A-Level Maths

Who this is for

Year 12 and Year 13 students on any specification. I sat A-Level Maths this summer and came out with an A*, so the content is not a distant memory — I remember which topics felt hardest and, more importantly, what actually fixed them.

What we cover

Pure — proof, algebra and functions, coordinate geometry, sequences and series, binomial expansion, trigonometry and identities, exponentials and logarithms, differentiation (including implicit and parametric), integration (substitution, by parts, partial fractions), numerical methods, vectors.

Statistics — data presentation and interpretation, probability, the binomial and normal distributions, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression, and the large data set.

Mechanics — kinematics, SUVAT, graphs of motion, forces and Newton’s laws, connected particles, friction, moments, projectiles, variable acceleration.

How I teach it

The jump from GCSE is real, and it’s mostly about volume of reasoning per question. A GCSE question has one idea in it; an A-Level question has three, and you have to sequence them yourself.

So we spend time on the planning stage — reading a question and writing down what you’re going to do before you do any algebra. It feels slow at first and it saves enormous amounts of time in the exam, especially once you get faster at it and able to plan mentally.

Doing Further Maths too?

Plenty of my students take both. There’s a real advantage in learning them together — Further Maths makes several A-Level Maths topics look much simpler once you’ve seen the general case.