WHEN Zulfi Khan learned yesterday he had scored an A* in further maths he had more reason than most to celebrate – because he taught himself.

The 18-year-old, right, discovered part way through his university application he would need the qualification despite the fact that the course was not available at Cheney School, in Headington.

He said: “It was really frustrating, because it felt like being at a state school put me at a disadvantage.

“I was quite annoyed but in the long term it worked out fine, because I really enjoy maths and I used online resources which were very helpful. It was just the added time and effort.”

Zulfi had taken further maths at AS-Level and was led to believe by Imperial College London’s prospectus it would suffice to study for a maths degree there, but the college insisted on him taking the subject at A-Level as well.

He said: “It took a lot of extra time relative to the time I had spent in my AS year and my exams were spread out more in January and in the summer.”

Even discovering his results was not plain sailing for Zulfi, who lives in Temple Cowley.

He said: “I looked online and Ucas told me I had failed further maths, so when I came here to collect my results I was in a really grumpy mood and still under the impression I’d failed.

“I think there was some sort of administrative error, so I was really relieved when I got my actual results.”

Zulfi also secured the A* in maths and an A in economics he needed to read maths at Imperial.