STEP Prep Thread 2016

It'll be fine! If any confusion arises they'll either trust the unit code (given that you already in putted Stats 2) or they'll contact you. If it's troubling you then it shouldn't be much trouble for you to send out a quick email to them, but do so quickly before interview invitations get sent off and their emails get flooded.

Gosh you don't know how many bad STEP puns I've heard (and made myself XD)...
Big STEP up from A-Level though, no doubt about that.

Thanks. I might send them a quick email on Monday explaining the situation just to cover my back. Atleast I have not done what my friend did and input 3 of his UMSes (badly) wrong.

What's it like jumping in at STEP III by the way?

You might as well send them a quick email now, you'll get a reply on Monday, quicker then waiting till Monday! (you're applying to St. John's, right?)

The old papers are actually quite enoyable, I managed 5.5 full solutions on 1997, III - Best introduction paper I can recommend to anyone wanting a go at III paper.

I shall have to have a look at that paper next week :-)

And yes, you are King's right?

The question about the irrationality of $e$ was lovely, I have a feeling you'll enjoy it. And the first question in series work, which, knowing your tastes, is going to be a knock in the part for you.

Indeed. :-)

@physicsmaths
@Zacken


If I take STEP this year and get a good grade do you think Cambridge will require that I resit it during my year out in order to make my offer. It's not really that I have a problem taking it again, I would just rather spend my time doing something else.

Looking at the paper I think I've actually done the irrationality of e one before but I can't remember how I did the final step so I might go redo that one now.

Have you just been doing random questions from papers? I find it better to focus on one paper at a time (although I've also been planning to start from 1987 and work my way up methodically) instead of just randomly picking questions.

I have been going through from 1994 STEP 1 onwards personally. I think I might soon go back to the 1987 papers so that I don't waste them all (I am up to 2002) or switch to II and III from the 90s.

It's just you exhibiting the symptoms of STEPitis. (STEP II, 1998, Question 12)

I saw that question XD. I swear sometimes the examiners get terribly bored and start trying to having way too much fun with the questions.
Have a look at the bread question on I 2001, they talk about SPHERICAL bread and how a 'European ruling' says that a loaf of spherical bread can only be referred to as "CRUSTY" if it satisfies some conditions XD.

Wow, that's quite a bit of progress. (Have you downloaded and printed the STEP Spreadsheet? I've found it invaluable for keeping track)

I've put a pause on for the moment, need to self-teach a few physics modules with the exams looming up; but after that, I was thinking I would do 1987: STEP I, II, II, 1998: STEP I, II, III, etc...

What's your plan for STEP III - are you going to learnt the relevant mechanics and statistics knowledge to attempt the applied section or just focus on pure?

I am running a lower tech method to keep track of progress in that I just have notepad documents for each paper (i.e. I, II or III) and list what questions I have done next to the year.

Good luck for your exams. With regards to STEP III I am not really sure. I have not done much mechanics and although I've done a lot of reading around it does not seem a viable option for me. Stats might be though. You?

The spreadsheet is really quite pretty and it's motivating to have a look at it and see the number of ticks increasing as you fill up the blank spaces! I'd advise you to print it off, it's even lower tech than notepad documents since it's a paper copy.

I haven't quite given it much thought, but I may learn some stats post-Jan to help with STEP, things that I genuinely find interesting like the more exotic distributions (exponential, geometric, etc...) and generating function! The decision-making comes in Jan though!

Generating functions ar interesting aswell. So many sums in stats, rather fun.


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The spreadsheet is really quite pretty and it's motivating to have a look at it and see the number of ticks increasing as you fill up the blank spaces! I'd advise you to print it off, it's even lower tech than notepad documents since it's a paper copy.

I haven't quite given it much thought, but I may learn some stats post-Jan to help with STEP, things that I genuinely find interesting like the more exotic distributions (exponential, geometric, etc...) and generating function! The decision-making comes in Jan though!

You might as well send them a quick email now, you'll get a reply on Monday, quicker then waiting till Monday! (you're applying to St. John's, right?)

The old papers are actually quite enoyable, I managed 5.5 full solutions on 1997, III - Best introduction paper I can recommend to anyone wanting a go at III paper.

This continues into the Cambridge Tripos examination papers, someone once linked to a similarly weird question in a dynamics and relativity question, don't quite remember what but it was funny!

The stats one tends to be weird as well.