Questions are today being raised about A-levels not equipping students with appropriate maths skills. Unsurprisingly, this extends across the sciences - chemistry, physics and biology, but also to business studies, computing, economics, geography, psychology and sociology. For example, It was found the amount of maths based questions were as low as 0-2% across all biology awarding organisations. Also, some maths concepts were included in science exams which did not follow logically on from GCSE maths.

The report from SCORE (Science Community Representing Education) also noted a disparity across exam boards of the proportion of the assessments that required the use of maths.  A significant amount of the maths requirements put in place by Ofqual were either not assessed or if they were, it was often in a very limited way.

The RSC has long been championing maths support for chemists. The RSC Education Discover Maths for Chemists website brings together resources from a variety of other platforms and is searchable from both a mathematical and chemical perspective. Recently checked for functionality and links, Discover Maths for Chemists is newly refreshed! The search function enables students to link together concepts and topics from both maths and chemistry to find worksheets, video tutorials and interactive quizzes applicable to their need. By using the Discover Maths for Chemists resource students can see what is expected of them if they go on to study chemistry at university - something that seems to be lacking from today's exam boards.