The transition from GCSE to AS/A Level Maths

Ha, sixform, never understood why someone would elect a school over a FE college.

Round my way (Havering/ Essex) sixforms are rated highely compared to the FE colleges. FE Colleges are like failed Universities, overing 'BTECs' and 'national diplomas'.

Do well at GCSE, you go sixform, do meh, FE college.
 
Yep, i'm of the opinion that maths or sciences aren't particularly hard you just need to put effort into it. If you don't work for it you don't get it, which (unfortunately shows in my past as I was a lazy bugger. I did no self directed study, except for a couple hours the day before the exams) for reference I got an A for GCSE maths, and a B for A-Levels.

I'd argue uni is easier in the sense that you'll have chosen an area that interests you the most, so the effort to do it is less.
 
Round my way (Havering/ Essex) sixforms are rated highely compared to the FE colleges. FE Colleges are like failed Universities, overing 'BTECs' and 'national diplomas'.

Do well at GCSE, you go sixform, do meh, FE college.

Round here sixform is where you go if you were too thick to get into a FE college to do your A levels or for some inexplicable reason wanted to wear a school uniform and do full days of lessons for another 2 years.

Different strokes for different folks I suppose.
 
Round here sixform is where you go if you were too thick to get into a FE college to do your A levels or for some inexplicable reason wanted to wear a school uniform and do full days of lessons for another 2 years.

Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

Yes, exact opposite. My sixform didn't have uniform, come and go when you please. It was laid out like school, 7 periods a day, but you had frees throughout the week and wednesday afternoons off (when the sports teams had fixtures).

Was suppose to be readying you for Uni life..
 
Yes, exact opposite. My sixform didn't have uniform, come and go when you please. It was laid out like school, 7 periods a day, but you had frees throughout the week and wednesday afternoons off (when the sports teams had fixtures).

Was suppose to be readying you for Uni life..

My college you basically had lectures spread out through the day and outside of that the slightly dodgey pub that served underagers was where you went, or just home to "study" or hang out with friends or whatever.

Pretty much like university except way easier.
 
My college you basically had lectures spread out through the day and outside of that the slightly dodgey pub that served underagers was where you went, or just home to "study" or hang out with friends or whatever.

Pretty much like university except way easier.

Oh yea we had a local pub that did the same, come 11am i was there playing pool with my mates. If we could be asked to peel ourselfs away from Cod 4 or wow...

... or we would meet up and play 99 lives Super Smash Bros.

Oh the college days.

Economics, Maths, Physics, PE... shouldn't have taken it so lightly.
 
As i'd always tell others:

Mate of mine got straight A's at A level, don't think he managed an A at GCSE.

How? Hard work. Be organised, ask questions and seek help when you need it. Keep at it and want to succeed or you quite simply won't.

A* is extremely good at A level. Now, get drunk. ;)
 
I've got another year at sixth form yet, we just did as and a2 maths all this year, so now we've got as and a2 further maths next year! :eek: :p

Didn't stop the planning for Uni / Gap Year / Work... in fact, you should be applying now for certain courses e.g. Medicine!
 
Got an A in GCSE and finished AS level maths on my engineering course.

As soon as you hit calculus you may struggle but if you concentrate and take damn good notes then you'll be fine
 
Didn't stop the planning for Uni / Gap Year / Work... in fact, you should be applying now for certain courses e.g. Medicine!

Been looking through all the Uni's and their courses for the past few months, luckily I'm not in early entry so I have a bit of extra time to finish my personal statement :p
 
I'm worried about my future. I wish to go to university after sixth form, but I've noticed that many top universities want A Level maths and this is where my problems lies... At present, I'm getting solid Bs and low As on occasion in GCSE maths. From what I've heard, C1 AS Maths is 'easy' or at least easier than the rest of the syllabus so I'd hope to get through that. But from there, apparently it gets quite hard and you either 'get it' or you don't. For this reason, I've selected use of maths as one of my options, but I honestly don't feel that use of maths will be able to match the value of having an AS/A Level in mathematics.

If I achieve a B in GCSE maths, I can still do maths at A Level but I'll have to attend extra lessons (which I'm not complaining about; it will benefit me), but do you think that will be enough to get me through the course? I understand that you need to have a positive approach to maths (which I do). The reason I'm finding it hard to break from a B to an A at GCSE level is because, at the moment we're just revising what we've already been through which is enough to get me a B, but doesn't secure me an A. So now I've just went through a bunch of past papers, found the questions I can't do and will then ask for help as to how to answer them in my maths class.


TL;DR
Has anybody got any stories to share of their transition from GCSE to A level maths? What was your GCSE grade in maths, and what did you/are you attaining in AS/A Level maths? Was it difficult, did you pay for a private tutor on top of revising etc?

Any help, opinions and thoughts would be appreciated!

I got a B in GCSE maths and did A-Level maths from '99-'01 when A-Levels were slightly harder than they are now, but still not as hard as in the early to mid 90's. I've seen recent papers, a bit noddy.

I was told not to expect much, no one had ever acheived higher than a C in A-Level at my 6th form having only managed a 'lowly' B at GCSE. After year one I managed to get predicted D/E for maths.... I applied to uni and was required to get a B in maths for entry. I then decided to worked harder on maths than the other subjects, hammered out a load of past papers, asked more questions and got a bit more help and ended up with a B, so all was good. I'm not naturally that gifted at maths, but I know more than enough to do my job. I'm an engineer.

Tha'll be reet.

EDIT - This is an ancient thread.......
 
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I'm worried about my future. I wish to go to university after sixth form, but I've noticed that many top universities want A Level maths and this is where my problems lies... At present, I'm getting solid Bs and low As on occasion in GCSE maths. From what I've heard, C1 AS Maths is 'easy' or at least easier than the rest of the syllabus so I'd hope to get through that. But from there, apparently it gets quite hard and you either 'get it' or you don't. For this reason, I've selected use of maths as one of my options, but I honestly don't feel that use of maths will be able to match the value of having an AS/A Level in mathematics.

If I achieve a B in GCSE maths, I can still do maths at A Level but I'll have to attend extra lessons (which I'm not complaining about; it will benefit me), but do you think that will be enough to get me through the course? I understand that you need to have a positive approach to maths (which I do). The reason I'm finding it hard to break from a B to an A at GCSE level is because, at the moment we're just revising what we've already been through which is enough to get me a B, but doesn't secure me an A. So now I've just went through a bunch of past papers, found the questions I can't do and will then ask for help as to how to answer them in my maths class.


TL;DR
Has anybody got any stories to share of their transition from GCSE to A level maths? What was your GCSE grade in maths, and what did you/are you attaining in AS/A Level maths? Was it difficult, did you pay for a private tutor on top of revising etc?

Any help, opinions and thoughts would be appreciated!

I was the millennium year which meant that I was the test for the 'no calculator' GCSE maths paper 2, and the new A/S and A2 levels.

I was in the lowest grade mathematics class at Secondary School, yet came out with an A*, putting me joint top with a genius girl.

At College, my first AS level Maths exam (Core 1) I actually failed. I resat it a few months later with the second lot of exams (Stats 1 and Mechanics 1) and got an A in it, but a C in stats and and a B in Mech.
From there my grades declined, leaving me with ultimately an overall C at A2 level which I had to absolutely slave over to attain. I also had a tutor for Maths who I would see twice a week to help me.

Mathematics and Physics were synergistically related as, I imagine Chemistry and Biology would be related to Maths too. If you covered it in Maths, the chances are that you'd struggle with it again in the other Science, or alternatively, find it easy.

I did 2 arts and 2 sciences, and the Sciences were bloody tough. The Arts were a comparable walk in the park.
 
Looks like I forgot to update this for 2015.

Still going strong, got a first for my 1st year of Actuarial Science and won a few scholarships for academic excellence, including one that covers my tuition fees.

Moral of this entire thread so far: Put a little more effort in to your studies and it should be worth it in the end.
 
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