Accelerated Mathematics

Examination Board: Edexcel
Course code: AS 8371/8372 and A2 9371/9372

GCSE CRITERIA: A* (To be accepted onto this course we must have a recommendation from your GCSE teacher)

We are offering an Accelerated Mathematics course in Years 12 and 13. This is a two year course which leads to an A Level in Mathematics and also a full A Level in Further Mathematics. At the end of Year 13 you will have two A Levels: one in Mathematics and one in Further Mathematics. If you want to study Mathematics or a closely related subject, you should opt to take Accelerated Mathematics. Some universities (such as UCL) now insist you have taken this course if you want to study any degrees offered by their Mathematics departments.

The course includes lots of really amazing and interesting mathematics and gives you an exciting and deep grounding for going on to read Mathematics and related subjects at university.

Accelerated Mathematics is an excellent course if you enjoy the challenge of Mathematics, find that you are able to grasp new ideas relatively quickly, or are thinking of studying maths or a related subject at University. In Year 12, you study all six A Level modules, usually four of Pure Maths, one Statistics and one Mechanics. In Year 13 you then go on to study some more pure and applied modules working towards either an AS in Further Maths [if you take three modules] or a full A Level in Further Maths [if you take six modules]. You will have the chance to study some more pure Mathematics, which will show you how deep and beautiful the subject can become, together with some applied modules. We offer a degree of flexibility in which applied modules we offer, depending partly on students’ interests but they include advanced work in statistics, mechanics and some decision Mathematics. If you opt for Accelerated Maths, you do NOT need to opt for Mathematics as well on your option forms.

We also timetable the lessons in such a way that you can opt back to taking just A Level Mathematics without it disrupting any of your other A level choices. We run it like this so that you can “give it a go” if you like the idea of Further Mathematics and then see how it pans out. We are, of course, sure that you’ll really love it.

If you are interested in Accelerated Mathematics you should talk to a member of the Mathematics team to get more details or pop in for a chat with Mr Haywood.

In Year 13 we also offer preparation for Oxbridge entrance and STEP Mathematics classes which you can attend voluntarily. These are based around work required to pass the entrance exams for reading mathematics at Cambridge University and Warwick University but they are also excellent training in advanced mathematics and introduce a lot of really interesting new ideas at a very high level.

Students who have taken these classes in the past have found they are way ahead and much more prepared for the rigours of university study in all sorts of numerical subjects from Maths to Economics to Engineering.

Accelerated Mathematics [two year course]

Leading to A level Mathematics and A level Further Mathematics

Year 12: Pure Mathematics C1, C2, C3, C4; Statistics S1; Mechanics M1

Year 13: Pure Mathematics FP1, FP2 & FP3 together with possible choices of three modules from Mechanics M2, M3; Decision Mathematics D1; or Statistics S2.

Oxbridge Mathematics

Year 13: options to study in preparation for the Oxford Mathematics Entrance Examination and STEP I, II and III [required by Warwick and Cambridge Universities for Mathematics] as well as looking at topics beyond the syllabus.