The 2012 STEP Results Discussion Thread

Scroll to see replies

Reply 900

Slowbro93

Original post by twig

Vectors are fun. Look forward to doing physics properly with vectors at uni.

Vectors drive me up the wall :banghead:

Reply 901

TRLMaths

Vectors -.- Did anyone else here do FP2 OCR?...

Reply 902

anil10100

Hm just got the email about the online STEP lectures today, haven't they already started?

Reply 903

Xero Xenith

Original post by TRLMaths

Vectors -.- Did anyone else here do FP2 OCR?...

That would be me... clashing with M2!

I got lower than any practice paper but I don't mind because I got what I need :smile:

you?

Reply 904

B Jack

Got 98, 95, and 94 for Differential Equations, M3 and S3 respectively (OCR MEI) all of which lost 4 raw marks, but DE was higher due to the 18/18 coursework :biggrin:

STEP II and III are going well, finding the mechanics questions not as accessible but plenty of time still..

Reply 905

Xero Xenith

Original post by B Jack

Got 98, 95, and 94 for Differential Equations, M3 and S3 respectively (OCR MEI) all of which lost 4 raw marks, but DE was higher due to the 18/18 coursework :biggrin:

STEP II and III are going well, finding the mechanics questions not as accessible but plenty of time still..

Congrats! I can't do Mech questions too well either, may take M3 to boost my knowledge somewhat. :smile:

Is anyone working on any kind of plan?! I've been doing questions at my own pace, but never setting targets or anything like that. We have 3 and a half months. Anyone got a regime they're sticking to? :smile:

I'm considering something like this:

Spoiler

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 906

gff

Original post by Xero Xenith

Is anyone working on any kind of plan?! Anyone got a regime they're sticking to? :smile:

A plan or a regime hardly, but I'm trying to do some questions to keep up to date.

Just finished the 4th S3 question, and I also did 3 S2 questions during the week. One question for each day seems a good rate, and I like to balance between S2 and S3.
For the weekend, I'd probably go over 2007S3 Q7,8 - they look good and I need some extra work done on STEP.

I would hope that by Easter I'll start with timed papers, so that I will have a good month for it before June.
That's not the only thing I have to do, so I would prefer not to wait until the last few weeks.

Can someone invent a time machine? :biggrin:

I think one of those will come handy, considering the work load that we've got.

Reply 907

Xero Xenith

Original post by gff

I think one of those will come handy, considering the work load that we've got.

2007 III 7 and 8 are good questions. Try 6 if you want an irritating challenge! (That was how I found it... your experiences may vary.)

Which papers are you doing in June? Tempted to do all three - just need a 2 in any of them to get Warwick. Although, that would mean both my choices depending on STEP. Which is insane :s-smilie:

Reply 908

gff

Original post by Xero Xenith

2007 III 7 and 8 are good questions. Try 6 if you want an irritating challenge!

Which papers are you doing in June? Tempted to do all three - just need a 2 in any of them to get Warwick. Although, that would mean both my choices depending on STEP. Which is insane :s-smilie:

Will do - I like irritating challenges. :tongue:

I'll be doing S2 and S3.

If you think you can get easily a 1-S in S1, then why not.
However, I would prefer to save my stamina for S2 and S3, because they're a few days apart.

You can't potentially get less than a 2 in all the papers - what are you talking about? Look at your UMS again. :tongue:

If you're still unsure, then sit S1 as well; it won't hurt.

Reply 909

TRLMaths

Original post by Xero Xenith

That would be me... clashing with M2!

I got lower than any practice paper but I don't mind because I got what I need :smile:

you?

Managed to get 100 UMS... My teacher told me he is getting a photocopy of my paper back, because no one else at my college got above 80%... :') Should be interesting. How did M2 go? I had FP1 and M1 too. Oh, and Physics.

Reply 910

Venomilys

how can I gain access to the STEP online lectures?

Reply 911

TRLMaths

Original post by Ilyas

how can I gain access to the STEP online lectures?

They're for STEP Easter School people only I'm afraid :/

Reply 912

Rahul.S

Original post by maths134

snap got 298/300 on my three results today lol (C3,C4,M2)

thought I should quote you :tongue:

I just did the last part of that STEP III question....we were missing something bloody obvious!!!!! :mad:

just use the part before :rolleyes:

Reply 913

B Jack

Original post by Xero Xenith

Congrats! I can't do Mech questions too well either, may take M3 to boost my knowledge somewhat. :smile:

I'm considering something like this:

Spoiler

I've been working through all the questions in one past paper a week, doing about 2 each day; i've been randomly choosing them (via a calculator ofcourse :smile:

) to get used to doing questions that are more difficult to approach, and to practise being stuck in a STEP question so and getting a feel of how long I should spend on being stuck on a question before its best to move on.

I'm saving the last 5 years for STEP II and III for past papers, will prob do a past paper a week from late April onwards.

Reply 914

Dirac Spinor

For STEP III 2000 Q8, what do you think is the intended method for the last part?
I just solved the difference equation explicitly but I find it hard to believe that they would expect the average candidate to know that.

Reply 915

Farhan.Hanif93

Original post by ben-smith

This is what I did and it appeared to be the neatest way but as you say, they almost definitely wouldn't expect you to know how to solve it explicitly.

The alternative would be to plug in their value of

\alpha

and show it works. This is probably the intended method.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 916

Xero Xenith

Original post by TRLMaths

Congrats! That was a tough paper :smile:

I got 86 in FP2 and 91 in M2. Actually, all my results this year were lower than any past paper I'd done. Ah well - again, I got what I want :smile:

I'm guessing your other Maths scores were similarly insane? :tongue:

Original post by B Jack

I've been working through all the questions in one past paper a week, doing about 2 each day; i've been randomly choosing them (via a calculator ofcourse :smile:

2 questions a day? That's more than I'm doing at the moment. Time to up my game :wink:

I should get plenty of free time when my teachers officially stop caring about me. Hopefully soon :smile:

So you're doing all types of question - stats, mech and pure? I can't touch much of the Mech stuff, but Stats is usually OK.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 917

gff

Original post by ben-smith

Probably that's what I would go for, since I don't have better ideas for induction on it - it will be a messy thing to do.
While I was looking at the paper I bashed Q2. :biggrin:

It was a good question - took me 20-ish mins to do.

Do you think the difficulty of questions increases with the years? Have you noticed something?

Reply 918

Rahul.S

some of the vectors questions are a BITCH! :tongue:

Reply 919

B Jack

Original post by Xero Xenith

2 questions a day? That's more than I'm doing at the moment. Time to up my game :wink:

I should get plenty of free time when my teachers officially stop caring about me. Hopefully soon :smile:

So you're doing all types of question - stats, mech and pure? I can't touch much of the Mech stuff, but Stats is usually OK.

It's pretty intense, but I enjoy it so I can't complain :smile:

I decided after Jan exams that I wanted to go through near enough all the questions from 2000 onwards, which was an average of about 2 per day. I've found it useful going through a lot of questions though, I've managed to identify some of my weakest areas for STEP (vector questions particularly) and some of the ideas for a STEP question come up again so its helping me get my average time down.

The only issue really is that to get through so many questions I only really spend up to a hour and a half before looking at hints/solutions, which isn't recommended, but I think theres enough choice in the papers for this not to be a major problem.