and Maths was included in that.
 
Maths A level itself has to consist of: C1-4 and two applied modules (mechanics, stats etc.) and in my school you sit M1 and S1, there is no choice of maths with mechanics, or maths with stats.

Presumably pure and mechanics is:

Lower 6:
C1 C2 M1
Upper 6th:
C3 C4 M2

and pure and stats is:
C1 C2 S1
C1 C2 S1

Now M1 is really similar to physics, it's basically the same as one of the physics modules, only with some differentiation and integration thrown in.

M2 is harder stuff, which isn't done in physics.

S1 is boring, and not very hard, S2 is pretty hard, and even more boring.

Further maths with maths is two A levels:

Maths A level, and further maths A level.

Now in my school, if you want to do further maths, you take a maths A level in on year (lower 6th) and then a further maths A level in upper 6th.

Further maths is two (or more) pure modules (futher pure 1-4)
and 4 (or less if you use more pure modules, which you probably won't), further, applied modules (M2+ S2+ D1+)

In my wchool, if you take further maths, you take a LOT of exams in both the lower and upper 6th, so you choose which modules you take towards your final mark (you have to use C1-4 for maths, and at least 2 further pure modules for further)

Hope that helps
 
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A point to bear in mind is, you'll do the Mechanics modules within the Further course in all likelyhood.

Further won't be just Pure.

basically, with A Level Maths, you have to do Pure modules, then the colleges can decide how the other modules are made up. So for Maths, you have to do P1-3 and then I think another three. I did M1, M2 and S1. I assume seeing as you have to choose M, S or D, your extra three would be M1, M2 and M3.

Further Maths will double this to P1-6 and an extra 6 modules. Probably a mixture of M,S and D, ie. M1, M2, S1, S2, D1, D2 or something.

However, it all changed as I left, I dunno exactly how the Core (C) modules work vs the Pure (P) ones.
 
tsetstwu5.jpg


It looks like Mechanics is involved in Further
 
Yeah it will be.

Basically, The second year of further will be very hard in comparison to everything else you do at college. If you're very good at maths or enjoy it a lot, go for it. If not, you'd be best off with Pure + Mech imo.
 
divine` said:
Yeah it will be.

Basically, The second year of further will be very hard in comparison to everything else you do at college. If you're very good at maths or enjoy it a lot, go for it. If not, you'd be best off with Pure + Mech imo.
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Agreed.

Pure and mech for usefulness
Pure and decision for sheer ease (that said c 1-4 are difficult anyway)
 
Pure and Further maths will be very difficult. Lots to learn in a very short space of time, just incase you weren't aware. If you are a natural mathematician then I'm sure you will be fine.
 
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SimonTW said:
Pure and Further maths will be very difficult. Lots to learn in a very short space of time, just incase you weren't aware. If you are a natural mathematician then I'm sure you will be fine.
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How natural do you have to be? :p
 
For the normal 'Pure + Mech' course, not very at all, anyone can do it with a bit of effort.

Further, you'll struggle if you don't have a natural talent for it. If at GCSE, you can get an A* with minimal revision effort and time to spare in the exam, then you'll be grand. :p
 
PURE + MECHANICS.


Mechanics is the easy stuff out of physics. Further maths is basically 12modules, giving 2 A levels (at my school anyway). They are usually 6modules over the two years. Do you realise this? In the first year you do the entire Maths A-Level, then the second year you do another entire A level.


Our course we did:
C1
C2
C3
C4
M1
S1

M1 is easy beyond belief, same for S1, but that is horrific to do since it is mind numbingly boring. If you're doing Physics then Mechanics is the obvious choice as it will reinforce what you have learnt in both subjects, making it easier since you have less to learn in effect for all your subjects.
 
divine` said:
For the normal 'Pure + Mech' course, not very at all, anyone can do it with a bit of effort.

Further, you'll struggle if you don't have a natural talent for it. If at GCSE, you can get an A* with minimal revision effort and time to spare in the exam, then you'll be grand. :p
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Well I get A's with going to every single revision class possible, but I do that anyway just to make sure. So I guess I should stick to mechanics? :p
 
Well, for comparison, I got an A at GCSE (in 2003) with hardly any revision (and doing the entire course in Y11 because I did a separate Statistics GCSE in Y10 instead of Maths) and I had to work at the normal Maths, Further Maths would have been too much for me.
 
Yeah same. I got an A* maths and A* stats at GCSE and am fairly good at understanding everything. I got 285/300 on AS, but this year is very, very hard and I was getting 60% on the C3 mock.

I doubt I could do any more pure beyond C4 and still get an A, and I definitely couldn't in the year, given you'd be doing another 4 modules or more of pure.
 
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