Doing Further maths privately

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dreamfactory
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Joined: Fri Feb 14, 2014 11:07 am

Doing Further maths privately

Post by dreamfactory »

Dear parents, need some input from you all to help my DS. He will be starting year 12 in September and FM has not been offered to him by his school. However, will have AS FM.
He is thinking of doing A level FM outside school. I am worried that he will have too many exams during year 13... 3 Alevels from school, one AS FM and A level FM ( privately) .
Anyone here has experience in supporting their DC in doing FM privately? How feasible is it?
hermanmunster
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Re: Doing Further maths privately

Post by hermanmunster »

so he is doing AS FM? Is it that the school don't offer the A level or that he has not be offered the option of doing it?

Either way would it be worth seeing how he finds that and how he gets on with it before deciding on the A level, if he found the AS hard then maybe doing the school work + external would impact the grades across the board but if he found it fine and got good grade then perhaps go for it
ToadMum
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Re: Doing Further maths privately

Post by ToadMum »

Would he not take the AS at the end of year 12? I know that some schools arrange the teaching of A level Maths and FM so that the Maths A level syllabus is covered in year 12, but the exam only taken at the end of year 13 (presumably so those only taking M, FM and a.n.other A level have all 3 taken at the same time for university application purposes), but AS in any subject is a one year course and there is no advantage in doing 3 A levels and an AS all together in year 13 (nor much use in taking 2 plus a n AS, as universities using tariff points are likely to be less fussy about when one took the components).
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Tinkers
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Re: Doing Further maths privately

Post by Tinkers »

What degree is he looking at doing? Is it worth doing FM for (Eg maths, engineering etc).

Would he look at another sixth form where he could do FM?
solimum
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Re: Doing Further maths privately

Post by solimum »

It's not clear whether the school is offering the AS as a parallel course across the two years for the more advanced mathematicians, or as a standalone year 12 only option, and whether it occupies a full "slot" in the timetable or is squeezed into the time of the normal maths A level. In either case I would assume that to "upgrade" the AS into a full FM A level will require studying some additional material as well as answering more challenging questions on the AS material. In either case I'm sure the maths teaching staff would be happy to help outside the normal timetabled lessons if your son is finding the standard maths A Level and the FM AS straightforward, so as others have suggested it might be worth waiting to see how the first term or so goes. It can be a huge jump from GCSE to A level in what's needed for success in maths, and depending on his other subjects and his degree choices may not be necessary - or it might be something he wants to do more of in his spare time! Having one DS with an engineering career who didn't take FM, and another with a maths/ data career who did (and took additional maths modules "for fun") it really depends on the pupil and the rest of their activities
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