STEP III 2012 Discussion Thread

So how did everyone find it?

Personally I thought it was a difficult one...I'm thinking about 110-115 for me barring lots of silly errors

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(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 2

A nice paper in general I thought? Surprisingly, I could not do question 1, just couldnt get my head around how to work of Z without guessing it's form!

Did Q2 in full, most of Q3, had an unsuccessful attempt at 4, did most of 7 and all of 8. Should be enough for a 1 hopefully :smile:

Reply 3

Original post by TheMagicMan

So how did everyone find it?

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A nice paper? Although please tell me how the hell were you meant to work out eliminate Z in order to get y in terms of x in first question?

Reply 4

Original post by fruktas

A nice paper? Although please tell me how the hell were you meant to work out eliminate Z in order to get y in terms of x in first question?

I barely looked at 1... Couldn't understand where z was coming from... Most people thought it was really hard among those I know.

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Reply 5

mikelbird

8

anyone got the paper?

Reply 6

I didn't do question 1, but I noticed z=(y^n)(dy/dx)^2

Reply 7

I thought it was quite a nice paper though, did questions 2, 4 and 8 fully, most of 5 and 7, and the first part of 13

Reply 8

RacingPro97

Original post by fruktas

A nice paper in general I thought? Surprisingly, I could not do question 1, just couldnt get my head around how to work of Z without guessing it's form!

Did Q2 in full, most of Q3, had an unsuccessful attempt at 4, did most of 7 and all of 8. Should be enough for a 1 hopefully :smile:

I thought it went better than STEP II. Couldn't do Q1 either - it felt that something was missing at the start of the question, as it went straight in with a differential equation for z without giving any details as to what z actually was relative to x or y. Got to the end of Q7, Q6 and Q3 (but missed small bits on 6 and 3), and made a good attempt at Q8, and a start at Q3. I think I will have got around 65 marks, which is hopefully enough for a 1.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 9

Original post by TheMagicMan

I barely looked at 1... Couldn't understand where z was coming from... Most people thought it was really hard among those I know.

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Nor could I! I stared at it for about 10 minutes since differential equations is usually easy marks for me, but just couldnt do it! I think its a similar paper to 2010, ie it was hard. The style of questions suited me, but it was certainly hard to finish the questions fully.

Reply 10

Slowbro93

OP

20

I haven't seen the paper, but you would you say that it's nicer than last years?

Reply 11

Question 8, final summation was pi/4 right?

Reply 12

Original post by B Jack

I thought it was quite a nice paper though, did questions 2, 4 and 8 fully, most of 5 and 7, and the first part of 13

I did 2345678 but my solutions really didn't have the polish I wanted... I'm expecting some lost explanation marks and I messed up the very end of the series question

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Reply 13

maksokio

I think there was a sentence omitted from question one, one that should read "where z=y^n*(something)" like in 2010 STEP II that they forgot to type another sentence about the Useless Eustace question about the range of value of the angles (0<θ<2π).

It may be possible that someone can work out the value of z (as a function of y) by directly integrating the right hand side of the the formula given. But that was not really an option during the exam, 20 easy marks lost :frown:

, if the formula for z was given that would have been an easy question, choosing n=1 for the first and n=-2 for the second (and taking -2 out of the parenthesis) would do the trick I think.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 14

Original post by cpdavis

I haven't seen the paper, but you would you say that it's nicer than last years?

It's hard to say, I personally thought it was quite an easy paper overall, but there was no integration or trigonometry and Q1 looked confusing

Reply 15

iluvmaths

5

Original post by fruktas

A nice paper? Although please tell me how the hell were you meant to work out eliminate Z in order to get y in terms of x in first question?

all u had to say was the n was 1. then sub in the formula for root(y). then solve a simple differential eqn. for the next part, n was 3 or 4. the formula for dz/dx was just a product of two differentials.

Reply 16

Original post by fruktas

Question 8, final summation was pi/4 right?

Yes

Reply 17

Original post by cpdavis

I haven't seen the paper, but you would you say that it's nicer than last years?

Not in my book. I've consulted about 25 offer holders and about 70% thought it was on the hard side

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Reply 18

RacingPro97

Original post by maksokio

I think there was a sentence omitted from question one, one that should read "where z=y^n*(something)" like in 2010 STEP II that they forgot to type another sentence about the Useless Eustace question about the range of value of the angles (0<θ<2π).

It may be possible that someone can work out the value of z (as a function of y) by directly integrating the right hand side of the the formula given.

I agree about Q1 - I was worrying this morning thinking that I might be the only person with a printing error or something!

Reply 19