The 2012 STEP Results Discussion Thread

I tried some of STEP III 2007:

- Q7 is a nice easy question. Recommend you try it because its a godsend given most STEP questions



- Q3 looks easy, but I don't see a good way of knowing which substitutions to make to get the quoted results. I just tried different things until it worked. I would've been one of those the examiners labelled 'rambling'. Perseverance is the key here. I think I missed something because I couldn't get it out for a while.

- I found Q2 even easier than Q7, but only because I knew that



This paper also proves DFranklin's point - its one thing trying to do these questions without a time limit, and quite another when you've only got 3 hours.

I think that particular paper is the easiest STEP III I've done...

The 'obvious' way of doing this seems to be to derive stirling's approximation (not a difficult task) and log 10 it

Doesn't surprise me. Surprised the boundaries were so low though (is it always around 60 for a 1 on STEP III?). For once, I don't think the stats was trivial!

Then, for Q14, the question has a serious flaw: it talks about the smallest square enclosing the points, but it actually means the smallest axis-aligned square. I know of at least one person who didn't finish this question because they couldn't see how to deal with the possible orientations of the square.

I think that particular paper is the easiest STEP III I've done...

Doesn't surprise me. Surprised the boundaries were so low though (is it always around 60 for a 1 on STEP III?). For once, I don't think the stats was trivial!

Is it too risky to insure a uni that's asking for step (2 in II / III)?

Is it too risky to insure a uni that's asking for step (2 in II / III)?

Is it Warwick?

Imperial, i really want to go there. I'm considering firming it.

Wow. Did they start to give STEP offers? Or, you have special circumstances or something like that?

They give STEP offers to quite a few people, have been for the past 2-3 years (though I think their 'standard' offer is still A*A*A)

EDIT: As far as I know they only include STEP in the offer if you put it on your UCAS form (like Bath).

Is it too risky to insure a uni that's asking for step (2 in II / III)?

They don't mention this on their webpage, it's a bit weird.
That's cool, anyway. Will be able to sit all of them next year.

UPD

What do you mean? You can ask for STEP offer, or what?

They do have it on the website. Here they write "If you are taking STEP II or III then it is likely that we will include it in our offer at a Grade 2 minimum for one or other (either/or if you are taking both).".

Well on your UCAS form, when you add your qualifications (including pending qualifications); you can add STEP to your pending qualifications. You don't need to, however, so many don't bother. They assume that only people who included it on their UCAS form are taking it - and so won't ask for STEP in the offer unless you already say you're taking it.

Bath do the same thing, making people a STEP offer only if they include that they're taking it on the UCAS form.

Right, you don't need to put STEPs as pending, applying to Warwick/Cambridge either?