Maths A-level how hard is it?

[spoone]

i dropped it half way through the year when i got 4% in my mock exam.

 

[_angel_]

Anyone done it recently?

and what's it called now? As or A2 or something?

I want to go back to school

My sister is currently doing it as a mature student. She has taken it a couple of times before it is a long hard slog.


I started it a couple of years ago (after almost 15 yrs from school) in a night class that went really really fast. I was amazed that I understood what was going on tbh but the workload was too high and left no time for other things.

I think if you do an evening class you go at twice the speed you may have done at school/ sixth form or even daytime college classes (according to my sister). We also got asked to do a lot of reading ahead. Only for the dedicated!

 

[muser]

Makes perfect sense to me. I was utterly shite at maths in school, and wondered if there was such a thing as numerical dyslexia cos I just couldn't make any sense of it all.

However, I went back to school at 27 and did a maths GCSE, started with an Adult Learner course, and realised I knew far more than I thought I did. Plus, my fear of it had decreased and I had a fantastic teacher. Made sense this time around, although I still struggle with certain layouts of numbers

Is there not an evening class you can go to?

I feel I got that exact same problem. I have a problem thinking through things in a sequencial manner, although when I do I find that I get frustrated and find the nearest distraction, even if that is day dreaming. I brought an AS level maths book a year ago and a calculus and algebra (both teach yourself). Trigonometry and geometry and what others mathematical disciplines should I have a sound knowledge of. Question directed at maddelene, as she and her sister are in the process of attempting a maths qualification.

 

[citydreams]

Zenie, I never finished my A-level maths but jumped straight into the final year of an OU maths degree.

I was initially tempted to go back and finish my A-level but couldnt find any course I liked.

The OU was a great way to learn.. Come over and have a look at my course handbooks. They're very well structured and the tutorials were as helpful as they could have been.

 

[catrina]

laptop - remind me what that formula was for! I recognise it, but it's been 10 years now...

I wish I never let that slide. I was good at math until I got to a mid-level class in uni and then forget it. That was when they were asking about the curl - wtf is a curl? It didn't help that I hated physics, because at that point the math was only there to describe physics.

Anyway, the power you feel when you can sit down and work out a page of integrals is . I miss that space in my brain doing those kinds of problems used - you just tune out. It's nice.

If you have a good teacher, it shouldn't be a problem to learn it later in life. It all depends on the teacher...

 

[Teepee]

My friend who's at Oxford said it was really hard

 

[laptop]

laptop - remind me what that formula was for! I recognise it, but it's been 10 years now...

The first one gives the roots of a quadratic equation aX^2 + bx + c = 0

The second one is... um... I was looking for the general Taylor series... did I find it? Looks as though I was close...

Must. Not. Get. Lost. In. MathWorld. Now.

Work to do...

 

[catrina]

oh nevermind, I just can't remember this stuff and don't have the time these days!

If you do ever learn it, though, zenie - don't forget it!

 

[bikergrrl]

I found the Maths A-Level really hard when I did mine a few years ago. I had an A at GCSE, but completely failed Pure Maths and Mechanics and barely scraped by in Statistics at AS Level. Ended up with a U.

Hmmmm, I wasn't too good at Pure either. I got a B at GCSE, and a D at A-level. I would have done much better if I'd attended more than one class a week. Ahhhh, the foolishness of youth!

 

[the B]

Pretty easy. If you have a spare month, you can comfortably soak up enough for the A level.

And numerous City firms will vastly outpay actuaries by multiples.

And it's highly valued in the City - nearly as highly as physics. (Contrary to what you might expect, they don't want economists. They want people who can sort-of-visualise a supply-demand-time-price surface in four dimensions and think "there!"... and do more estoteric stuff.)

Depends where in it you go...

 

[Bob_the_lost]

I wish I never let that slide. I was good at math until I got to a mid-level class in uni and then forget it. That was when they were asking about the curl - wtf is a curl?

It's all about the shape/direction of a vector field, i could give you more details but my head might explode.