Assessment overview
| Paper | Marks | Duration | Weighting | insert text |
Mandatory |
Pure core (Y420) | 144 raw (180 scaled) | 2 hour 40 mins | 50% | Section A – shorter questions with minimal reading and interpretation
Section B – longer questions and more problem solving |
Major options |
Mechanics major (Y421) | 120 raw (120 scaled) | 2 hour 15 mins | 33⅓% | Section A – shorter questions with minimal reading and interpretation
Section B – longer questions and more problem solving |
Statistics major (Y422) | 120 raw (120 scaled) | 2 hour 15 mins | 33⅓% | Section A – shorter questions with minimal reading and interpretation
Section B – longer questions and more problem solving |
Minor options |
Mechanics minor (Y431) | 60 raw (60 scaled) | 1 hour 15 mins | 16⅔% | Gradient of demand across the paper |
Statistics minor (Y432) | 60 raw (60 scaled) | 1 hour 15 mins | 16⅔% | Gradient of demand across the paper |
Modelling with algorithms (Y433) | 60 raw (60 scaled) | 1 hour 15 mins | 16⅔% | Gradient of demand across the paper |
Numerical methods (Y434) | 60 raw (60 scaled) | 1 hour 15 mins | 16⅔% | Gradient of demand across the paper |
Extra pure (Y435) | 60 raw (60 scaled) | 1 hour 15 mins | 16⅔% | Gradient of demand across the paper |
Further pure with technology (Y436) | 60 raw (60 scaled) | 1 hour 45 mins | 16⅔% | Access required to a calculator or computer with a computer algebra system, a spreadsheet, a graph plotter and a programming language in the examination.
Answers handwritten in a printed answer booklet. |
To be awarded OCR’s A Level in Further Mathematics B (MEI), students must take the mandatory core pure paper plus one of three routes through the qualification:
- Route A (mechanics major + one minor)
- Route B (statistics major + one minor)
- Route C (three minors, no major)
Students may take more than two optional papers to increase the breadth of their course. The combination of papers that results in the best grade will be used.
One third of the core pure content and one half of the content of each major option can be co-taught with the equivalent AS Further Mathematics options. Minor options in mechanics, statistics, modelling with algorithms and numerical methods can be co-taught with the corresponding AS Further Mathematics options.
Content overview
These overarching themes should be applied, across the whole of the detailed content in the specification:
- Mathematical argument, language and proof
- Mathematical problem solving
- Mathematical modelling.
Mandatory paper
Core pure
- Proof
- Complex numbers
- Matrices and transformations
- Vectors and 3-D space
- Algebra
- Series
- Calculus
- Polar coordinates
- Hyperbolic functions
- Differential equations
Optional papers
Major option: Mechanics
- Dimensional analysis
- Forces
- Work, energy and power
- Momentum and impulse
- Circular motion
- Hooke’s law
- Centre of mass
- Vectors and variable forces
Major option: Statistics
- Sampling
- Discrete random variables
- Bivariate data
- Chi-squared tests
- Continuous random variables
- Inference
- Simulation
Minor option: Mechanics
- Dimensional analysis
- Forces
- Work, energy and power
- Momentum and impulse
- Centre of mass
Minor option: Statistics
- Sampling
- Discrete random variables
- Bivariate data
- Chi-squared tests
Minor option: Modelling with algorithms
- Algorithms
- Networks
- Linear programming
Minor option: Numerical methods
- Use of technology
- Errors
- Solution of equations
- Numerical differentiation
- Numerical integration
- Approximation to functions
Minor option: Extra pure
- Recurrence relations
- Groups
- Matrices
- Multivariable calculus
Minor option: Further pure with technology
- Investigation of curves
- Exploring differential equations
- Number theory