STEP Prep Thread 2016 (Mark. II)

haha yes indeed! I literally finished in 35 minutes then spent ages checking. What mark do u normally need about to get full ums then?

75 is full UMS. What do you mean?

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Reply 2561

username1162972

18

Original post by EnglishMuon

haha yes indeed! I literally finished in 35 minutes then spent ages checking. What mark do u normally need about to get full ums then?

Last 2 years has been like 65/75 for 100 but this year it will be much higher as i heard it was easy.

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Reply 2562

EnglishMuon

16

Original post by physicsmaths

Last 2 years has been like 65/75 for 100 but this year it will be much higher as i heard it was easy.

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wow thats low. I mean it was a little easier than usual, but theres never anything too dire so hopefully thats good :smile:

Reply 2563

kznil

1

Can anyone predict what my score is for STEP 3? Thought I might scrape a 1 at first, but lost hope upon hearing that ppl find this an easy paper...

Q1: Part (i) and (iii). Start working on part (ii) using some substitutions, got weird terms in sec^x, didn't continue.

Q2: full (i), for (ii) and (iii) the lines and points I found were not independent of p, rather expressed in terms of r and q, so probably wrong.

Q4: full

Q5: part (ii) and part (iv), feeble attempts at (i) and (iii), didn't manage to prove them

Q6: First bit about z^n-1

Q8: Successfully done first two part, for third part did a few substitutions such as h(1-x), h(1/x), but ended up failing to find h(x).

What do you guys reckon my chance of getting in with S,1,2? with a high S in STEP 1, average-ish 1 in STEP 2 and (maybe?) a high 2 in STEP 3?

Reply 2564

Zacken

OP

22

Original post by kznil

What do you guys reckon my chance of getting in with S,1,2? with a high S in STEP 1, average-ish 1 in STEP 2 and (maybe?) a high 2 in STEP 3?

14 + 8 + 20 + Q5 + 4 + 15 = 61 + Q5, should be a low 1. Even if not, you've got an excellent chance of getting in with those grades.

Reply 2565

tridianprime

2

Original post by ComputerMaths97

Anyone else here do the FP2 (MEI) exam this morning? It was horrendous honestly never had a harder A level exam

I did. I actually did the question that was apparently the hardest (Q2) and the rest of it fine but I have doomed myself to failure by being a complete idiot on Q3 (goodbye 18 marks). FP2 has been my favourite paper all year and for some reason I just did an unbelievably obvious stupid thing (I spent 45 mins on it as well).

Oh well, goodbye A* in FM - if I get rejected because of this and I still make my STEP I will just laugh. :s-smilie:

p.s. my mess up in q3 was equating (M-lambda(I))v = lambda*v i.e. finding eigenvector. I have found eigenvectors so many times before and never been so stupid.

Reply 2566

tridianprime

2

Original post by ComputerMaths97

Anyone else here do the FP2 (MEI) exam this morning? It was horrendous honestly never had a harder A level exam

But yes, on another note it was indeed unlike any other A Level exam I have done before - it seemed as though in Q2 and even Q1 it took longer than normal and required a moment of realization.

Reply 2567

ComputerMaths97

17

Original post by tridianprime

I did. I actually did the question that was apparently the hardest (Q2) and the rest of it fine but I have doomed myself to failure by being a complete idiot on Q3 (goodbye 18 marks). FP2 has been my favourite paper all year and for some reason I just did an unbelievably obvious stupid thing (I spent 45 mins on it as well).

Oh well, goodbye A* in FM - if I get rejected because of this and I still make my STEP I will just laugh. :s-smilie:

p.s. my mess up in q3 was equating (M-lambda(I))v = lambda*v i.e. finding eigenvector. I have found eigenvectors so many times before and never been so stupid.

Ah damn that's tough.

I made about 6 or 7 seperate, and rediculously stupid, mistakes. Like I subtracted 1 from 1/2 incorrectly. I also misread 2 different questions, and also didn't have a graphical calculator so had to guess the graph on Q4. I don't even think I got 60/72, and I was here hoping for full UMS. Screw my life :biggrin:

Most people seemed to find it tough those, hopefully grade boundaries won't be as rediculous as last year.

Reply 2568

tridianprime

2

Original post by ComputerMaths97

Ah damn that's tough.

I made about 6 or 7 seperate, and rediculously stupid, mistakes. Like I subtracted 1 from 1/2 incorrectly. I also misread 2 different questions, and also didn't have a graphical calculator so had to guess the graph on Q4. I don't even think I got 60/72, and I was here hoping for full UMS. Screw my life :biggrin:

Most people seemed to find it tough those, hopefully grade boundaries won't be as rediculous as last year.

I am hoping for a solid 54/72 :biggrin:

Might be a B if I am lucky. Yes, I too was expecting to get 72/72. Am I right in thinking FP2 needs to be one of the top 3 modules in FM that contribute to A*?

Reply 2569

Zacken

OP

22

Original post by tridianprime

Might be a B if I am lucky. Yes, I too was expecting to get 72/72. Am I right in thinking FP2 needs to be one of the top 3 modules in FM that contribute to A*?

AFAIK, for most boards, whilst you need to have at least one of FP2 or 3 in your FM A-Level, they need not contribute towards your A2 score. i.e: you are not right in thinking that.

Reply 2570

ComputerMaths97

17

Original post by tridianprime

I am hoping for a solid 54/72 :biggrin:

Might be a B if I am lucky. Yes, I too was expecting to get 72/72. Am I right in thinking FP2 needs to be one of the top 3 modules in FM that contribute to A*?

Original post by Zacken

AFAIK, for most boards, whilst you need to have at least one of FP2 or 3 in your FM A-Level, they need not contribute towards your A2 score. i.e: you are not right in thinking that.

Zacken is right as far as I know, it's best 3 A2 modules. Won't change anything for me though, I could sleep before my D2 exam so I messed that up 10fold what I did today.

Reply 2571

tridianprime

2

Original post by Zacken

AFAIK, for most boards, whilst you need to have at least one of FP2 or 3 in your FM A-Level, they need not contribute towards your A2 score. i.e: you are not right in thinking that.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

Either way, I think it's still unlikely I will get A* considering I am now relying on S2 being a really high A*, which, while possible, just isn't likely.

...
...
...
You know, I don't really like A Levels. They're not my sort of thing.

Reply 2572

tridianprime

2

Original post by ComputerMaths97

Zacken is right as far as I know, it's best 3 A2 modules. Won't change anything for me though, I could sleep before my D2 exam so I messed that up 10fold what I did today.

I didn't realise anyone actually did D2.

Reply 2573

ComputerMaths97

17

Original post by tridianprime

I didn't realise anyone actually did D2.

Ahaha yeah it's pretty easy, which makes me more upset that I couldn't sleep.

Reply 2574

username1162972

18

Original post by Mathemagicien

I is too

And I think physicsmaths is three

Gna be a **** 90 minutes lol.

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Reply 2575

sweeneyrod

15

Meanwhile my D2 from last year might be part of my A* in FM, if I messed up M2/S2. I feel shame

Reply 2576

username1162972

18

Original post by Mathemagicien

You did D2 last year? So 1/3 of your modules (inc. D1) were Decision "Maths"? If that had been my introduction to A-level maths, I'd probably have been greatly put off studying maths at Uni! :tongue:

It is why he is a compsci

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Reply 2577

sweeneyrod

15

Original post by Mathemagicien

You did D2 last year? So 1/3 of your modules (inc. D1) were Decision "Maths"? If that had been my introduction to A-level maths, I'd probably have been greatly put off studying maths at Uni! :tongue:

It was a bit nightmarish (and my other taught applied module was S1 which is also pretty bad). I've mostly managed to block out the trauma of simplex tableau, though I did have some flashbacks when I looked at a 2nd year Cambridge CompSci paper and saw a flow diagram.