11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all my dd (yr 11) is planning on doing maths and further maths a level, she is doing just single edexcel gcse maths doing well so far and hopefully on for an a/a* quiite alot of her friends at grammer schools (she's at acomp) are doing additional maths gcse i wondered if the step up from gcse to maths/further maths maybe very big and should we do some extra work this summer to ease this transition, has anyone any experience of this she will probably only do further maths to AS.

If she gets a high A or A* she will be fine. Many GS do not do more than a single Maths GCSE and the syllabus for C1 overlaps higher maths content.

The step up is greater than some subjects but with regular practice she will be fine ....

If she has a mymaths account she could perhaps work on the A to A* boosters. There is also an A level section and C1 is fairly accessible. May help her feel more confident before she starts the A level.

thanks for that sounds like it should be ok

DS1 is doing add maths taught at the same time as GCSE maths and it creates a high workload, we even discussed failing the mock so he wouldn't be entered for the exam. Having looked into it a bit more last year the highest grade A only required 61% so we will persevere. I've sent you a PM with some links that we use.

Hi Guest55, could you please tell me what C1 means? My DD is applying for Sixth Form now (ready for September 2012) and plans to do A Level maths for two years. She is currently on course to achieve an A/A* at GCSE and got a GCSE grade B in statistics earlier this year. When you say that the 'step up' is greater than other subjects, do you mean that it is more challenging moving from GCSE to A Level when studying maths?

This is all very new to me as this is my first child going to college so any advice you can give will be really appreciated.

A level Maths consists of 6 modules - everyone does C1, C2, C3 and C4 - these are called Core ie pure maths (C1 and C2 in Y12 as part of AS) and C3 and C4 as part of A2.

There is then a choice of two applied modules - you can do Decision Maths (D1). Mechanics (M1) or Statistics (S1). Some schools give a free choice but some do S1 and S2 or M1 and M2 instead.

C1 has an overlap with Higher GCSE e.g. surds is on it and is the only paper you are not allowed to use a calculator.

What I mean by the 'step up' is that you do need to work and understand the stuff - you can get a B at GCSE without knowing much algebra. If students are confident with simultaneous and quadratic equations, algebraic fractions and graphs they'll be fine.

That's really interesting guest55, my dd is really strong at the algebra, graphs surds and quadratics we have been doing some simple calculus cos she was interested and she really gets that and she loves stats and probability but she does have a problem with visualisation and real life problems things like emptying troughs of water or filling up swimming pools once she has formulated the equations for these she can solve them really well but she really struggles with 'seeing' how to convert the problem into the maths, she works really hard has done lots of examples of these and is impoving and i'm sure will be ok with the gcse level of these but this would be the area that would concern me. She doesn't plan to do any science gcse's (she's prob going to do geog and hist at a level) and at the moment wants to do economics at uni. Presumably therefore she wouldn't do mechanics and would mainly do the stats modules. Is it going to be possible for her to a level maths and further maths to AS and avoid too many of these 'visualisation' types of problems??

Re the applied modules - check what the school offers. If they have large numbers doing A level there is often a choice but some schools specify - for AS Further she could do FP1 & FP2 (more pure!) and another applied - S2 would be a good choice with S1 and D1 for A level.

Calculus is in C1 - so some knowledge of that will be useful. There is problem solving but if she can cope with the contexts at GCSE she should be OK. Look at some past papers on an exam board website e.g. http://www.edexcel.org.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for a better guide.
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Thank you Guest55 for your reply. You have been really helpful. Fortunately DD is confident with quadratic equations etc so I think this could be a realistic option for her.

I hope you don't mind, but I suspect that I will be asking for your advice again soon. You have explained things really well and at least I now have some idea of what A Level maths entails. Only another four subjects to research...