One student, one tutor, working through syllabus 9709 the way it is actually examined: Pure Mathematics 1 and 3 as the spine, then Mechanics or Probability & Statistics on top. At your home along the BTS or MRT line you already use, or online.
What is
Cambridge A-Level Mathematics is syllabus 9709, taught across Year 12 and Year 13 in international schools. The full qualification is four written papers: Pure Mathematics 1 and Pure Mathematics 3, plus two applied papers drawn from Mechanics, Probability & Statistics 1 and Probability & Statistics 2. Every paper is externally marked, and there is no coursework.
Key Points
Choose the one that fits the week your family actually has, and change it later if the traffic or the timetable changes.
A weekday evening or a weekend afternoon at your own dining table. Tutor and student are paired by rail line instead of by postcode, so the trip stays short at both ends.
The same teaching over a shared screen, which suits Paper 3 algebra and statistics tables better than most parents expect, and works from Chiang Mai, Phuket or a posting abroad.
Two classmates or two siblings sitting the same component in the same series, taught together. It works when both are on the same route through the syllabus, and only then.
Candidates take two components for AS Level and four for A Level. The combination is not a formality; it decides what can still be chosen a year later.
| Aspect | AS Level: Pure and Mechanics Paper 1 and Paper 4 | AS Level: Pure and Statistics Paper 1 and Paper 5 | AS Level: Pure only Paper 1 and Paper 2 | A Level: the full four papers Paper 1, 3, 4 and 5, or Paper 1, 3, 5 and 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Description | The common Year 12 route for students heading towards engineering or physics. Paper 1 supplies 60 per cent of the AS and Paper 4 the remaining 40 per cent, and both components count again inside the A Level, at 30 and 20 per cent. | The route for economics, business and life-science plans. Paper 5 is compulsory for the A Level whichever direction the student goes, so this choice keeps both doors open. | A complete AS Level in its own right, and a stopping point. The syllabus states that this route has no progression to A Level, because Paper 2 is offered only as part of AS Level and cannot be sat in the same series as Paper 3. | Paper 1 and Paper 3 supply 60 per cent between them, and the two applied papers 20 per cent each. The four may be sat in one series, or staged across two years with the AS result carried forward. |
| Subjects | Pure Mathematics 1Mechanics | Pure Mathematics 1Probability & Statistics 1 | Pure Mathematics 1Pure Mathematics 2 | Pure Mathematics 1Pure Mathematics 3Mechanics or Probability & Statistics 2Probability & Statistics 1 |
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These are the content sections of the syllabus itself, in the order Cambridge lists them, so you can see where your child is and what is still ahead.
Paper 1 is the foundation for every other component. Paper 4 and Paper 5 assume it, and Paper 2 and Paper 3 build on it.
Compulsory for AS Level and for A Level, and the paper every other component leans on. One hour fifty minutes, 75 marks, ten to twelve structured questions.
Topics Covered
Four situations we are asked about most in Bangkok, and what the first month looks like in each.
The jump from IGCSE is not in the difficulty of any one idea. It is the density: Paper 1 carries eight content sections and questions routinely draw on more than one of them at once. The first month is spent building the habit of showing every line.
Recommended:
A student who was comfortable in Paper 1 can still stall in Paper 3, usually at partial fractions, implicit differentiation or the integration methods. These are technique topics, and technique comes back quickly with the right practice order.
Recommended:
The syllabus assumes Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 Extended, or Cambridge International O Level 4024 or 4029, along with simple manipulation of surds and the shapes of graphs of the form y = kx to the power n. A short bridge in the holiday makes the first term of Year 12 far calmer.
Recommended:
Exams are available in the June and November series, so a grade from June can be improved in November of the same year, and an AS result can be carried forward to complete the A Level in a following series.
Recommended:
Maths progress is hard to see from the outside, because a page of correct working and a page that lost four marks look the same to a parent. So the note names the marks, not the mood.
Which past-paper questions were worked, named by series and question number, so you can open the same paper and see exactly what your child saw.
Read against the mark scheme: a method mark earned but the accuracy mark lost, a sign dropped inside a substitution, a final answer that never got stated.
9709 expects non-exact answers to three significant figures, or one decimal place for angles in degrees. The note flags every rounding done too early, because that is where correct mathematics quietly stops scoring.
Not a general instruction to revise. A named topic and a named set of questions, so the week between sessions has a shape.
None of these are about ability. They are about the rules of this particular exam, and every one of them costs marks from a student who understands the mathematics.
Challenge
Root cause
Thailand has two things called by that name. TCAS A-Level is the Thai university-entrance paper run by ทปอ., and its first mathematics paper, code 61 คณิตศาสตร์ประยุกต์ 1, sets 30 questions across 90 minutes and is marked out of 100, and it is sat by ม.6 students from Thai-curriculum schools. Cambridge A-Level Maths is syllabus 9709 and is built differently: Paper 1 on its own runs 1 hour 50 minutes for 75 marks, and the full qualification is four papers.
Edulom solution
Say the word Cambridge, and say the paper number, whenever you ask for a tutor or a past paper. A tutor who prepares students for code 61 is an excellent teacher of a different exam.
Challenge
Root cause
Paper 1 with Paper 2 is a real AS Level, and it is the one route with no progression to A Level. Paper 2 is offered only as part of AS Level, its content is largely a subset of Paper 3, and a candidate may not sit Paper 2 and Paper 3 in the same series. Families usually discover this in Year 13, when there is no year left to spend.
Edulom solution
Decide in the first term of Year 12 whether the A Level is the destination. If it is, the AS pairing should be Paper 1 with Paper 4, or Paper 1 with Paper 5.
Challenge
Root cause
9709 expects a calculator with standard scientific functions. Computers, graphic calculators, and calculators capable of symbolic algebraic manipulation, symbolic differentiation or symbolic integration are not permitted. A student who has spent two years reading answers off a graph screen has to rebuild the algebra underneath it, and no marks are given for an unsupported answer from a calculator.
Edulom solution
Switch to the exam-legal calculator in the first week of Year 12, not in April of Year 13, and practise every past paper on it.
Challenge
Root cause
Non-exact answers are given to three significant figures, or to one decimal place for angles in degrees, unless a question specifies otherwise. The usual loss is not the final rounding; it is rounding an intermediate value and carrying the rounded number into the next line, which moves the final answer just far enough to miss.
Edulom solution
Keep the unrounded value in the calculator and round once, at the end. In practice this is a habit built question by question, and it is worth marks on every paper.
Challenge
Root cause
Paper 5 is the foundation for Paper 6, which is why Paper 4 and Paper 6 cannot be combined. Probability & Statistics 1 is compulsory for the A Level on both routes. So a student who sits Paper 4 at AS is committed to Paper 1, 3, 4 and 5, and a student who wants Paper 6 in Year 13 needs Paper 5 behind them first.
Edulom solution
Put all four papers on one sheet before the AS entry goes in, and check it with the school's exams officer rather than assuming the timetable will allow a change later.
Schools differ in which route they teach, and the route is set by the entry, not by the classroom. Ask your school which four components your child is entered for before planning any tutoring around them.
Edulom is new in Thailand, so there is no track record to point at. Here is what we put in its place.
Most of the difficulty in 9709 arrives in Pure Mathematics 3: partial fractions, implicit and parametric differentiation, integration by parts, vectors, complex numbers. A tutor is screened on that paper before anything else.
Scientific calculator, MF19 in hand, three significant figures, every line of working written down. Students practise the way the paper will be marked, from the first session.
Named questions, named marks, and one target for the coming week. It takes the guesswork out of asking a teenager how the lesson went.
Where the pairing misses, one message after the opening lesson is enough. The change carries no fee and no argument about whether the reason is good enough.
The quote reaches you in writing, with what it covers spelled out, ahead of the first visit. Nothing about money is discovered at the door.
English for the mathematics, Thai when a definition is the thing blocking the question. Students stop translating and start answering.
Edulom has no tutor roster to show you in Thailand yet, so instead of photographs, here is the standard a tutor has to meet before we send anyone to your home.
Online sessions reach families outside Greater Bangkok, including Chiang Mai, Phuket and Chonburi, and they suit the short, frequent revision slots that the weeks before a paper actually need.
A tutor travels to your home in Bangkok. We pair on the rail line your household already rides, because a lesson at seven in the evening lives or dies on the commute long before anyone opens a book. Huai Khwang and Watthana, Sathon with Bang Rak, Bang Kho Laem by the river, Saphan Sung and Bang Na out to the south-east, Don Mueang up north, then onward into Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan and Pathum Thani.
Short answers, with the syllabus rule behind each one.
Other programs that might suit you
Send the school, the year group and the four components your child is entered for. If you do not know the components yet, say so, and that is the first thing we will help you work out.