University 2015 Entry Maths Applicants

Nope aha, I go to a very average sixth form . When they put the STEP applications in for the year 13s I was just very insistent on being put in for it so they did lol. Glad I did it though cause I'll know way better for step II/III next year!


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At our school we do maths and FM in parallel both years, so it would have been impossible for me to enter STEP I this year confidently.

Yeah that would've been difficult to pull off! The only way would've been to self teach C3/C4 early on in the year, but that would be a lot of effort as well as practicing for STEP


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Indeed, but I didn't realise people took STEP in Y12 or that the BMO even existed, early on in the year. I've only started to realise the importance of these things in the past couple of months, unfortunately.

Neither of those things are -that- important. Certainly you needn't worry if you've only heard of them just now.

Neither of those things are -that- important. Certainly you needn't worry if you've only heard of them just now.

Is that for definite? Like have you heard it from a tutor? And are you a student there?

BMO puts you top 100 in uk if u get to round 2 which almost cements a place in cambridge. The step papers are used in pretty much every offer in top unis. So i think it is important


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I am a student there. I don't really know what you mean for definite? I just know that the overwhelming majority of people had no clear idea of what STEP was in year 12 here, and so obviously didn't do STEP I in year 12. Just to be clear that's what I mean when I said it wasn't that important: that you needn't have known about it so early or taken it in year 12. It's good that you know about it now, and there's loads of time to prepare, and obviously STEP in general is important. But as I said, not something you need to start in Year 12. I also know that BMO is more common, but certainly not necessary to gain a place, which is again just by observation. It helps your application obviously and it's good you're doing it this year, but again, there's plenty of people here with no BMO experience.




Well if you define important as "cements a place in Cambridge" then yeah pretty important. But that's not really the definition I'm using here. I just meant that it's by no means necessary to be in the know with regards to the BMO papers and to have done them to gain a place at Cambridge. The poster I replied to seemed to think otherwise (which of course may not be the case, that's just what I got from their post).

STEP offers are used at Cambridge/Imperial/Warwick/Bath, so not pretty much every top University. I also was specifically referring to the practice of taking STEP I in Year 12, which I pointed out as not as important as the poster thinks it is. I am aware of the importance of the STEP papers in general

dont forget ucl.

Fair enough. Doesn't -really- change my point too much, but I didn't know they started asking for STEP, so thanks for the correction.

What % of people would you say have sat the BMO at Cambridge?

Probably roughly 25 percent have sat the BMO2 or their country's equivalent. Difficult to say for BMO1 but I would say everyone is the level where they could have reached it had they been exposed to Olympiad maths.


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100 students sit the BMO2 a year, I think. So only about 60/250 students at Cambridge in each year group actually qualified for BMO2? The 25% you say, I assume, referred to the fact that 25% of Cambridge students sat it, not 25% of those who sit it are now Cambridge students.

No I mean BMO2 or other country's equivalents. So there are Hungarian Olympiads etc. of similar difficulty. I reckon there are about 30 cambridge students in each year who have done bmo2.


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In that case, I guess, BMO2 qualification isn't that​important.

No. It probably guarantees an offer just about but you still have to do STEP


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Because I haven't done it before, I obviously can't write it on my PS, only that I have intentions to do BMO1, do you think it would be okay to say how I did in the BMO1 in interview, even if the interviewer doesn't ask me how I have done? Especially if I qualify for BMO2?

You are overthinking this considerably.

Olympiad style questions are not the same thing as university maths. Qualifying for BMO2 suggests that a candidate is exceptionally good at problem solving, which is a key skill needed if you do uni maths. However, you do not need to have done BMO to be in with a shot of a Cambridge offer, or to succeed once you get there.

My suggestion is look at C3/C4 early, and also at AEA, MAT and STEP I. All of these exams are on the A-Level syllabus and will be good preparation for the interviews. (Doing C3/C4 aren't necessary for the interview because they won't expect you to have the knowledge. However, it gives you a wider variety of STEP I and AEA questions to try.)