A-levels and Highers for becoming an actuary

If you are picking A-levels, or sitting across the table from someone who is, the question usually arrives as a shopping list: which subjects does an actuary need. The honest answer is shorter than a list, because the body that awards the qualification and the firms that do the hiring want different things. Only one of them is screening you.

Why the A-level Maths grade outlasts your degree

Start with the profession, because it asks for nothing. The IFoA's own student admission questions page, read on 2026-09-10, says that "as of the 12 March 2020, educational entry criteria for Student membership of the IFoA have been removed". Its student membership page, read the same day, puts it plainly: "While there are no academic admissions criteria for student membership, the IFoA qualification syllabus is rigorous and our examinations are highly demanding." It recommends a maths-based degree, and a non-member exam first if you do not have one. No A-level rule anywhere.

The employers are the opposite. Several publish an A-level Maths grade that still applies when you are three years into a degree. WTW's 2027 Retirement Actuarial Trainee Consultant internship posting for London, read on 2026-09-10, asks for someone "On course to achieve a 2:1 degree in a numerate discipline or predicted 2:1 degree including A-Level Maths grade A/B or equivalent qualifications", with a closing date of "30th September 2026". KPMG's actuarial graduate programme page, read the same day, asks for "136 UCAS points* from your 'top' 3 A Level grades, excluding General Studies. Must include Maths at minimum grade A."

That is why this decision deserves more attention than it gets. Everything else on a graduate application can be improved later: the degree, the projects, the work experience. The A-level grade is the one line you cannot revise, and on a form that filters for it, the paragraph explaining it does not get read.

Two things stop it being a life sentence, and both come off the same pages. KPMG's says "If you are a few grades or points short, we would still encourage you to apply, as your application will be reviewed together with your performance in our assessments." And some firms attach the Maths grade only to a degree that was not numerate, so the degree you pick can retire the question.

The grades employers actually publish

Read the table as a snapshot of what these pages said on 2026-09-10, not as a profession-wide bar. Requirements differ between firms, differ between programmes inside one firm, and get rewritten every cycle.

Isio shows why one firm's rule is not the profession's: both of its rules sit on one page. Its apprenticeship asks every applicant for Mathematics at grade B, while its graduate programme attaches that grade only to a non-numerate degree, on top of a 2.1 by 1 September 2026. Same firm, two routes, two rules, and it is the school-leaver route that names the subject.

At the other end, some firms publish nothing to aim at. Hymans Robertson's page, read on 2026-09-10, says it recruits "on the basis of your potential rather than your academic grades", and "actively encourage applications from students from out with the traditional actuarial or mathematics fields often seen in our industry". A page with no numbers on it is not a page with no standard behind it: the assessments carry the weight instead.

Further Maths: useful, not a requirement

Not one of the employer pages above names Further Maths. Where it gets asked for is university admission, and the wording is what matters. LSE's BSc Actuarial Science page, read on 2026-09-10, asks for "A*AA, with an A* in Mathematics" and adds: "Where it's offered by your school or college, AS- or A-level Further Mathematics is expected to be taken and a grade A achieved." Manchester's BSc Actuarial Science and Mathematics for 2027 entry, read the same day, asks for "A*AA including A* in Mathematics or Further Mathematics A-level" and says "Further Mathematics is preferred but not essential."

So what Further Maths buys is not employer approval. It is the range of degrees that will make you an offer, and through an accredited degree it can buy exam exemptions: Manchester's page says the course is accredited by the IFoA and "enables students to obtain up to 5 exemptions from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries' professional examinations (CS1, CS2, CM1, CB1 and CB2), subject to satisfactory performance and module options". Our IFoA exams guide explains those subjects, and an actuarial science degree compared with a maths degree covers the exemption trade properly.

If your school does not offer Further Maths, read LSE's sentence again. The condition is on the school, not on you.

Highers, Advanced Highers, and where Scotland differs

Two structural facts, from UCAS's own qualification records read on 2026-09-10. The Higher is "the main route to higher education since 1888", and university candidates "would be expected to take between three and five Highers in their fifth year of secondary schooling (S5)". Advanced Highers "are taken in the sixth year of secondary schooling (S6)" and "can offer subject exemptions, or direct entry into the second year of a Scottish 4 year degree programme". Both records carry a trap worth knowing before anybody adds points up: "If a student achieves an Advanced Higher, Tariff points from Highers in that subject are not counted." Higher Maths and Advanced Higher Maths do not stack.

Where you apply changes what is asked of you. Heriot-Watt, whose BSc Actuarial Science page says it "was the first in the UK to offer a degree in actuarial science", asked on 2026-09-10 for "Highers AAAB (over two sittings). Must include Maths achieved at A", dropping to "Highers ABBC" with the same Maths grade under its Fair Access policy, and asked for no Advanced Higher at all. Manchester, for a similar degree, tells Scottish applicants: "We normally require grades AAAAB in Scottish Highers. In addition, Scottish Advanced Highers at AAA (including Mathematics) is normally required."

Employers' pages are written in A-levels and UCAS points, with "or equivalent" carrying everyone else: Isio's "(or equivalent qualification)", WTW's "or equivalent qualifications", APR's "(or equivalent)". Some spell part of it out. Deloitte's early careers FAQ page, read on 2026-09-10, describes its school-age programmes as being "for those in Y12 (Y13 in Northern Ireland and S5 in Scotland)", while the BrightStart bar on the same page is written purely in A-level terms.

So a Scottish applicant is being converted by somebody, and the conversion is worth an email first: which combination of Highers and Advanced Highers meets this, and does the Maths grade have to be at Advanced Higher. A recruiter answers that in a line. A form cannot.

GCSEs, and where they still get checked

GCSEs do not stop counting when the A-level results arrive. Four bars, read on 2026-09-10:

• KPMG's actuarial graduate page lists "GCSE Maths Grade 5 or B*" and "GCSE English Language Grade 5 or B*", next to the degree requirement.
• APR's Junior Analyst Scheme recommends "Grade 7 at GCSE in English Language (or Grade A under the previous system)".
• Isio's apprenticeship asks for "Maths and English at GCSE at Grade C or 4 or higher (or equivalent qualification)".
• Deloitte's Cardiff entry-level apprenticeship says applicants "usually need to be working towards or have achieved at least 5 GCSEs including a Level 4 (Grade C) in English Language and a Level 4 (Grade C) in Maths".

Notice how often English Language is named, and how high APR sets it. The idea that an actuary only needs numbers dies at the first client email, and the entry requirements say so years before an interviewer does.

Two routes that need no degree at all

The Level 4 apprenticeship. The route has a national standard: Actuarial technician, reference ST0004, at level 4. Skills England's record for the current version 2.0, approved for starts from 12 August 2026 and read on 2026-09-10, publishes no grades at all: its typical duration is "24 months", and on qualifications it says only that "English and maths qualifications must be completed in line with the apprenticeship funding rules". The bar you clear is the employer's advert.

Analyst and junior analyst roles. Smaller firms hire school leavers into actuarial work without calling it an apprenticeship. APR's Junior Analyst Scheme page, read on 2026-09-10, looks for "talented, highly numerate school leavers or those with some further academic / work experience", and on that date said applications for the October 2026 intake were closed. That is the shape of these routes: one intake a year, few places, and no UCAS deadline to remind you.

Both routes end somewhere different from a graduate scheme: the technician qualification is not the same thing as becoming an Associate or a Fellow of the IFoA. Our comparison of an apprenticeship with university sets out what to ask about progression, and the IFoA exam cost calculator shows what the exams cost when nobody else is paying, which is the clearest way to value an employer that does.

What to do this year if you are sixteen

• Take Maths, and treat the grade as the target. Every published actuarial bar that names a subject names that one.
• Take Further Maths if your school offers it and you can carry it well. It buys university options rather than employer approval, and a dropped grade in it is worth less than a solid grade without it.
• Keep GCSE English on the record. Three of the four bars above name English Language, one of them at grade 7.
• Book the school-age programmes that exist right now. All three of these pages were read on 2026-09-10. Hymans Robertson's work experience programmes "run in each of our offices once a year" for "those in their final two years of secondary school", by email to its recruitment team. Aon's Work Insights is "This three day in-person programme" for "students in Year 12/13 in state-funded schools or colleges". Deloitte's Career Shapers and ASPIRE programmes take Y12, or S5 in Scotland.
• Watch the school-leaver windows, not the graduate ones. They open earlier and often run once a year: the school-leaver routes in our tracker are checked against employers' own pages.

What to do next

Two years out, the useful work is not more research. It is the Maths grade, the English grade, and one week of insight booked with a real firm.

If you want to know what the job actually is before you organise your sixth form around it, the free Become an actuary course covers what actuaries do and what employers screen for, and the readiness quiz scores how ready your application would be today.

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