The 2012 STEP Results Discussion Thread

I'd just like to ask: how much did you guys focus on pure and how much on applied? Obviously there are more pure questions, but it seems like it would be a bad idea to ignore the applied section; then again if some of the applied questions are going to be accessible only to those who've done M5 or S4, is there much point in spending a lot of time doing mechanics and statistics, instead of improving your pure maths?

Reply 5041

Lord of the Flies

19

Original post by ian.slater

I just showed this to an Oxford fresher who took STEP for fun (1,1 in II/III) - he fired back - aren't they just STEP questions - he may be right.

Possible. I didn't really look at them, just saw loads of integrals and trig functions and thought :pinch:

Reply 5042

TheMagicMan

15

Original post by und

I'd just like to ask: how much did you guys focus on pure and how much on applied? Obviously there are more pure questions, but it seems like it would be a bad idea to ignore the applied section; then again if some of the applied questions are going to be accessible only to those who've done M5 or S4, is there much point in spending a lot of time doing mechanics and statistics, instead of improving your pure maths?

I focused on both during preparation, but I was consistently about 10 minutes quicker on pure than applied going into the exams.... There has been a consistent trend of accessible applied questions in recent years so it's worth doing some prep on them

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 5043

Lord of the Flies

19

Original post by und

I'd just like to ask: how much did you guys focus on pure and how much on applied? Obviously there are more pure questions, but it seems like it would be a bad idea to ignore the applied section; then again if some of the applied questions are going to be accessible only to those who've done M5 or S4, is there much point in spending a lot of time doing mechanics and statistics, instead of improving your pure maths?

I strongly dislike anything applied so I focused on pure only. But I don't think this is a good thing to do; in fact I intend to change my ways next year. :smile:

From what I've heard the applied questions can be quite nice and tend to be slightly easier than the pure (or at least they have a higher chance of being so). So yes, worth looking at.

Reply 5044

thebot

Original post by und

I'd just like to ask: how much did you guys focus on pure and how much on applied? Obviously there are more pure questions, but it seems like it would be a bad idea to ignore the applied section; then again if some of the applied questions are going to be accessible only to those who've done M5 or S4, is there much point in spending a lot of time doing mechanics and statistics, instead of improving your pure maths?

I somewhat agree with TheMagicMan. Before STEP II I was like: I'm going for the 8 pure ones, excluding graph sketching problems (I hate graph sketching), because the mechanics was usually ugly and I haven't learned some probability needed. I ended up doing 2 mechanics problems (9. and 11) on STEP II. On STEP III, there was a really easy probability question (12. I think) so I did that.
If you have enough time to prepare, I'd advise concentrating on the pure section, as it gives 2 more problems than needed, and as much as 4 extra problems if you're only looking for a low 1. But, if you feel like you don't have much time, consider revising applied, because you never know when an easy question might come up.

Reply 5045

und

16

Original post by Lord of the Flies

I strongly dislike anything applied so I focused on pure only. But I don't think this is a good thing to do; in fact I intend to change my ways next year. :smile:

From what I've heard the applied questions can be quite nice and tend to be slightly easier than the pure (or at least they have a higher chance of being so). So yes, worth looking at.

What's good about the mechanics questions is that if you draw a diagram, add in a few angles, forces, lengths, lines etc, and spot a useful link, you're already beyond the tricky stage, and all you have to do it play around with some expressions until you have the answer, whereas with the pure questions you can fall into the trap of not thinking hard enough, or missing a very useful link, and end up trying to do it like an A level question. Maybe that'll go away with practice, but right now I feel far less able to do pure questions in STEP II than mechanics questions. Don't get me started on statistics, though. :rolleyes:

Reply 5046

Dirac Spinor

10

Original post by TheMagicMan

I think it's easier than step...

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

OK well, what do you get for the last part of 3? :smile:

. I must be out of practice, my answer is just fugly.

Reply 5047

TheMagicMan

15

Original post by ben-smith

OK well, what do you get for the last part of 3? :smile:

. I must be out of practice, my answer is just fugly.

I only did 7&9 because they were show thats and they were much quicker than a typical step q...and mechanics sucks anyway :tongue:

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 5048

Dirac Spinor

10

Original post by TheMagicMan

and mechanics sucks anyway :tongue:

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Enjoy maths with physics :biggrin:

Reply 5049

TheMagicMan

15

Original post by ben-smith

Enjoy maths with physics :biggrin:

I have a love-hate relationship with mechanics :wink:

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 5050

maths134

13

I should probably do the sheet at some point... near end of September I think =p atleast when I get back from Reading Festival lol

Reply 5051

und

16

Does anybody else falter at the sight of maths questions after the long summer holiday? Before, I was happily doing AEA, STEP I and other difficult questions, but now I seem to have forgotten basic methods. :tongue:

Reply 5052

maths134

13

Original post by und

Does anybody else falter at the sight of maths questions after the long summer holiday? Before, I was happily doing AEA, STEP I and other difficult questions, but now I seem to have forgotten basic methods. :tongue:

Exactly how I feel haha!. I'm kinda scared to even try!

Reply 5053

desijut

10

Original post by und

I'd just like to ask: how much did you guys focus on pure and how much on applied? Obviously there are more pure questions, but it seems like it would be a bad idea to ignore the applied section; then again if some of the applied questions are going to be accessible only to those who've done M5 or S4, is there much point in spending a lot of time doing mechanics and statistics, instead of improving your pure maths?

It would be sensible to practice applied. Although I only attempt pure (and maybe applied on STEP II), practicing applied gives you a larger range of questions and they're also seen as slightly easier than the pure (not sure if true since i dont attempt them :tongue:

)

Original post by und

Does anybody else falter at the sight of maths questions after the long summer holiday? Before, I was happily doing AEA, STEP I and other difficult questions, but now I seem to have forgotten basic methods. :tongue:

Original post by maths134

Exactly how I feel haha!. I'm kinda scared to even try!

Ditto. Im going to do the seemingly easy looking workbook, and then tackle that example sheet. But not yet, maybe in two weeks, we still have a lot of time untill uni starts.

Reply 5054

Zuzuzu

12

Original post by ben-smith

OK well, what do you get for the last part of 3? :smile:

. I must be out of practice, my answer is just fugly.

Quite. I get,

Spoiler

Reply 5055

und

16

Original post by Zuzuzu

Quite. I get,

Spoiler

That kind of reminds me of one of the answers in this summer's AEA exam. It seemed so weird that I thought it was wrong. Something like

a^{n^{\frac{1}{n-1}}}

Reply 5056

Dirac Spinor

10

Original post by Zuzuzu

Quite. I get,

Spoiler

I think we agree :eek:

Did you get an integral similar to that from question 2?

Reply 5057

Zuzuzu

12

Original post by ben-smith

I think we agree :eek:

Did you get an integral similar to that from question 2?

yeah, it was pretty much the same looking back. 3 was the first one I attempted though, so I didn't see the similarity and had to go the long way round. :redface:

Reply 5058

ukdragon37

14

Humph, continuous mathematics :hand:

Reply 5059

desijut

10

Original post by hassi94

Scary stuff - Emma just emailed me saying to go to down on the 27th as Mathmos have a 'intro lecture' on the 28th, that's the day before everyone arrives! :tongue:

As well as that, I have this workbook thing Rahul speaks of and my first example sheet for my first supervision :eek:

churchill mathmos are there on the 25th, with lessons on the 26th 27th 28th

The 2012 STEP Results Discussion Thread

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you