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STEP Prep Thread 2016 (Mark. II)

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Btw last year I asked for rough paper and they didn't give me , they said it is not permitted .
Not the first time British council is wrong .
Original post by jjsnyder
Not much time, can if you like but the good news is that if lots of vectors/geometry comes up they know people like those questions less and grade boundaries would be accordingly low.


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Do you think I should just practice mech questions then? In case pure is infested with geometry/vectors I would then be a bit more confident with mech. I feel like it is currently much more important to have confidence in doing a particular type of STEP question than to try to improve problem-solving abilities for the few days we have left. And I also think doing mech questions would make me a bit more confident with them, since I am already pretty good with mech, but if I start doing geometry/vectors now when I haven't done any for the half-year I've been doing STEP, then it would be more difficult to gain confidence in attempting them.


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Original post by Insight314
Do you think I should just practice mech questions then? In case pure is infested with geometry/vectors I would then be a bit more confident with mech. I feel like it is currently much more important to have confidence in doing a particular type of STEP question than to try to improve problem-solving abilities for the few days we have left. And I also think doing mech questions would make me a bit more confident with them, since I am already pretty good with mech, but if I start doing geometry/vectors now when I haven't done any for the half-year I've been doing STEP, then it would be more difficult to gain confidence in attempting them.


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Join the dark side and do stats! I'd probably do mech if you literally haven't done any vectors questions, but OTOH once you do two or three vectors questions you've got a good chance of getting 1/2 marks on any vectors question that comes up, since they pretty much all start "A and B have position vectors a and b, and are not co-linear with O. P lies on the line AB, and the ratio of the length of AP to PB is (1 -λ):λ".
Reply 923
Avatar for Zacken
Zacken
OP
22
Original post by Geraer100
Do you think the plan is fine?


The main thing is whether or not it works for you, if it does, then yes.

Original post by Vesniep
What if you can't use <=> and the left statements are less general .
That's when I use <= .
Actually I want to ask is it wrong to claim P=>Q when P,Q are equivalent ?
It's kind of tricky because P implies Q so it's true but these symbols refer to what P and Q are to each other and since they are equivalent P=>Q is wrong . Idk if that makes sense, just answer.


It's not wrong. If two things are equivalent, then they imply each other.

So P => Q is a true statement.
Original post by sweeneyrod
Join the dark side and do stats! I'd probably do mech if you literally haven't done any vectors questions, but OTOH once you do two or three vectors questions you've got a good chance of getting 1/2 marks on any vectors question that comes up, since they pretty much all start "A and B have position vectors a and b, and are not co-linear with O. P lies on the line AB, and the ratio of the length of AP to PB is (1 -λ):λ".


All right, thanks! :biggrin:

I might take a look at vector questions but I prefer to just fully immerse myself with mechanics, since I find those questions very interesting.

Oh, and I wouldn't even be able to join the dark side (stats) since I haven't done any statistic modules, haha. I did M1-M5 which is why I am saying I should immerse myself with mechanics. :smile:


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Original post by jjsnyder
Only reason I can think of that I would ask for spare unmarked paper is when I am proving a condition one way, but I want to start in reverse, so I do the reverse calculations on a rough sheet then put them the right way on the actual answer booklet (and that way the examiner doesn't think bad of you). Can we do this in the exam?


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Write it out then just colour it black tbh.
You will have more then enough space most likely.


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Original post by Vesniep
What if you can't use <=> and the left statements are less general .
That's when I use <= .
Actually I want to ask is it wrong to claim P=>Q when P,Q are equivalent ?
It's kind of tricky because P implies Q so it's true but these symbols refer to what P and Q are to each other and since they are equivalent P=>Q is wrong . Idk if that makes sense, just answer.


The half truth is still truth, even if it is not the whole truth..
Just because P => Q does not describe the full relationship between P and Q, i.e. it ignores the fact that Q => P, does not mean it is in and of itself wrong to write
Original post by Zacken
The main thing is whether or not it works for you, if it does, then yes.



Yeah, I guess I will stick with this plan:biggrin:
Original post by Insight314
Do you think I should just practice mech questions then? In case pure is infested with geometry/vectors I would then be a bit more confident with mech. I feel like it is currently much more important to have confidence in doing a particular type of STEP question than to try to improve problem-solving abilities for the few days we have left. And I also think doing mech questions would make me a bit more confident with them, since I am already pretty good with mech, but if I start doing geometry/vectors now when I haven't done any for the half-year I've been doing STEP, then it would be more difficult to gain confidence in attempting them.


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Physics maths, top tips for vectors:
1: obviously knowing equations of lines.
2: if asked to prove PQR are collinear which comes up nearly every year prove p-q=t(q-r) hence parallel line segments proving they are collinear.
3: p.p=|p|^2 does wonders.
4: reflections, drop a perpendicular and do dot products.
That is pretty much it and sometimes similar triangles.
It won't take that long to sort this stuff out! Go for it id say. Trust me it doesn't get harder then that you will get atleast partials.


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Original post by physicsmaths
Physics maths, top tips for vectors:
1: obviously knowing equations of lines.
2: if asked to prove PQR are collinear which comes up nearly every year prove p-q=t(q-r) hence parallel line segments proving they are collinear.
3: p.p=|p|^2 does wonders.
4: reflections, drop a perpendicular and do dot products.
That is pretty much it and sometimes similar triangles.
It won't take that long to sort this stuff out! Go for it id say. Trust me it doesn't get harder then that you will get atleast partials.


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Sorry to ask about this, point 4, what do you mean by drop a perpendicular? Is it perpendicular bisector?
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Geraer100
Sorry to ask about this, point 4, what do you mean by drop a perpendicular? Is it perpendicular bisector?


Reflections of C to C' in line L so we draw perpendicular to line L which is collinear with points C and C'(trivially since the angles add to 180/parallel) then we know these two vectors are identical.
See II 2011'for this in practice :smile:.


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Original post by physicsmaths
Physics maths, top tips for vectors:
1: obviously knowing equations of lines.
2: if asked to prove PQR are collinear which comes up nearly every year prove p-q=t(q-r) hence parallel line segments proving they are collinear.
3: p.p=|p|^2 does wonders.
4: reflections, drop a perpendicular and do dot products.
That is pretty much it and sometimes similar triangles.
It won't take that long to sort this stuff out! Go for it id say. Trust me it doesn't get harder then that you will get atleast partials.


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I see, okay definitely trying out vector questions then. Gonna screenshot those tips, do you have any for geometry? With my practice, should I do STEP I vectors or STEP II vectors? I don't have the time so I feel like it is best to do a few STEP II vector questions since they are more difficult.


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Original post by physicsmaths
Reflections of C to C' in line L so we draw perpendicular to line L which is collinear with points C and C'(trivially since the angles add to 180/parallel) then we know these two vectors are identical.
See II 2011'for this in practice :smile:.


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Okay really thanks for your explanation Yeah I will have a look at that question tomorrow!:tongue:Good night
Original post by Insight314
I see, okay definitely trying out vector questions then. Gonna screenshot those tips, do you have any for geometry? With my practice, should I do STEP I vectors or STEP II vectors? I don't have the time so I feel like it is best to do a few STEP II vector questions since they are more difficult.


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Geometry is just diagrams and gcse circle theorems which I'm sure you are familiar with. You can easily get 5-6 problems in before the exam which is enough to get the ideas of vectors. You might not get a full but around. 15 marks are just comparing coefficients in equations which is very straight forward!


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Decided to follow in physicsmaths footsteps and do my own top tips for vectors

Step 1: read the question
Step 2:ImageUploadedByStudent Room1465776342.268857.jpg


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Original post by Vesniep
What if you can't use <=> and the left statements are less general .
That's when I use <= .
Actually I want to ask is it wrong to claim P=>Q when P,Q are equivalent ?
It's kind of tricky because P implies Q so it's true but these symbols refer to what P and Q are to each other and since they are equivalent P=>Q is wrong . Idk if that makes sense, just answer.


The definition of P⇔QP \Leftrightarrow Q is that P⇒QP \Rightarrow Q and Q⇒PQ \Rightarrow P, so P⇒QP \Rightarrow Q is clearly correct.

Yeah if I can't use ⇔\Leftrightarrow I use ⇐\Leftarrow.
Reply 936
Avatar for ox2015
ox2015
1
Hi, I don't know if its just me or is anyone else having this problem. But for the past week or so, the equations across multiple threads are not displaying, they are instead displaying as an text such as

"displaystyle \begin{equation*} \int \frac{x + 1 - 1}{1+x} \, \mathrm{d}x = \int 1 - \frac{1}{x+1} \, \mathrm{d}x = x - \ln |x+1| + \mathcal{C}\end{equation*}"

and a symbol that represents missing image.

Thanks.
Original post by ox2015
Hi, I don't know if its just me or is anyone else having this problem. But for the past week or so, the equations across multiple threads are not displaying, they are instead displaying as an text such as

"displaystyle \begin{equation*} \int \frac{x + 1 - 1}{1+x} \, \mathrm{d}x = \int 1 - \frac{1}{x+1} \, \mathrm{d}x = x - \ln |x+1| + \mathcal{C}\end{equation*}"

and a symbol that represents missing image.

Thanks.


I've noticed that as well.
Guys for STEP III 1991 Q7 (which is an awesome Q btw) last bit of part (c), is this reasoning ok? I'm not sure it's what they wanted or even if it would get full marks.

lim⁡x→0xln⁡(sin⁡x)=lim⁡x→0xln⁡(xsin⁡xx)=lim⁡x→0xln⁡x+lim⁡x→0xln⁡(sin⁡xx)=0\displaystyle\lim_{x \to 0} x\ln(\sin x)=\displaystyle\lim_{x \to 0} x\ln\left(\dfrac{x\sin x}{x}\right)=\displaystyle\lim_{x \to 0} x\ln x +\displaystyle\lim_{x \to 0} x\ln\left(\dfrac{\sin x}{x}\right)=0 since lim⁡x→0sin⁡xx=1\displaystyle\lim_{x \to 0} \dfrac{\sin x}{x}=1
(edited 7 years ago)
What do A1, M1, B1 etc. mean in the marking schemes?

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