A-Level Mathematics

Course summary

This A level is designed to produce mathematicians that are resilient, rigorous, independent, accurate and good problem solvers. The course is linear with two-thirds covering Pure content, the remaining third being split between Mechanics and Statistics, which includes the study of a large data set. The course is designed to encourage students to: • Develop abilities to reason logically and recognise incorrect reasoning, to generalise and to construct mathematical proofs. • Extend their range of mathematical skills and techniques and use them in more difficult, unstructured problems. • Recognise how a situation may be represented mathematically and understand the relationship between ‘real-world’ problems and other mathematical models and how these can be refined and improved. • Use mathematics as an effective means of communication. • Develop an awareness of the relevance of mathematics to other fields of study, to the world of work and to society in general. You will study algebra and functions, coordinate geometry in the (x, y) plane, sequences and series, differentiation, integration, trigonometry, exponentials and logarithms, numerical methods, proof and vectors. In Statistics you will learn about sampling, representation and summary of data, probability, distributions and hypothesis testing. In Mechanics you will learn about mathematical models in mechanics, vectors, kinematics and dynamics of a particle, moments, forces and Newton’s Law