Further Mathematics
Head of Department: Mr K Sewell-Davies
Awarding Body: Edexcel
Entry Requirements: GCSE Grade 7 or above in Mathematics. A-level Mathematics should have been chosen.
Person Specification: You need to be an organised person, with good time management, as this will be a 4th A-Level.
Course Description
There are many good reasons to take Further Mathematics: Students taking Further Mathematics overwhelmingly find it to be an enjoyable, rewarding, stimulating and empowering experience. It is a challenging qualification, which both extends and deepens your knowledge and understanding beyond the standard A-level Mathematics. Students who do it often say it is their favourite subject. For someone who enjoys mathematics, it provides a chance to explore new and/or more sophisticated mathematical concepts, including some areas of undergraduate mathematics. As well as learning new areas of pure mathematics, you will study further applications of mathematics in mechanics and statistics. It makes the transition from sixth form to university courses, which are mathematically rich that much easier.
Course Information
You will follow a programme of study covering 50% Core Pure Maths content, with 25% Statistics and 25% Mechanics.
- Core Pure The Pure Mathematics content takes you into the field of abstract concepts and challenges your perception of what is mathematically possible.
- Statistics Many of the techniques in this module are used in sciences and social sciences. In today’s society, we are bombarded with information and this unit will give you useful tools for looking at this information critically and efficiently.
- Mechanics This module is concerned with many everyday situations, e.g. Collisions of objects, using energy and impulse, the stresses in bridges, the motion of the earth round the sun.
Progression
Further study: If you are planning to take a degree such as Engineering, Sciences, Computing, Finance/Economics, etc., or perhaps Mathematics itself, you will benefit enormously from taking Further Mathematics, at least to AS level. Further Mathematics introduces new topics such as matrices and complex numbers that are vital in many STEM degrees. Students who have studied Further Mathematics find the transition to such degrees far more straightforward.
Careers: Further Mathematics qualifications are highly regarded and are warmly welcomed by universities. Students who take Further Mathematics are really demonstrating a strong commitment to their studies, as well as learning mathematics that is very useful for any mathematically rich degree.