STEP Prep Thread 2016 (Mark. II)

Reply 1960

Insight314

7

Original post by Mathemagicien

Don't worry, I'm not actually banned :biggrin:

Just removed my avatar, and changed my text thingy :tongue:

Btw, if I were banned, the posts would have been removed from the history

Yeah, I am TSR newbie. Sorry about that. :biggrin:

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Reply 1961

matthewdjones

9

@Mathemagicien. Looked at your solution to 8 and it seems I've had completely wrong idea about the approximations. Would I get anything or?

Reply 1962

Insight314

7

Original post by Mathemagicien

Newbie? "Joined March 2015" :tongue:

Why are you apologising lol?

You'd have thought that TSR would distinguish banned users more clearly, so that un-banned users can't pretend to be banned - just like they do with the Community Team and Support Team

Newbie is just a phrase m8. I guess I should've said "I am unknowledgeable of this banned trend."

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Reply 1963

matthewdjones

9

Original post by Mathemagicien

I wouldn't know, but I'd imagine you'd lose quite a few marks, if this is what you wrote in the exam, sorry

Fair enough cheers. How many do you think the approximations were in total?

Reply 1964

Cnoel

Can anyone explain the intuition behind the theorem on cyclic quadrilaterals in III 2009 q6? And how many marks would that last part be worth?

Reply 1965

IrrationalRoot

20

Original post by Cnoel

Can anyone explain the intuition behind the theorem on cyclic quadrilaterals in III 2009 q6? And how many marks would that last part be worth?

Not very many at all.
All those 4 e^i whatevers have modulus 1 so all lie on a circle (forming a cyclic quadrilateral by definition). You've proven a relationship between the distances between then and since you can multiply the result by any positive real number the theorem for all cyclic quadrilaterals (Ptolemy's Theorem) follows.

Reply 1966

Zacken

OP

22

Original post by matthewdjones

Fair enough cheers. How many do you think the approximations were in total?

Probs two each.

Reply 1967

EricPiphany

17

How was I supposed to do STEP III Q8 2010, the first line?

Reply 1968

Zacken

OP

22

Original post by EricPiphany

How was I supposed to do STEP III Q8 2010, the first line?

Notice that it's the quotient rule. i.e: the integrand is the derivative of R(x) / Q(x).

Reply 1969

EricPiphany

17

Original post by Zacken

Notice that it's the quotient rule. i.e: the integrand is the derivative of R(x) / Q(x).

Ye I had a look at a solution. I just couldn't manage it without that realisation. I'll just have to keep an open mind for these types of things.

Reply 1970

jweo

1

Anyone know if we'd lose any marks for using an equal sign with 2 lines rather than one with 3 when 3 is appropriate (e.g. when simplifying)? I've only been using the two-lined one unless three lines are used in the question and I assumed they wouldn't care

Reply 1971

sweeneyrod

15

Original post by jweo

Anyone know if we'd lose any marks for using an equal sign with 2 lines rather than one with 3 when 3 is appropriate (e.g. when simplifying)? I've only been using the two-lined one unless three lines are used in the question and I assumed they wouldn't care

Pretty sure they wouldn't care (unless it was some dodgy question about the differences between equal signs).

Reply 1972

tridianprime

2

Just did a STEP iii 2013 mock (it was definitely a pain but it seemed very possible to avoid vectors and complex numbers thankfully - did q1,2,5(partial),7,12 so am fairly happy. In q7(the not so nice DE), I did all of it but part (iii) completely. In part (iii) I did manage to find E(x) though and differentiated that - just didn't show the inequality. Any idea what I might lose?

Reply 1973

Zacken

OP

22

Original post by tridianprime

Just did a STEP iii 2013 mock (it was definitely a pain but it seemed very possible to avoid vectors and complex numbers thankfully - did q1,2,5(partial),7,12 so am fairly happy. In q7(the not so nice DE), I did all of it but part (iii) completely. In part (iii) I did manage to find E(x) though and differentiated that - just didn't show the inequality. Any idea what I might lose?

Look at the OP (section 5 iirc), there's a markscheme for III 2013 available, why don't you use that?

Reply 1974

tridianprime

2

Original post by Zacken

Look at the OP (section 5 iirc), there's a markscheme for III 2013 available, why don't you use that?

Thanks, didn't realise.

Reply 1975

Gunawardana

5

Original post by tridianprime

Just did a STEP iii 2013 mock (it was definitely a pain but it seemed very possible to avoid vectors and complex numbers thankfully - did q1,2,5(partial),7,12 so am fairly happy. In q7(the not so nice DE), I did all of it but part (iii) completely. In part (iii) I did manage to find E(x) though and differentiated that - just didn't show the inequality. Any idea what I might lose?

did this paper recently myself and yeah vectors and complex numbers were horrible but for me the three mechanics Qs were pretty easy (got 15,20,20 for those) but I messed up Q7 about D.E (got just 7 marks) - i guess I didnt completely get the point. The other two Qs I did were 1 and 2 (got 18,15 for those)
Hope the coming up STEP 3 brings with it some easy mechanics as well (as Siklos is probably gonna come up with some horrible vectors and complex numbers in pure :tongue:

)

Reply 1976

Gunawardana

5

Original post by Mathemagicien

Why would you want to avoid complex numbers? :frown:

complex numbers isnt one of my strengths haha- also I did FP2 last year and so havent really been in complex numbers for a while

EDIT : Just realised you werent quoting me (as I also said something about complex numbers) lol...

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1977

krishdesai7

3

Is it just me, or is STEP 3 a whole order of magnitude tougher than STEP 2. I didy first mock today, and ooh, it was a whole new ballgame

Reply 1978

IrrationalRoot

20

Original post by Mathemagicien

Why would you want to avoid complex numbers? :frown:

I don't mind complex numbers even though it's not my strongest topic, but a lot of the time they're paired up with vectors so I don't do them.
Things like III 2013 Q6 are fine though :smile: