Is A-Level Maths Hard?

Education concept. Student studying and brainstorming campus con

This question plagued me since Year 11. But when I eventually began to fully prepare for my A level maths, I came to the conclusion that maths is only hard if you want it to be hard.

It may interest you to know that despite the huge rave about how hard A-level maths is, it has a pass rate of 96.3%, while GCSE has a 55.4% pass rate. Don’t get me wrong, A level maths is hard but an online A Level Maths Tutor can help. It is a huge step up from GCSE. However, if you can put in some work and understand the concepts, A level maths can be a workover.

The You Factor

By now we have all come to agree that all fingers are not equal. Some people are naturally born good at certain things. Likewise, some are innately gifted to understand maths quicker. Others like me need to go the extra mile to get an A such as investing in online maths tutoring.

If you belong to this other side of the coin, then A level maths is only hard to the degree of effort you put into it. And so, you must work hard to study for your exam.

To do this, you have to begin with making sure you have a good grip on your GCSE maths revision topics. This is because your AS level maths is just as difficult as the GCSE module. If you scored at least a 6 on your GCSE, then A level maths only really gets difficult by the 2nd term.

With this, you can see that you don’t have to be a maths genius to pass A level maths or make your A, but you need to be ready to work very hard. You only need to put in some level of effort. You can do that in two ways:

Two Steps

1. Understand don’t memorise

Oftentimes, we try to use the same techniques such as memorisation to study for our A level. This will not work. It may have helped you while studying for your GCSE, but will certainly not do for your A level. You must try to understand the concept of the topic or formula. Memorising them is not a good idea. 

Don’t try to internalise the steps taken to work out a certain question, but rather aim at understanding why and how these steps are taken. If you do so, you will be able to use the same knowledge to even solve questions you have not seen. This is because maths is pretty straight forward if you understand the formula from the root.

2. Practice practice practice

Considering putting off preparing for your A level maths till Christmas or summer? Please don’t put off your A Level or GCSE Maths revision til then because you may never get the time.

At the earliest possible time, begin to practice the topics. You can do this with textbooks, study groups, whatever is guaranteed to give you maximum output. But by all means, practice until it becomes systematic.

Maths can be pretty repetitive, so going over questions as often as possible increases your ability to understand equations and quickly solve the problem.

In all, A level maths is a leap from GCSE, but you need not be a genius to make your A. You only need to sit down and study.

A teacher smiling at camera in classroom

Of course, if you do want support with your practice exams, and you want a professional eye to help support, coach and mentor you through your studies then be sure to reach out and get in touch.

Should you require support throughout the year we also offer various half term revision courses. Our classroom based A Level Maths Revision Courses cater for a small group of students at any one time and are highly bespoke catering towards student needs. This is also the same for our GCSE Maths Revision Courses that are also classroom based and online

Our classroom courses take place in a variety of locations including Manchester, Lymm, London and also York.

Our courses take place during half term holidays and we are currently taking bookings now for our Half Term Christmas 2020 Revision Course. With the current situation with Covid-19 this course will offer a online maths revision course. The course will be packed full of information to help students prepare for any mock exams in January 2021. It is hoped that we can offer face to face classroom based revision courses as soon as possible.

If you, or your parents would like to find out more, please just get in touch via email at info@exam.tips or call us on 0800 689 1272.

If you, or your parents would like to find out more, please just get in touch via email at info@exam.tips or call us on 0800 689 1272

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