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STEP Prep Thread 2015

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Reply 1480
Original post by physicsmaths
Damn, i really wanted to go. Ill ask my referee tmmrw.
What are the dates if u dont mind?


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6-10 april
Original post by rhiam
6-10 april


Cheers mate.


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Original post by physicsmaths
Yes i shall. Someone who went last year said it was really really good.


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Any idea on the kind of stuff they cover?
Original post by SamKeene
Any idea on the kind of stuff they cover?


No clue bro.


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Does anyone else feel like a god everytime they do a step question really quickly.


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Original post by physicsmaths
Does anyone else feel like a god everytime they do a step question really quickly.


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Haha the image of God struggling with a STEP question makes me laugh.:mmm:

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Original post by physicsmaths
Does anyone else feel like a god everytime they do a step question really quickly.


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There was a STEP III question which was the last pure one (Q8), so meant to be the hardest - and all it required was a basic C1/2 understanding of integration and very simple u-subs. The 'trick' was noting:

ac ⁣f(x)dx=ab ⁣f(x)dx+bc ⁣f(x)dx\int_a^c \! f(x) \, \mathrm{d}x = \int_a^b \! f(x) \, \mathrm{d}x + \int_b^c \! f(x) \, \mathrm{d}x

(a<b<c)

It was glorious doing it, GLORIOUS.
Original post by SamKeene
There was a STEP III question which was the last pure one (Q8), so meant to be the hardest - and all it required was a basic C1/2 understanding of integration and very simple u-subs. The 'trick' was noting:

ac ⁣f(x)dx=ab ⁣f(x)dx+bc ⁣f(x)dx\int_a^c \! f(x) \, \mathrm{d}x = \int_a^b \! f(x) \, \mathrm{d}x + \int_b^c \! f(x) \, \mathrm{d}x

(a<b<c)

It was glorious doing it, GLORIOUS.


STEP II 2006. That paper is beautiful.
Especially the mechanics 👌


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How is everyone finding STEP III currently?

I've got to the point where when I see a STEP I or II paper I can see the questions that I should attempt first and roughly how to approach them. With STEP III I find it hard to get a foothold in most of the questions I've attempted, except the Integration questions, which I can pick off relatively easily. Though I can hardly rely on one topic.

Hopefully that'll improve by June :tongue:
Original post by physicsmaths
STEP II 2006. That paper is beautiful.
Especially the mechanics ������


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Just glanced at it - it does look like a nice paper, Q1 reminds me why I need to go over recurrence stuff again. Q4 is a perfect example of a typical STEP question, using what you learn in the first part to complete subsequent parts. No idea what it means on Q6 by 'by considering a suitable scalar product', does it mean considering two numbers as a product or two vectors?... That;s what I get for not doing STEP in nearly a year..

Q9, Q10 and Q11 look v nice application of M2... wonder if you would use conservation of energy in Q11 at some point.... Damn it excites me >.<

Can't wait till I start working on STEP.. which would be Feb 12th... aiming to finish M3 by end of feb, and M4 sometime in march, and maybe M5 for the differential equations stuff, not that its needed to step.

I need to get a good daily schedule in place... probably 2 hours of Pure revision (C1-FP3/4), 3 hours of learning mechanics/revision and 4 hours of step. I'm determined to put a few hundred hours into STEP this time around \angryface\
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by SamKeene
Just glanced at it - it does look like a nice paper, Q1 reminds me why I need to go over recurrence stuff again. Q4 is a perfect example of a typical STEP question, using what you learn in the first part to complete subsequent parts. No idea what it means on Q6 by 'by considering a suitable scalar product', does it mean considering two numbers as a product or two vectors?... That;s what I get for not doing STEP in nearly a year..

Q9, Q10 and Q11 look v nice application of M2... wonder if you would use conservation of energy in Q11 at some point.... Damn it excites me >.<

Can't wait till I start working on STEP.. which would be Feb 12th... aiming to finish M3 by end of feb, and M4 sometime in march, and maybe M5 for the differential equations stuff, not that its needed to step.

I need to get a good daily schedule in place... probably 2 hours of Pure revision (C1-FP3/4), 3 hours of learning mechanics/revision and 4 hours of step. I'm determined to put a few hundred hours into STEP this time around \angryface\

Yh q1 is really easy. Just algebra.
What i do is ill do some fp2 fp3 exam qs for a bit then do some step for few hours then ease it out with finishing off with some mechanics exam questions or fp2 fp3. At school i do nothing so i jus learn content for modules as i cant concentrate on step there.


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Original post by SamKeene
Just glanced at it - it does look like a nice paper, Q1 reminds me why I need to go over recurrence stuff again. Q4 is a perfect example of a typical STEP question, using what you learn in the first part to complete subsequent parts. No idea what it means on Q6 by 'by considering a suitable scalar product', does it mean considering two numbers as a product or two vectors?... That;s what I get for not doing STEP in nearly a year..

Q9, Q10 and Q11 look v nice application of M2... wonder if you would use conservation of energy in Q11 at some point.... Damn it excites me >.<

Can't wait till I start working on STEP.. which would be Feb 12th... aiming to finish M3 by end of feb, and M4 sometime in march, and maybe M5 for the differential equations stuff, not that its needed to step.

I need to get a good daily schedule in place... probably 2 hours of Pure revision (C1-FP3/4), 3 hours of learning mechanics/revision and 4 hours of step. I'm determined to put a few hundred hours into STEP this time around \angryface\


U on a gap year?


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Original post by physicsmaths
Yh q1 is really easy. Just algebra.
What i do is ill do some fp2 fp3 exam qs for a bit then do some step for few hours then ease it out with finishing off with some mechanics exam questions or fp2 fp3. At school i do nothing so i jus learn content for modules as i cant concentrate on step there.


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What other A2's are you doing? I would be interested to hear about your time management. How much academia do you tend to do daily, do you do STEP daily etc..

Original post by physicsmaths
U on a gap year?


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Indeed :redface: Prepare your anus for after Feb 12th hits I'm going to be asking for ungodly amounts of help in this thread :P
Original post by physicsmaths
U on a gap year?


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Also what modules have you done/currently done/plan to do?
Original post by physicsmaths
STEP II 2006. That paper is beautiful.
Especially the mechanics


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Completely agree about the pure! Only done Q10 out of the mechanics though (still self-teaching, haha).
Original post by SamKeene
What other A2's are you doing? I would be interested to hear about your time management. How much academia do you tend to do daily, do you do STEP daily etc..



Indeed :redface: Prepare your anus for after Feb 12th hits I'm going to be asking for ungodly amounts of help in this thread :P


Me? Really lol? Better off asking someone whos better then me lol.
I just do maths fm and physics.
I have no time management currently but its getting better now. I tend to do around 0 hours of physics per day (had my parents evening today and physics was horrendous haha!)
Im doing around 4-5 hours of maths per day. I am doing a few questions per day atleast now. Im currently finishing up m3 and fp3. (Doing questions etc on fp2 m3 fp3 just to brush up). Done c1-4 s1-2 m1-3 now. Plan on doing m4 after this and bits of m5. Thos hours are after school. I learnt fp3 in one week 😏. I just want my content solid in a few weeks so i can start step 3. I shall start step 3 once m3 is done.



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Original post by DomStaff
Completely agree about the pure! Only done Q10 out of the mechanics though (still self-teaching, haha).

Bro you got screwed with those decision modules last year !
Lol no. 10 was my favourite. Collisions are my strength. Least favourite was no. 9.


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Original post by physicsmaths
Does anyone else feel like a god everytime they do a step question really quickly.


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STEP III 2009 Q4 :biggrin: Best question ever!
Original post by physicsmaths
Me? Really lol? Better off asking someone whos better then me lol.
I just do maths fm and physics.
I have no time management currently but its getting better now. I tend to do around 0 hours of physics per day (had my parents evening today and physics was horrendous haha!)
Im doing around 4-5 hours of maths per day. I am doing a few questions per day atleast now. Im currently finishing up m3 and fp3. (Doing questions etc on fp2 m3 fp3 just to brush up). Done c1-4 s1-2 m1-3 now. Plan on doing m4 after this and bits of m5. Thos hours are after school. I learnt fp3 in one week ������. I just want my content solid in a few weeks so i can start step 3. I shall start step 3 once m3 is done.
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Just help in general from this thread I meant :P

I've considered powering through physics, but I don't know if it has enough maths to keep me interested.

I think I also did Fp3 in a week or so, I remember doing all the matrices and vector stuff from scratch only a few days from my exam >.<

After I finish M4/5 I've considered doing some stats. I can't even remember S1... certainly not touching them in STEP :P But who knows I might get around to it...

At the moment I'm the same in terms of maths, 4-5 hours a day... I really want to bump it up to 8-9 but that's pretty hard.
Original post by SamKeene
Just help in general from this thread I meant :P

I've considered powering through physics, but I don't know if it has enough maths to keep me interested.

I think I also did Fp3 in a week or so, I remember doing all the matrices and vector stuff from scratch only a few days from my exam >.<

After I finish M4/5 I've considered doing some stats. I can't even remember S1... certainly not touching them in STEP :P But who knows I might get around to it...

At the moment I'm the same in terms of maths, 4-5 hours a day... I really want to bump it up to 8-9 but that's pretty hard.


Lol ill help with anything i can haha!
Alow stats i might try a few step questions and see how they go but doubt they will go well lol. Yh i want to do that much but its very hard. A whole paper takes a few days so its alot of time.


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