STEP Prep Thread 2016 (Mark. II)

Oh my god, thank you so much. Do share Julia's notes if you can get your hands across them.


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Agree with this (except if you are going to insist on starting early, do N&S. An easy introduction is given by Liebeck's book intro to pure maths). But you can get a high first without self studying in advance. Dabble if you really want, but definitely don't do it out of a mistaken belief you'll get left behind.

I see. I am definitely using the lecture notes as well as textbooks though. I currently haven't looked at the lecture notes but I feel like my methodology would be something along the lines 1)read lecture notes 2)reference to textbook, read it and see if you make 100% sense of it 3)do example sheets on it. What do you think of this? Are you 100% sure textbooks are not needed?



I was doing three times that during exam term, and that is because I had more exams than usual Maths offer-holders, so it seems like I will have way too much time in my hands during summer. I guess it is all relative. This doesn't even take into account how eager I am to start part IA.



This is why Zacken is setting up ASoM (A Summer of Maths) thread where we will be collaborating and self-studying the Tripos together. It would be great if you and other current Mathmos (as long as you have the time of course) help us from time to time, kind of like in an online supervision, I suppose.



Now, this is something that I can't debate with you about. Are the example sheets online the same that are given every year? Can I not just re-do them when the time comes? I think this 'summer self-study' is more about getting the practice + being familiar with the course in advance, and not about reducing workload during part IA. I never intended it to be this way. I am very eager to start IA, and I want to improve in maths in advance before I come into Cambridge. I am not planning to reduce any potential workload in Cambridge or whatever, I want the contrary of that.



Yes, I am a Churchill applicant! Are you also a Churchillian?

Thanks a lot.

They are online i remember them.


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don't link them then, it's ok I've got telepathy


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I can see how n+s is a great intro to uni maths, but the content isnt too hard. Starting it early wont be as useful as groups imo



Talking to other students on TSR will only go so far, itll never be as good as a 2 on 1 supervision. When we were doing example sheets in college we would discuss answers amongst ourselves but it wasn't until the supervisions where I really came to understand the content. Im no where near the level required to supervise, they're usually PhD students or professors who came in the top 10 of their years.

The example sheets do change slightly from year to year as lecturers change. I guess you could do the old ones, but as you say the best thing to do would just get familiar with some of the content, and not doing the work intended to be done during term.

Yep also at Churchill

I was looking for them for you actually you ****ing dickhead. I have found them, If you actually use google you will find you can find them very easily.
Here are some other ones http://www.mediafire.com/?76fjl2ik509oe5d
Hint: typing IA groups Lecture notes might get something.


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Would it be that much of a problem if I do the example sheets during summer and re-do them when I have to in October? I don't only want to familiarise myself with the content, I want to understand it in depth. Also, the example sheets look really fun.

You are going into second year now right?


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You know what, just go for it. It seems you're too eager to be dissuaded! I guess doing it early can only help. But just make sure you dont do so much as you get bored next year.
If you like number theory there are some insanely challenging questions on the N+S example sheets. They are quite fun to try but almost no one gets around to them because they take so long. You could waste a lot of your summer doing them all. (If you cant, dont worry, tripos questions are much easier than the last few qs on a n+s sheet)

Yep I am.

??? I manage 5 hours of work on an extremely good day in mid-exam season, I think your definition of "relax" is very different from that of a normal person.

So your DoS was Dr Chris Tout? He was my interviewer, he didn't speak that much since the other PhD student interviewer was asking the questions, but he had a ready smile and I really liked him haha. I think he is normally the DoS for IA right?


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Question 12 was even more of a joke

I can't believe so few people actually bother to look at the Stats and Mechanics sections

No, it looks like it might be interesting to watch over the summer

How good (or otherwise) is it?

Question 12 was even more of a joke

I can't believe so few people actually bother to look at the Stats and Mechanics sections

Who was the PhD student interviewer for you? Wondering if the same as me.

Its not really an unfamiliar style of question, I've seen quite a few of these 'you can use this result without proof in this question' questions. They are often inequalities, too

I think the problem is that people don't tend to even glance at the statistics section. Which is pretty understandable, I guess they assume that they don't stand a chance since they've not done lots of stats

It does sound worth watching

lol I guessed people didn't - Siklos is eventually going to have to fill STEP with GCSE level statistics just to get people to give the stats section a go

I only learnt stats for STEP

I hate how statistics (and maths in general actually) is taught at school (and, I hear, at University also), its like they just want to scare everyone away from it.

Still, can't really complain, if very few people take stats it'll make me more employable

You sleep for 14 hours?

Probability is probably more interesting than stats

What is the probability of probability being more interesting than stats?

Warwick first year probability is taught terribly and it was still more interesting than stats
So approximately 1

I'm pleased that (at least) two people looked at Q12. I'm guessing very few attempted it given that it introduces a university level concept, but if you get over the fact it's unfamiliar it is easy. I bet it was done by a handful correctly; most will have ignored it, or panicked and moved on.