Hi everyone my name is Sany and welcome to My Maths Adventure.
In this video I'll be talking about the WJEC
2021 summer adaptations for A Level Mathematics.
Every exam board in the UK is looking at how they can adapt and streamline
next year's summer exams due to the worldwide disruption
we're having this year. For those hoping for some sort of reprieve in the first
year of your A Level Mathematics course, the
AS Level content unfortunately, or fortunately depending
on how you look at it, things remain unchanged. So the whole
aspect of the syllabus may get tested in summer 2021.
For those of you like me who are doing the A2 year
of their A Level Mathematics i.e. the second year,
there have been some adaptations to next year's exams.
In my opinion I think A Level mathematics is one of the most difficult
subjects to adapt or to take elements away from,
as the content builds on each other and therefore requires
previous knowledge to succeed. If anything was going to be taken away from
this specification then it would need to be subjects that
wouldn't significantly impact on students mathematical
knowledge and progress. So WJEC have decided that the two
subjects that won't be tested in summer 2021 will be Proofs
and Numerical Methods. Now I've always had this sneaky suspicion that if
anything was going to be removed then one of the
subjects would indeed be proofs.
Proofs and Numerical Methods are the two bookend chapters
of the WJEC textbook. So everything that's sandwiched in between those two
chapters may get tested next summer. The reason
why I thought that Proofs was going to be actually perhaps removed
if anything, was the fact that it could be easily
removed and wouldn't have any sort of significant
impact on other areas of the syllabus. Proofs is like a standalone chapter in
itself, however proofs do show up in different
sections of the syllabus like trigonometry, whereby you have to
construct a proof involving trig functions and identities.
But if you took that small section out, you will still understand the vast
majority of the A2 trigonometry chapter. The main
subject that I feel that would have great value for
mathematics students would be proof by contradiction which includes
proof of the irrationality of root two. This proof goes back to the ancient
Greeks where they discovered that root two
is indeed an irrational number. I feel that sometimes historical context
can sometimes help mathematics students understand the subject they're actually
studying. If you would like to know more about
this subject then there's a great video by Vsauce
which goes through the proof by contradiction
for the irrationality of root 2. The second subject that will be removed
is Numerical Methods. This is a no-brainer really
when I finished studying this subject a couple months ago
I thought why was one of the most easiest chapters
right at the end of the textbook. In reflection
I guess it's because you have to understand everything that came before
it to get any sort of appreciation and
value out of the Numerical Methods chapter.
The first part of numerical methods is basically plugging
in values into a function and seeing if there's a
sign change between an interval. If there is then
there might be a root that's located between those
points. There's also work to be done on Iterative Methods and Calculus to
complete the chapter. Again like Proofs, taking this chapter
out of the syllabus won't significantly impact students
understanding and knowledge of A2 mathematics because it's like a
tail-end subject that can be removed. Personally I think
this is a good decision by WJEC and Qualification Wales to adapt the A2
year in this way. Also mentioned on WJEC's
website is the fact that A Level Mathematics is
intimately linked with A Level Further mathematics.
So by taking these two subjects out it won't have any sort of negative
impact on teaching and learning of A Level Further maths.
My only concern is the fact that if other boards in the UK
don't follow suit in some sort of way. It'd be peculiar if English students had
to study Proofs and Numerical Methods and Welsh and perhaps Northern Irish
students didn't have too. I feel that there has to be some sort of
equity across the UK in terms of like specification
adaptations for summer next year. Otherwise you will
have some cohorts across the country that will have differing knowledge
levels and also be more mathematically able to navigate the first year of a
mathematics degree if they decide to do one at university.
Just because Proofs and Numerical Methods won't get tested in next year's
exams doesn't mean you don't have to study
them. Proofs are a great way to broaden and deepen your mathematical knowledge
and by studying and completing the last chapter of
Numerical Methods, you can finally say that you have
finished studying A Level Mathematics.
So wherever you are in the world keep studying hard because things
I feel are going to get difficult once again
across the world and this will have a significant
impact on delivering the education that we
need. So keep at it, make sure you have the right course materials
and I'll see you next week.