Birkenhead Sixth Form College

“The teachers provide a good support system with our studies allowing us to achieve our best potential. The College also acts as a great stepping stone to university, with frequent visits and talks to help us make the right choices for the transition into higher education.”

Lisa Irwin

Mathematics (Use of)

Entry Requirements

Normal BSFC entry requirements for an AS programme of study. Students should have a Grade B in GCSE Mathematics at Intermediate Tier or a Grade C at Higher tier. 

About the Subject

AS Use of Maths provides an opportunity for further study for those students who don’t wish to take a traditional Mathematics qualification but who need Mathematics to underpin other areas of study.

Mathematics is required for many jobs (see overleaf) and the topics have clear and obvious associations with Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, Business Studies, Geography, Health and Social Care, Leisure and Tourism, Psychology and Computing. Perhaps less apparently, there are strong links, both aesthetic and practical, with Art, Design, Music, Psychology, Law, Sociology and Sports Studies.

Mathematics is the single most useful and adaptable qualification to have, not to mention one of the most (if not the most) respected!

General Information

Working with Algebraic and Graphical Techniques

This unit has been developed to allow you to demonstrate your use of algebra, functions and graphs to analyse, make sense of and describe real situations and solve problems. You will

• model your own data with appropriate functions
• investigate functions commonly used to model real situations

Applying Mathematics

In this unit you will extend your use of mathematics in the areas of algebra, functions and graphs and you will learn some new mathematics to develop models of situations using simulations and recurrence relations

Using and Applying Decision Maths

Study of this qualification will allow you to develop a critical approach to the use of networks when used to describe and make sense of the world. You will learn about algorithms and develop an understanding of key ideas about modelling real world situations.

We aim to deliver the specification via a wide range of intellectual activities. Learning will be offered through lectures, discussion, interactive whiteboard activities, PC software (graphs, spreadsheets, mathematical word processing, etc), well written texts, practical work, internet research, videos, audio material and wider reading, promoting both class-based and independent learning. You should expect to have at least 3 hours of work outside of the classroom each week. Enrichment is offered in a variety of forms: recent field trips include London, Alton Towers, cinema trips, a Mathematical Mystery Tour of Liverpool and workshops on Coldplay’s album ‘X&Y’ and Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”; we have a rich and diverse collection of reading, audio and video material and actively encourage its use; we enter for the annual UKMT Maths Challenge and the Liverpool Mathematical Association ‘Pop’ Quiz, scoring recent successes in both. 

What Next?

If you go on to study for a Maths related degree, you may find yourself in weather forecasting (Isobel Lang, the BBC presenter, has a Maths degree), computer games programming, actuarial work (applying probability theory to finance & insurance), scientific research design and developments, teaching, finance (the largest employment sector for Maths graduates), accountancy, banking, IT, management consultancy, management services, operational research (looking at the way big bodies like the army or Tesco structure themselves), statistics, environmental science, aircraft design teams, drug trial analysis, further research (Masters or PhD) … the list is endless (∞).

Students in Mathematical sciences have by far the lowest levels of unemployment after graduation and Maths students on average go on to earn the highest salaries.