Edexcel IGCSE Further Pure Maths Tutors Online

Edexcel IGCSE Further Pure Mathematics is code 4PM1, written for first teaching from September 2017 with the first examination in June 2019. The subject is listed as Additional Mathematics on this site, so both names describe the same qualification. This page works from the specification in the corpus.

The qualification has two papers, and it is offered at one tier only. The specification states that it is offered through a single tier, and that questions are targeted at grades in the range 9 to 4, with 3 allowed. So there is no Foundation route and no tier decision to make. Papers 1 and 2 are codes 4PM1/01 and 4PM1/02, each is a 2-hour examination set and marked by Pearson, each carries 100 marks, and each is worth 50% of the qualification.

Exams are available in January and June. The January sitting matters more here than on a two-tier qualification, because a student who wants a second attempt does not have to wait a full year for the summer.

Grading is where this qualification parts company with the maths course it sits above. It is graded and certificated on a six-grade scale from 9 to 4, with 3 allowed, using the total subject mark where 9 is the highest grade. Individual components are not graded, and a student below the minimum standard receives an unclassified U result. That is a much narrower scale than the nine grades available in Mathematics (Specification A).

The structure of each paper is unusual and worth knowing before revising. Each paper consists of around 11 questions, with the mark allocation for each question stated on the paper. Each paper draws questions from any part of the specification content, and the specification says that the solution of any question may require knowledge of more than one section. So this is not a paper where topics can be revised in isolation and ticked off.

The grade targeting on each paper is explicit. Approximately 40% of the marks are distributed evenly over grades 4 and 5, and approximately 60% are distributed evenly over grades 6, 7, 8 and 9. The weight therefore sits at the top of the scale, and a student who is comfortable at grade 5 has only reached the first 40% of the paper.

The content runs to ten sections: logarithmic functions and indices, the quadratic function, identities and inequalities, graphs, series, the binomial series, scalar and vector quantities, rectangular Cartesian coordinates, calculus, and trigonometry. Logarithms and calculus at this level is what separates the qualification from the standard maths course, and it is why the specification expects a foundation in it first.

That foundation is stated as a requirement. Students will be expected to have a thorough knowledge of the content common to either the Mathematics (Specification A) at Higher tier or Mathematics (Specification B), and questions may assume knowledge of some topics from those specifications. There is also an explicit exclusion: knowledge of statistics and matrices will not be required. So a student can leave two whole areas of the parent course behind, and should know that.

Two smaller expectations carry real marks. Students are expected to be able to change the subject of a formula and to evaluate numerically the value of any variable in a formula, given the values of the others. And the use and notation of set theory will be adopted where appropriate, which is why the specification prints a notation appendix covering complements, the number sets, the modulus, and function notation.

The assessment objectives are the most distinctive part of this qualification. AO1, demonstrating a confident knowledge of the techniques of pure mathematics required in the specification, is 30 to 40 per cent. AO2, applying that knowledge to problems where an immediate method is not available and which may involve more than one topic, is 20 to 30 per cent. AO3, writing clear and accurate mathematical solutions, is 35 to 50 per cent.

So the largest single objective here is not knowing the mathematics. It is writing it down clearly and accurately. A student who can do the algebra but shows the working badly is competing for a smaller share of the paper than in almost any other qualification in this family, and that is worth knowing early. Both papers carry the same split: 15 to 20 per cent AO1, 10 to 15 per cent AO2, and 17.5 to 25 per cent AO3.

A formulae sheet is provided in the examination, in Appendix 4 of the specification. A calculator is allowed, and the minimum function list is longer than the standard maths course expects: it includes pi, powers and roots, ln x and e to the power x, standard form, and the trigonometric functions with their inverses in both degrees and radians. Calculators with databanks, retrieval of text or formulae, QWERTY keyboards, built-in symbolic algebra manipulations, or symbolic differentiation or integration are prohibited.

The specification does not print a qualification total. It states that the total number of marks for each paper is 100, and that is the figure this page uses.