AQA Level 2 Further Maths — Past Papers, Mark Schemes, Grade Boundaries & Other Resources
Every current AQA Level 2 Certificate in Further Mathematics paper, mark scheme and examiners report, plus grade boundaries by year, the specification and other resources — collected and kept up to date by Kevin Holdstock, who has privately tutored maths, one to one, for 14 years.
Starting this course in September? Here's how I'd approach the year →
Starting AQA Level 2 in Year 11 this September?
Schools put students forward for this because they're already working near the top of the GCSE grade range and need stretching. That's a good position — it means that for your GCSE or iGCSE Maths, the year ahead is less about learning and more about improving, polishing and not letting anything slip, while nine or so other subjects compete for your time.
Start working well from September, not January!
Practice the AQA Level 2 content as you go, whilst also polishing the GCSE from the start of September, so that both are finished before the spring. Starting well in September means work divides manageably across the year. Starting after Christmas means compressing it into the months when every other subject is also demanding revision — a squeeze you should try to avoid.
Accuracy is the thing to build early
A look at the boundaries below will tell you why. The grade 9 boundary for this course leaves almost no room for small mistakes - that's a habit, rather than a topic, and having excellent exam technique is key. With weekly tuition we will focus on good mathematical exam technique from the start, so it's second nature by exam time, and is something that you can carry forward to A-Level maths as well.
Ask about a September placeWhat weekly tuition looks like alongside AQA Level 2
I'm Kevin. I've been a full time private maths tutor, teavhing students one to one for 14 years — the first seven travelling house to house, and every year since 2019 entirely online. Lessons are usually one hour a week, always one to one, online and £120 an hour.
Where students actually lose marks on this course
The content here isn't the obstacle. A good deal of it revisits GCSE material in more depth, and a strong mathematician will follow it without much trouble. The difficulty is the grade boundries.
In June 2025 a grade 9 needed 141 marks out of 160 — just over 88%. Grade 8 needed 127. In 2024 those figures were 136 and 119, and in 2023 they were 137 and 120. So across the two papers, a grade 9 doesn't allow much room for dropped marks.
Good exam technique is often something that hasn't been focused on at GCSE level with most of the teaching going into understanding harder areas — it's about techniques to avoid smaller mistakes as much as possible, and about laying out work so the method marks are there even when the correct answer isn't. That's very coachable and we would work on this from the start.
How I work with AQA Level 2 students
Accuracy as a taught skill
Marking your own work honestly, spotting the mistakes you personally tend to make, whilst also becoming familiar with how marks are awarded in mark schemes. Learning how to set out solutions so that a marker can follow them, and you gain maximum method marks, even if you arrive at an incorrect answer. Most students have never been shown this and it can make a difference of many marks per paper.
Weekly checking on school work
Each week we confirm that what you covered in class went in properly, and I set extra practice wherever it didn't. If a topic has been taught poorly or not landed — always the case for some topics — I'll teach it to you again from scratch, my way.
Polishing the GCSE at the same time
I also ask every student I take to work through the CGP grade 8–9 targeted practice book for their GCSE syllabus, divided into a set number of pages a week through to the end of February. Some session time also goes on anything that came up from the grade 8-9 targeted GCSE practice. Both qualifications move forward together, and March and April are left clear for past paper practice.
If you're choosing between this and the FSMQ
One thing worth knowing: AQA Level 2 is designed as extra depth on GCSE rather than as a preview of A-Level, so it won't give you the same head start into Year 12 that some other bridging courses do. That's not a reason to avoid it — it's a genuinely good qualification and it does stretch you. It just means that if you're heading for A-Level Maths, and especially Maths and Further Maths together, it's worth doing some groundwork on the A-Level content separately. That's something we can build into sessions once the exam is behind you.
AQA Level 2 Further Maths Current Syllabus
Papers run oldest to newest on purpose — work through the earlier years first and save the most recent papers for timed practice close to your exam.
Starting A-Level Maths in September? See what to do next →
Marking a paper? The grade boundaries for every year are further down this page — worth checking what your score actually meant that year before you judge it. Jump to grade boundaries ↓
| Paper 1 | Question Paper | Mark Scheme |
| Paper 2 | Question Paper | Mark Scheme |
| Paper 1 | Question Paper | Mark Scheme |
| Paper 2 | Question Paper | Mark Scheme |
| Paper 1 | Question Paper | Mark Scheme |
| Paper 2 | Question Paper | Mark Scheme |
Struggling to understand past paper questions and mark schemes?
Enquire about 1-1 tuition with KevinAQA Level 2 Further Maths grade boundaries
Subject-level boundaries, out of 160 across both papers, with the percentage in brackets.
Starting A-Level Maths in September? See what to do next →
| Series | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 133 (83%) | 115 (72%) | 98 (61%) | 81 (51%) | 64 (40%) | 55 (34%) |
| 2025 | 141 (88%) | 127 (79%) | 113 (71%) | 95 (59%) | 78 (49%) | 69 (43%) |
| 2024 | 136 (85%) | 119 (74%) | 103 (64%) | 86 (54%) | 69 (43%) | 60 (38%) |
| 2023 | 137 (86%) | 120 (75%) | 103 (64%) | 85 (53%) | 68 (43%) | 59 (37%) |
| 2022 | 129 (81%) | 110 (69%) | 92 (58%) | 73 (46%) | 54 (34%) | 44 (28%) |
| Nov 2021 | 116 (73%) | 93 (58%) | 70 (44%) | 53 (33%) | 36 (23%) | 27 (17%) |
This table covers series graded on the current 9–4 scale (8365). The 2016–2019 papers on this page were sat under the qualification's earlier specification, which used a different grading scale and total mark, so their boundaries are shown separately in the table below. Official AQA grade boundaries →
What these numbers actually tell you
A grade 9 in 2025 needed 88% of the total marks — higher than the A* boundary on any A-Level maths syllabus. Across two papers of 80 marks each, that leaves room for roughly nine or ten dropped marks per paper, and 2025 was harsher than the two years before it: the 9 moved up five marks and the 8 moved up eight.
That's the real difficulty of this qualification, and it isn't conceptual. The content is manageable for anyone heading towards A-Level Maths. What's unforgiving is the margin. A couple of arithmetic slips and a student working at grade 9 standard comes away with an 8. Accuracy and a clear layout are hugely important — something that can be coached and should be practiced from the start of Year 11.
Need help with this? See how weekly tuition works →
2017–2019 grade boundaries — previous specification (8360)
The syllabus content for these years is the same as the current course, so the papers themselves are still worth practising. They were graded under the qualification's earlier specification, though, on a different scale — out of 175 marks, A^ down to C — so the boundaries below aren't comparable to the 9–4 figures above and shouldn't be used as a target for the current exam.
| Series | A^ | A* | A | B | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 150 (86%) | 123 (70%) | 96 (55%) | 71 (41%) | 46 (26%) |
| 2018 | 150 (86%) | 121 (69%) | 92 (53%) | 66 (38%) | 40 (23%) |
| 2017 | 149 (85%) | 118 (67%) | 88 (50%) | 62 (35%) | 36 (21%) |
| 2016 | Boundary not confirmed from AQA's archive — 2016 papers are still available above, but no verified grade boundary is shown for this series | ||||
Out of 175 marks (8360 subject code). Boundaries as published by AQA. Official AQA grade boundaries →
One hour a week. One to one. Accurate every time.
Weekly online lessons that build exam technique alongside the syllabus — polishing accuracy, keeping the GCSE moving in parallel, and making sure neither qualification gets left behind while the rest of Year 11 competes for your time.
£120 per hour