Last but not least, part 4 of A Level honest reviews is here! So, Maths huh? The most commonly taken subject. The most straight forward one. The almost compulsory subject. The backbone of our studies (too far? ). Regardless of what you think of maths, you can’t run away from it. You’ll have to take it some point in your life. If that point includes your A Levels, well my friend, read on to find out more!
What can I expect?
If you took Add Maths in high school, AS Maths should be easy for you because lots of it was covered before, especially in the SPM syallabus. Things like normal distribution, differentiation, vectors etc are what you’ll be seeing. For me, I had the smoothest transition with maths, which was a relief actually, because my other subjects took up so much of my time. I think it’s safe to say, I found maths the easiest.
How many papers are there?
At both AS and A2 there will be 2 papers. Everyone takes different combinations so make sure you discuss this with your lecturer or counselor. Here’s my combination:
At AS,
- Pure Mathematics 1 (P1) : 1 hour 45 minutes
- Statistics 1 (S1) : 1 hour 15 minutes
At A2,
- Pure Mathematics 3 (P3) : 1 hour 45 minutes
- Mechanics 1 (M1) : 1 hour 15 minutes
How’s the workload?
Looking back, I don’t remember having any problems with the work (except at A2). We were given homework after every lesson but the amount was manageable so I usually finished it right after school then got crackin’ with the other subjects. When we were approaching exams, we did one past paper in each lesson. So I could do about 4 papers a week, without taking away time after lessons.
How’s the jump from AS to A2?
Ok, this is where the tough part is. The jump from P1 to P3 was a substantial one. I couldn’t finish the past papers in one lesson. I could only get to number 5 in our 1.5 hour lesson (there are 10 questions in total!) which was bad. That’s when I felt maths getting tough. As with every subject though, DO NOT let work pile up! Even if this happens to you, finish that paper on the day itself, because if you leave it till the next day, you’ll have to do the next day’s work AND yesterday’s work. Chances are you won’t finish it and the work starts to snowball. With maths I find if you stay disciplined and keep on going, one day, things just click. As for M1, it’s pretty similar to physics. We learned the 4 kinematic equations, Newton’s Second Law and stuff like that. So, the jump wasn’t too bad. Before choosing your A2 papers, I suggest to have a look at the past papers first to get a feel of what its like.
Do not worry too much about maths, it’s just a matter of doing lots of practice (a lot!) and time. Be sure to keep up with work and things will be okay ❤
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