I do find the UK A-level system very strange where you can study science subjects without taking maths; it seems like a serious fraud to me, because there are very few opportunities of doing anything further with a science A-level without maths. That is quite beside the fact that even if universities will admit you without the maths A-level, you will have to do serious maths to progress in the subject! I usually try to explain it by saying maths is the language in which we express science.