The 2013 STEP Prep Thread!

Why? Are we taking $\sqrt{x+4}$ as only the positive square root of $x + 4$? If so then that would explain what I've done wrong.

$\sqrt{x}$ is always positive (obviously $x\geq 0$). We write $\pm \sqrt{x}$ if it can be negative.

By definition, $\sqrt{x+4} >0$ i.e. it always denotes the positive root.

As has been said many times before, this is probably one of the worst taught tidbit in school maths.
EDIT: As above.

the way I think about remember it is that, otherwise, there would be no point in the plus or minus in the quadratic formula. Dunno if that helps.

The Hong Kong A-Levels are incredible; they're almost exactly what I would cover in Pure, and the Applied isn't too shabby either. Pity they've stopped them now. They have a very wide syllabus (much wider than the UK A-Levels; in particular, they treat functions, limits and continuity/differentiability more rigorously), so you might want to skip those questions. Some of the questions are very STEP like indeed; some of them can quite easily appear as parts of questions in a first year undergrad exam.

The grading system was absolutely insane though; only 1% of students got an A. They are definitely not equivalent to the UK A-Levels, so an AAA entry requirements is :O

Papers are available online (search HKALE Pure Mathematics) from 1981 onwards. Great additional practice if you want it (and also something to help bridge the gap between A-Levels/university for Analysis). Overall I reckon STEP is harder though.

STEP what is harder, I, II or III?

Given only a small proportion (is it 1%?) get an A grade in the Hong Kong A-Levels, would be it harder to get an S in STEP (12% in III) or A in HK A-Levels?

STEP what is harder, I, II or III?

Given only a small proportion (is it 1%?) get an A grade in the Hong Kong A-Levels, would be it harder to get an S in STEP (12% in III) or A in HK A-Levels?

What In One Ear said (you could've figured that out yourself, don't let us Imperial mathmos down )

EDIT: This document states around top 7% for applied mathematics and 5% for pure mathematics get an A. The 1% is for the top grade in the new HKDSE exam. Maybe I should think about moving to HK to teach maths there

Pfft, Yale.

Princeton is where the party's at.

...

Princeton is where the party's at.

Also, thanks for earlier

No problem Enjoying second year?

Yeah second year is going well. At the moment, the modules that I am enjoying are both Intermediate Dynamics (considering doing a project in it next year ) and PDE's and complex variables. I sort of get analysis, but I was never a pure man myself

How are you finding A2?

Hmm! Sounds interesting! I'm on a gap year (and consequently spending far too much time on TSR)

I'm at uni and spend too much time (although modding and PS's takes up a large proportion ) What made you decide to do a gap year? Are you looking at at first year material?