The 2012 STEP Results Discussion Thread

all this talk about BMO and IMO lol

STEP is enough for now.....I would of loved to have done BMO....but my school don't enter me

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/resources.php?c=1&cid=16&year=2011&sid=f22d1ccbeda0537211759ba8767782d7
Q2?

I can't even understand it. You should try some more, you might have a talent.

Well you automatically get into the BMO1 free if you do well enough on Senior UKMT. Otherwise, you can pay a small fee to enter. Then the top people from BMO1 go to BMO2. Then top people on BMO2 get selected to try out for the IMO team I think.

this thread is quiet today must mean everyone is busy doing STEP

a general question to ask.......is "by symmetry" an acceptable reason for a step question....like in vectors etc.

Anyone doing m4 edexcel here?

I use this often. I can't see any reason why not as long as your system is symmetrical and that it is either obviously symmetrical or you have shown it to be so. Also, be careful of trivialising problems...
This comes up in probability quite a lot for example when removing balls from urns it seems obvious to me that the system has no bias.

thanks g

yh when I was doing a few probability questions before my interview....like the one on the Trinity interview specimen paper....I remember there was symmetry involved. Although, for STEP Im mainly referring to pure questions like vectors usually. I will bear in mind about not trivializing the problem....thanks g

Yo (I am in case the "yo" doesn't make sense :P)

Do you have any idea what we're suppose to know to manage test/interview stats/probability questions?

I just polished up my probability stuff.....did few STEP questions etc.

its a good job I did as half the questions I did for my Trinity test were statistics questions

So, whole STEP stats syllabus?

Doing a semi-timed paper at the moment (by semi-timed I mean I'm counting to 3 hours but taking a break mid-way through), currently attempted and done (correctly) 3 questions in 1 hour 50 minutes.

Do you have any idea what we're suppose to know to manage test/interview stats/probability questions?

Nice one, what STEP?



For the King's test, it didn't go beyond S1, and I think even that was just a single question requiring a tree diagram. But it's worth pointing out that I had to do extra reading - chunks of FP2/FP3. (Stats was not priority.)

Actually, I should really say that they don't expect you to know anything unreasonable. They know you're midway through your course. If you get asked a question in the interview/test on a subject you haven't covered, you wouldn't be disadvantaged for saying/writing "We haven't covered that yet"!

Nice one, what STEP?



For the King's test, it didn't go beyond S1, and I think even that was just a single question requiring a tree diagram. But it's worth pointing out that I had to do extra reading - chunks of FP2/FP3. (Stats was not priority.)

Actually, I should really say that they don't expect you to know anything unreasonable. They know you're midway through your course. If you get asked a question in the interview/test on a subject you haven't covered, you wouldn't be disadvantaged for saying/writing "We haven't covered that yet"!

Step II 1997 finished with 5 and a half solutions (well 6 but one of the second halves was wrong).

In one of my interviews, all the questions involved knowing just one simple relationship which a primary school kid would understand. Yet some parts were insanely difficult (i.e. I know no offer holder so far who managed to complete it unaided). In the second interview however, fp2/3 knowledge was assumed for some Qs (same case for friends having college tests at Churchill, Cam). IMO fp2/3 in interviews is acceptable, but in college tests is unfair (as some students will have an unfair advantage, and a lot of the further pure stuff is quite trivial in interviews). Especially when some pupils are still finishing c3/4 topics, and there is no mention of reading ahead for interview preparation anywhere.