The transition from GCSE to AS/A Level Maths

desires said:
Economics is watered down Financial mathematics.
Click to expand...

Yes this is very true. It really depends what type of economics you want to get in to eventually.

Economics degrees can also come in two flavours - a BA and Bsc.

Physics degrees are of high value to employers. The reasoning and 'transferable skills' you get are very good. I've known of a few maths/physics PhDers to go in to finance after.

Most of what you learn at uni you'll probably never use again outside of academic/research orientated careers. It's about doing what interests you as you're doing it for a few years and the 'skills' you pick up in reasoning, thought process etc.

Even doing an economics degree to go in to economics doesn't really 'prepare' you for real world economics usage. It certainly aids you in some aspects but a physics graduate could no doubt pick up what's needed and has already demonstrated the capacity to do so and will (assuming an interest in it).

I have a friend from undergrad who did joint maths and economics. He then did an economics masters. He said the maths helped him more than the economics undergrad for the masters. He now has a job for the 'centre for social and economics research' or something like that. He said it's pretty dumbed down economics/maths (uses excel lol) and only uses a little of what he learnt and it's more about the job itself, but nevertheless it's given him the 'right way of thinking'.
 
Last edited:
I got a 3 in Standard Grade, and completely bombed the credit papers.

I'm not doing Higher maths self study and it's not really that bad at all. You just need to do a lot of it until you get it down, and the amount you need to do varies for each person. So long as you have an interest in it, you WILL be fine.
 
I got a B in GCSE Maths and I tried doing an intensive Maths A-level over one academic year. It was designed for people resitting exams but I was optimistic that I could do it. Every Tuesday was a solid 9-5 of Maths. P1, S1 and M1 were fine, I would have made a decent AS grade out of it, but P2, P3 and S2 were a lot trickier due to the short amount of time to commit everything to memory (we didn't start P3 until well past Easter). I did well in the lessons and could answer every question in the text books, but once exams came the questions were completely different and I flunked the A2 exams and came out with nothing. That was 10 years ago and since then I've got a first class honours degree, but to this day A level Maths still haunts me. The issue I had was learning how to answer specific questions but not learning things from first principles - you may need additional text books as the ones we had in class were useless for that.
 
I got a B in maths at GCSE in '99 and went on to get a B at A-level. It was hard, I had to work for it as I'm not naturally that good at maths, but it was certainly doable. Don't shy away from things that may be difficult.

Buy KA Stroud - Engineering Mathematics and work through it from start to finish and you could **** all over an alevel exam without any one to o e teaching. The book really is that good.
 
Last edited:
Ricochet J said:
Sociology is watered down psychology.
Psychology is watered down biology.
Biology is watered down chemistry.
Chemistry is watered down physics.
Physics is watered down maths.

Everything is watered down. :p
Click to expand...

Nitefly said:
And then there is geography, which is part sociology, part psychology, part biology, part chemistry, part physics, part maths, part philosophy and part art *frantically colours in*.
Click to expand...

These posts are epic :D
 
Has the OP stated anywhere that he wants to read economics at Uni? I can't see it, but the above bickering suggests he might have.

Maths is critically important or entirely irrelevant depending on what you end up doing. Engineering or economics, yeah, if you're not good at maths you won't be able to cope. HIstory? Probably not a big problem.

There may be something to be said for forcing yourself through A level maths, even if you find it difficult, as the basic skills it provides will be useful occasionally in later life. At the least, knowing what a percentage is helps with tax.

A degree in physics from Cambridge is a good answer to most things, one from Oxford isn't worth the paper it's scribbled on (I failed a physics degree at Cam :( ).
 
I struggled to be honest.

I did GCSE Maths and got a B (top grade for the level I took). Did AS level Math with a private tutor (2hrs per week). I failed my first year of AS, and re-took the following year and got a C.

However, the college I attended treated me terribly, and I had a huge lack of motivation because of this.
 
So here is my experience from 20 years ago. I started off doing 4 A-levels, the 3 sciences and maths. I only took maths as I was told I would never pass the other ones without it . After one term it became clear that I did not enjoy doing the maths and so I dropped it. I went on to get 3 A at A-level and went to university to study Biological Chemistry.
I ended up having to do an additional module in my first year to cover maths for chemists but not having A level maths had very little bearing on my university degree.
 
I got a B in gcse Maths and thought I was alright at it. Dropped out of AS level maths because I suddenly had no idea what anyone was talking about and even with all the extra lessons i went to i still had no clue
 
In my opinion the jump from GCSE to A-Levels is the biggest jump in difficulty you will ever come across. I didn't do too well with my A-Level Maths, P4-6 were horrific especially as I was taking further Maths on my own with the teacher, so things became a bit too intense for me to deal with at that age. However, it is very important for you to get good grades at A-Level, even more so than people realise. With my poorer results at A-Levels I still find it hard to get a job even with a first class Masters of Physics and a Ph.D. in quantum physics, in interviews I always get asked why I did so badly at that level.

Also remember these forums are frequented by people who can answer any Maths questions you have - as long you have tried to work the answer out and don't just expect us to answer it (and do your homework) for you!
 
I got an A at GCSE and then failed AS miserably, and I really do mean miserably, I think I got about 3 marks in one of the exams...

It wasn't exactly a period of my life I'm particularly proud of though, I ended up with one C grade AS level to my name. I think it either clicks, or it doesn't. I never paid enough attention to grasp the basics, and very soon you're using that basic knowledge to do more complex stuff, which I had no idea about, and I didn't bother to man up and admit I was completely out of my depth.
 
I found GCSE Maths a breeze despite not being a natural for it, and took my A with pride. I'd always planned to do the A level, not originally for myself but for my parents who were of the belief that Maths was the best A level you could have. I wouldn't dispute that today and I don't regret their attitude at all.

The jump was significant. The teacher who I'd dismissed became an intricate tome of advanced algebra and mechanics. Got my first mechanics exam back and it was an E. It made me almost physically ill, never had I gotten such a mark in my life. It drove me, I had extra tuition and pulled my socks up. I got a C at the end of it, which I'm proud of. It's not the best mark, but the value is what it represents for me.
 
Dr Delphi said:
In my opinion the jump from GCSE to A-Levels is the biggest jump in difficulty you will ever come across. I didn't do too well with my A-Level Maths, P4-6 were horrific especially as I was taking further Maths on my own with the teacher, so things became a bit too intense for me to deal with at that age. However, it is very important for you to get good grades at A-Level, even more so than people realise. With my poorer results at A-Levels I still find it hard to get a job even with a first class Masters of Physics and a Ph.D. in quantum physics, in interviews I always get asked why I did so badly at that level.

Also remember these forums are frequented by people who can answer any Maths questions you have - as long you have tried to work the answer out and don't just expect us to answer it (and do your homework) for you!
Click to expand...


I would post maths questions on here, but from seeing some of the maths questions posted, my questions may seem a bit silly. But nonetheless, I guess it's good to know that there are people willing to help myself and others, so I may post a couple when I'm stuck during revision.
 
I got a B in GCSE maths and I did no revision for the exams as far as I can remember. I then started AS Maths and got a U, since I did no revision and soon fell behind with the content. After a year working full time, I now do a btec and teach myself A-Level maths all in one year and achieving grade B so far. The point is, your GCSE grade is highly inaccurate when predicting what you will get in the a-level, it is all down to effort and practising everything in the course.

With regards to difficulty, I initially found C1 very difficult, but soon it made sense just by practising questions in the book, the step up to C2 is really not that bad. C3 and C4 are not that much more difficult, just slightly trickier. I found the trig in C3 very difficult because of the formulas you need to know but everyone is different.
 
I got a C in GCSE maths. I was one of three people from a class of 24 who went on to do A2 maths (I don't know what grades they got overall), and I got a B in it overall in it. I'm pretty proud of that, mostly because I got that grade primarily just through working really hard at it - I didn't have any extra tuition, in fact in my second year I was only getting 1 hour of teaching every other week for a while, and we started at the end of October.
 
Tingle said:
I would post maths questions on here, but from seeing some of the maths questions posted, my questions may seem a bit silly. But nonetheless, I guess it's good to know that there are people willing to help myself and others, so I may post a couple when I'm stuck during revision.
Click to expand...

Tingle if you think its a bit too simple to post, then feel free to send me a message through Trust and I'll have a look at it for you. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom