Hi everyone.

Since my A-levels are now officially finished, I wanted to share a bit of insight about my journey as a self-taught Further Maths student.

Why?

At the end of my GCSEs, I decided that I want to apply to the University of Cambridge to study Computer Science. A couple of google searches revealed that Further Maths is a required subject for this course, and my school didn't offer it. None of the other schools in my area offered it either (or only offered it up to the AS level), so the only remaining option was to study it myself. So if you are only starting your A-levels this year and if you already have a specific uni/course in mind, please spend some time going through the course requirements webpages, and make sure you are studying the mandatory subjects for your course.

How?

My school provided 11 hours of study periods per week. I tried to spend most of them working on the Further Maths materials. It wasn't the same each week - sometimes I would dedicate 8 hours, and sometimes as little as 2 or 3 if other subjects required more attention. If I didn't have enough time to go through all my practice questions at school, I would usually finish them that same evening at home.

I spent about 4 months (September-December) on Pure and 3 months (January-April) on the Applied part. This allowed me enough time to make notes and do past papers coming closer to the exam period.

Some schools who offer Further Maths decide to teach all the content of A-level Maths in Year 13 and then all the content of A-level FM in Year 14. They justify it by saying that 'you'll need the normal Maths knowledge to study Further Maths'. While it is a fair point, I myself did not feel at a disadvantage doing both subjects in parallel. I will explain in further detail what topics from normal Maths you will need to know to study the Further Maths units.

Unit 1 - Pure

• There is a brilliant YouTube channel called N.I. Maths Tutor. He's got videos and free materials posted for both AS and A2 Further Maths specification, and they have been the only resource I used for my Pure studies.
• For AS Pure Maths, you'll need to know polynomial long division and have some basic understanding of radians (both can be learned in 10 minutes).
• For A2 Pure Maths, you will need to know pretty much all the Integration and Differentiation content from A2 normal Maths. I didn't find it a massive problem, it took me maybe a day to go through the Maths textbook and N.I. Maths Tutor's normal Maths videos to jot down everything I needed.
• If there were any other bits and pieces I wasn't sure of I would find some extra resources on YouTube or leave them until I cover that topic in my normal Maths classes.

Unit 2 - Mechanics / Statistics

• For the Unit 2, the teaching resources online are pretty limited. I was just lucky to have two teachers in my school who were able to provide me with some basic notes and questions for this unit.
• I will be happy to provide my own notes to anyone who needs a starting point. Unfortunately, I do not have any question booklets but I believe doing questions from different exam boards or going through the past papers will do the job.
• For Mechanics, I also used a textbook called 'Understanding Mechanics' by A.J. Sandler.
• For AS Mechanics, it is very helpful if you have done GCSE Further Maths, as it teaches you the basics of resolving forces, Newton's 1st Law, and integration needed for the Unit 2 material. So if you haven't, these topics are definitely something I would recommend looking into. You do not have to do it before starting the whole course - it might be the case that by the time you get to Further Mechanics you will have already covered these topics in your normal Maths classes.
• For A2 Mechanics, you will need to know how to solve differential equations from A2 Maths and Further Maths classes. You will also need to know a little bit about moments.
• For AS Statistics, you will need to know simple integration and binomial distribution.
• For A2 Statistics, you will need to have an idea of what hypothesis testing is (it may be worth it to wait until it's covered in your normal Maths classes).

General tips

• This may sound controversial (and I am not very proud of it), but I did use AI to explain certain topics or problem questions. When you don't have a teacher, this is the only tool that may help you when you're stuck. I do need to say that AI is not always correct and there were a lot of times it produced incorrect results, so most of the time I used it when I knew the correct answer and needed to understand the solving method.
• Make notes once you finish a topic! It is so much better to make them while it is still fresh in your mind.
• It is preferable that you find a teacher who will be able to predict you a grade for your UCAS, and make and mark your mock exams.
• Go through the specification. Multiple times. Make sure you covered every single bullet point.
• Do all the past papers, including specimen and practice ones. Make the toughest questions part of your notes, so that you remember the possible tricks.
• Don't forget about your other subjects. You can always catch up with Further Maths during holidays, evenings or weekends.

This post has come out way too long, but it needed to be done. There is a very small %ge of people here who may find it useful, but I will be happy if it helped even one person. Once again, I am happy to share my notes to anyone embarking on this journey. All the best of luck :)

We are NOT revising for ts are we 🫩🫩

How did you find it? I think it was ok, it asked very little about small topics and had no robotics, ethics, natural language etc. A couple of stupid questions but it’s CCEA so nothing surprising.

*I’m a tutor, not a student* My two students sat the M6 paper today, I was just wondering what was it like for those who also did it?