STEP Prep Thread 2015

Original post by physicsmaths

Step 1 2006. Very easy one in there.

Posted from TSR Mobile

You were right. I didn't expect the question to be as easy as it was.

Reply 1581

Original post by ThatPerson

You were right. I didn't expect the question to be as easy as it was.

Yh the last part tries to confuse u but its just simple rearranging then noticing the area parts before. Very nice question indeed.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 1582

MathMeister

10

Original post by physicsmaths

Any people easing into mechanics step, STEP 1 2004 Q9 is really straight forward.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Just cracked it. yh it was rather easy :smile:

I struggled with it at one point- I must've not been thinking at all! :tongue:

Reply 1583

Alex_Aits

7

Original post by DomStaff

There are some III papers that I don't consider bad at all. E.g. Look at how easy Q6 is on 2010, easy 20 marks in just a few minutes.
I agree III is harder, but not 'much' harder. However, bear in mind, the grade boundaries for a 1/S are a fair bit lower in III, so if you consider it as the difficulty of getting a 1/S in comparison to II, it's not so bad.
(Obviously the difference in grade boundaries suggests it's harder.)

Haha for that question did you just keep transforming the axes? Lets you do each bit in like 2 lines haha

Reply 1584

Original post by Alex_Aits

Haha for that question did you just keep transforming the axes? Lets you do each bit in like 2 lines haha

How do you mean? You just draw several right-angled triangles and draw on the sphere/have an idea where the axis of rotation is, hence which point(s) will/won't move due to a given rotation. Yeah, it's really nice! Looks disgusting though, at a first glance, doesn't it? Hahaha

Reply 1585

Anyone know where i can get some questions with sevond order d.e's with hyperbolic coefficients.

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Reply 1586

Alex_Aits

7

Original post by DomStaff

How do you mean? You just draw several right-angled triangles and draw on the sphere/have an idea where the axis of rotation is, hence which point(s) will/won't move due to a given rotation. Yeah, it's really nice! Looks disgusting though, at a first glance, doesn't it? Hahaha

Yeah I thought "nah this isn't up my street" (I generally don't like / am not very good at geometry or anything vectors related).
I mean, for example after the first rotation, define a new x-axis phi degrees clockwise from the standard axis [so P1(1,0,0) again] and the same for the y-axis. Then it's just a single triangle to be drawn per translation, although working back through the translated axes to give the answer in terms of phi and lambda was quite tedious.

Reply 1587

6 fulls to 2003 II in 2:45 (not continuous, but done on a stopwatch over 2 days)...not bad. However, maintaining concentration for three whole hours seems a little daunting right now.

(all from pure as well, need go get good at applied, as they seem quicker.)

seemed like a pretty easy paper overall.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1588

Karoel

6

Original post by DomStaff

6 fulls to 2003 II in 2:45 (not continuous, but done on a stopwatch over 2 days)...not bad. However, maintaining concentration for three whole hours seems a little daunting right now.

(all from pure as well, need go get good at applied, as they seem quicker.)

seemed like a pretty easy paper overall.

What grade would that be?

Reply 1589

Original post by Karoel

What grade would that be?

If 6 fulls means 6 correct, it is 100% an S unless there are some major problems with 1 solutions or more( I doubt it as he would notice such a problem probably)
Nice one DomStaff, the cambridge place is in reach.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 1590

Xenorebrem

11

Original post by Karoel

What grade would that be?

Probably a 3 bordering on a 2.

:colonhash:

Lol.

It's 6/6. Thats a supreme S or the SS for short. :mmm:

Reply 1591

pryngles

9

Still haven't finished C4, FP1 or S1 at school :frown:

Reply 1592

pryngles

9

Also, it seems that FP3 AQA differs from FP3 Edexcel, as there are no vectors in AQA. Should I self teach anything from Edexcel FP1-3 that's not included in AQA FP1-3? Thanks!

Reply 1593

joostan

13

Original post by pryngles

Also, it seems that FP3 AQA differs from FP3 Edexcel, as there are no vectors in AQA. Should I self teach anything from Edexcel FP1-3 that's not included in AQA FP1-3? Thanks!

I wouldn't worry overmuch. If you're fishing for vectors it's all in AQA FP4. The number of vectors questions in STEP is pretty low, and doing them doesn't require too much knowledge, made easier perhaps by extra information.
It will however stand you in good stead for first year undergrad in a mathematical subject to know some of it.

Reply 1594

Original post by physicsmaths

If 6 fulls means 6 correct, it is 100% an S unless there are some major problems with 1 solutions or more( I doubt it as he would notice such a problem probably)
Nice one DomStaff, the cambridge place is in reach.

Posted from TSR Mobile

My solutions matched up to the TSR ones and tbf quite a few were show that, so it was nice.

This may help. I used this technique to decide how to tackle the paper, which I thought worked well. I recommend it (however I spent 7 mins looking through as I didn't even need to bother with stats as I've not started S2 yet) http://youtu.be/Tx7Xr4aK2nI
So I ended up doing the questions in the following order
1,2,7,8,6,5 which worked nicely, although 5, vectors, turned out to be very nice indeed so I should have done it earlier on.

However, I'm not sure what sort of things you could lose marks for on a 'complete' solution in STEP...like I remember DJMayes saying he had 8 fulls to STEP I and got 116/120, so 4 marks dropped across the best 6; I would be intrigued to know where you can lose marks.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1595

Not too sure what you mean. Here is how I did it, a few weeks back. If it were the real exam I probs would've given lengthier explanations but I did it in school hence was talking etc. how does this compare to your method?

Anyone who didnt get email for step school has not been invited :frown:

. Apparently i recieve help at school lol?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 1597

Original post by DomStaff

My solutions matched up to the TSR ones and tbf quite a few were show that, so it was nice.

This may help. I used this technique to decide how to tackle the paper, which I thought worked well. I recommend it (however I spent 7 mins looking through as I didn't even need to bother with stats as I've not started S2 yet) http://youtu.be/Tx7Xr4aK2nI
So I ended up doing the questions in the following order
1,2,7,8,6,5 which worked nicely, although 5, vectors, turned out to be very nice indeed so I should have done it earlier on.

However, I'm not sure what sort of things you could lose marks for on a 'complete' solution in STEP...like I remember DJMayes saying he had 8 fulls to STEP I and got 116/120, so 4 marks dropped across the best 6; I would be intrigued to know where you can lose marks.

Yh but i don't think we will ever know. I think Dfranklin said they only penalise 1-2 points for algebraic slip ups so i think it might've been a mathematical slip up?
Maybe DJmayes can look through the official step solutions if he has time to see where he mightve gone wrong in two of his solutions or 3?
Oh well, i wont complain if i get anywhere near 110 haha

Reply 1598