Mathematics / Further Mathematics

Head of Department: Dr Britton, brittons@ashfordschool.co.uk

Welcome to Mathematics and Further Mathematics in the Sixth Form

For Single Mathematics, the syllabus is fixed, with elements of Pure Mathematics, Mechanics and Statistics studied over two years.

Further Mathematicians will study the full Single Mathematics A level and Further Mathematics content in parallel over the two years. The Further Mathematics course has some required modules alongside optional modules, which allow you to choose between extra Pure Mathematics, Further Mechanics, Further Statistics or Decision Mathematics in Year 13.

The A level text books are available as e-books and your teacher will provide you with a login at the start of the course. The course requires you to have an A level compatible calculator. The basic requirement is for a Casio Classwiz calculator but the Casio CG50 graphical calculator is highly recommended. Graphical calculators will be available to purchase at a discounted student price from the department in September. If you are planning on purchasing a calculator elsewhere, please ensure you check that it is compatible with the A level requirements.

The Mathematics Department is committed to ensuring that you make good progress throughout your A level course but it is vitally important that you spend time working on maths over the summer - you will need to have a good knowledge of iGCSE algebra and geometry before you commence your course in September. This folder provides revision material which you must review over the summer. Read the introduction to each section, making sure that you understand the examples, then work through each exercise checking your answers which are given at the back of each section.

We will test you at the start of September to check how well you understand these topics, so it is important that you have worked through this folder before then. If you do not pass this test, you will be provided with a programme of additional work in order to bring your basic algebra skills to the required standard. We hope that you will use this introduction to give you a good start to your AS work and that it will help you enjoy and benefit more from the course.

Suggested Wider Reading

− It Must be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science – edited by Graham Farmelo − A collection of essays which sets out to reveal the true nature of an equation. − The Problems of Mathematics, Nature’s Numbers, From Here to Infinity, Game, Set and Math and The Magical Maze – Ian Stewart − What is Mathematics? – Courant and Robbins − Mathematics: The Golden Age – Devlin − A Mathematician’s Apology – Hardy. One of the central topics of this book is the beauty of mathematics. Anyone with a passion for pure mathematics is likely to enjoy Hardy’s discussion of the ugliness of applied mathematics − Makers of Mathematics – Hollingdale. A history of mathematical discoveries and an introduction to ideas that have shaped modern mathematics. Read in its entirety, this book provides an excellent foundation for undergraduate study of mathematics. − Also, this website has many interesting articles to read: http://plus.maths.org/