Doing further maths and maths methods!?

[Dan1el593]

Hi guys, this is my first post here so forgive me if I don't know how things work here and mess up a process in writing this post. I am currently in year 11 and will be doing specialist maths and maths methods unit1/2. While I'd originally wanted to do methods and further 1/2 in year 11 and to continue on into 3/4 for both subject in year 12, my school disallows us to do them together in year 11 but somehow allow us to do them as 3/4 together in year 12.

A few questions:
- Has anyone done methods and further 3/4 together and if so how did u find that (e.g were they way too different? didi they compliment each other? how was workload?)
- How hard is it to simply achieve S in specialist maths unit 1/2 and pass the subject?

Thank you so much

[AngelWings]

- Has anyone done methods and further 3/4 together and if so how did u find that (e.g were they way too different? didi they compliment each other? how was workload?)

I did both U3/4 Further and Methods in Year 12, having done General Maths U1/2 (i.e. Further U1/2) in Year 10 and Method U1/2 in Year 11. It’s very doable to simply not do General U1/2 and walk straight into Further U3/4 in Year 12. I will point out that I did both U3/4s in 2014 so I won’t be the most updated person.

I’d say that there’s little overlap; probably the only real similarities are:
- probability section of Methods U3/4 vaguely touches on one or two concepts of data and stats core module from Further U3/4
- the various transformations in the data and stats module from Further will seem familiar if you do Methods.
- if you do the trigonometry module (which I think is within the geometry and measurement module) in Further U3/4, you’ll also touch on sin/cos/tan like Methods will, but in a different way.
- if you do the graphs and relations module in Further, you’ll touch on various shaped graphs that you’d be familiar with from Methods.
- matrices feature in both the matrices module of Further and Methods (mostly for transformations of graphs though), but you mostly use them in different ways.

Did they compliment each other? They have some similarities but it’s like comparing apples and oranges.

How was the workload? It was relatively manageable. The issue with Further is that if you’re aiming for 50 raw SS, you’ve got to make sure you eliminate mistakes. In Methods, it’s more about knowing how to approach things and a little luck if you’re aiming for top end scores. 

- How hard is it to simply achieve S in specialist maths unit 1/2 and pass the subject?

There was no Specialist U1/2 when I did it (there was General Maths Adv. U1/2 that later became that), so you’re going to have to wait for someone more recent to respond.