Free-standing Mathematics Qualifications (FSMQ) are a suite of mathematical qualifications available at levels 1 to 3 in the National Qualifications Framework – Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced.

Educational standard

They bridge a gap between

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

and

A-Level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. The advanced course is especially ideal for pupils who do not find GCSE maths particularly challenging and who often have extra time in their second year of GCSEs, having taken their Maths GCSE a year early. The qualification is commonly offered in private schools and is useful in allowing pupils to determine whether or not to pursue maths in subsequent stages of their schooling. The highest grade achievable is an A. An FSMQ Unit at Advanced level is roughly equivalent to a single AS module with candidates receiving 10 UCAS points for an A grade. Intermediate level is equivalent to a GCSE in Mathematics. Coursework is often a key part of the FSMQ, but is sometimes omitted depending on the examining board.

Exam boards

The only examining board currently offering FSMQs is OCR.

Edexcel Edexcel (also known since 2013 as Pearson Edexcel) is a British multinational education and examination body formed in 1996 and wholly owned by Pearson plc since 2005. It is the only privately owned examination board in the United Kingdom. It ...

withdrew the qualification, the last exam being held in June 2004.

AQA AQA Education, trading as AQA (formerly the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance), is an awarding body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It compiles specifications and holds Test (assessment), examinations in various subjects at Genera ...

also withdrew the pilot advanced level FSMQ, the last exam being in June 2018, and a final re-sit opportunity in June 2019.

Examples

* Additional Mathematics/AdMaths (OCR) (No coursework)

References

{{reflist

External links

Edexcel

Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR)

Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA)

Educational qualifications in the United Kingdom Mathematics education in the United Kingdom