The 'new' mathematics advanced level syllabuses

Abstract

The content of the Sixth Form Mathematics courses has in the past been dictated by University entry requirements and has catered exclusively for the specialists in the subject. The curriculum centred around a syllabus form of the G.C.E. boards and efforts were concentrated on a small group who could obtain good grades in Pure Mathematics and perhaps Applied Mathematics in the hope that the grades were good enough for entry into one of the specialised courses in Mathematics, Physics and Engineering. The level of the teaching and the pace at which it had to be sustained made conditions rather difficult for a large number of students who had done sufficiently well in the ordinary level examinations to opt for mathematics in the sixth form and who had their minds set for a course at tertiary level. A new structure for examination in mathematics at this level has been adopted by a number of G.C.E. boards on the basis of a two level division of the subject: Mathematics and Further Mathematics. This new scheme, provides a suitable single subject Mathematics for non-specialist mathematics students and those wishing to do some mathematics at this level. Further Mathematics provides a second subject for specialist mathematics students and for those students, for example physicists, whose interests require a wider study of mathematics but not necessarily at a great level of difficulty.