Maths A-Level

What Skills Will I Develop?

The experience of the vast majority of A Level students, is that to succeed, they need to apply themselves steadily throughout the course: there is steady demand to build up hierarchical concepts almost daily, and without that very frequent application students soon start building on sand.

This often comes as a rude awakening to the relatively able 16-year-old who achieved a respectable grade at GCSE apparently by osmosis! Students will usually have set exercises to complete on at least a weekly basis, but that will also require making sense of mathematical text, and building new concepts rather than just reproducing algorithms. The satisfaction lies in the complete mastery of problems, but the frustration when the building blocks are not there, can be significant. So students learn to work steadily, to present solutions clearly and concisely, and to extend their own thinking within a logical framework.

Persistence is necessary, as harder problems will often require several visitations before a way in is identified. Increasingly, students are required to make presentations to their peers, often using appropriate technology, and to analyse their own or others’ solutions.

Many students develop quite high level ICT skills within spreadsheets, databases and other subject-specific or generic software. The specific mathematical skills acquired vary with the syllabus, although the majority of it is in common as above, but students do acquire a confidence and competence to deal with information given in algebraic, numerical or graphical form, and that appears to be a very transferable skill.

The written work of trained mathematicians tends to be logical, concise and precise: these skills are developed to a greater or lesser extent in AL students.

What Next?

An A Level in Mathematics is highly regarded by the majority of employers and Universities, precisely because of the demands it makes and the skills it develops.

Many A Level Maths students do not of course go on to use their qualification directly, yet a survey found that an A Level in mathematics in itself led to salaries 8% higher than those of young people with otherwise similar backgrounds, by the mid-twenties.

Some go straight into employment, with fields such as accountancy offering very viable careers straight from a Maths A Level, with prospects comparable with those of graduates. Because the A Level is comparatively demanding, increasing numbers do go on to degree courses, some of which involve numerate disciplines while many do not: the skills learned are highly transferable.