A Level and beyond

Then pick a subject

Each subject below opens a guide written for parents, comparing the exam boards and explaining how the papers work. Every guide links on to the full topic list, where each published topic has a video, a written summary, a notes PDF and practice questions with answers.

The shape of the two years

A Level maths is linear — everything is examined at the end of the second year. That changes how it should be studied. Content met in the first term is still examinable eighteen months later, so revision has to be cumulative rather than saved up.

• Year 11, spring — choosing subjects Most competitive university courses in STEM expect A Level maths, and many engineering and physics courses either require or strongly prefer Further Maths. Check individual course pages early, because requirements vary more than league tables suggest.
• Year 12 — building the base Pure maths dominates. This is where gaps from GCSE algebra surface, usually in the first term, and they are much cheaper to fix now than in Year 13.
• Year 13, autumn — applications UCAS applications go in alongside a full teaching load. Some courses also require an admissions test, which needs preparing for separately.
• Year 13, summer — exams All papers sat at the end, covering both years.

Admissions tests

Some universities set their own maths admissions tests on top of A Level grades. These test problem-solving rather than syllabus recall, and preparation for them is a different activity from A Level revision. If a course requires one, find out in Year 12, not Year 13.

Where to start

The free A Level maths topics are grouped into Pure, Statistics and Mechanics. The nineteen content areas themselves are set by the Department for Education and are the same whichever board your child's school enters — boards differ in how they split that content across the papers.