STEP Prep Thread 2016 (Mark. II)

No such best way, for some, it's easiest to just jump into the straight end and do past papers. Others prefer a more gradual approach with correspondence programs/STEP programme/booklets or what not.

If you're not sure at what you think is best then I'd advise starting out with the booklets (most of us used the first old STEP booklet, fondly known as "APICM", but you could probably just as well use the first half or so of the new booklet. (i.e: STEP I level questions) - if you find the booklet boring, then I'd jump straight into past papers.



Yes, and it also contains some questions not on the other two booklets. But almost every problem on there is a past STEP question anyway, so...



Up to you. If I was forced to suggest an order, I'd say first booklet -> first half of new booklet -> second booklet.



Again, up to you and what you think will work best for you. I personally dislike the above three resources you link, they spoil STEP questions and give far too much guidance.



In my opinion, it's all going to come down to you doing past papers, whether that starts now or later on next year - assignments or booklets are simply an alternative way of doing past papers (with the assignments or modules or whatever they call them now spoiling the question) so it's not really worth overanalysing what resources you should use. Have a cursory glance at them, pick the one you like most and just start. Move on to another one if you get bored or just not feeling it. STEP is very far away, there's time to experiment.



Also, this is the 2016 thread - there's a 2017 STEP thread stickied to the maths forum; your question would be better off there.

No such best way, for some, it's easiest to just jump into the straight end and do past papers. Others prefer a more gradual approach with correspondence programs/STEP programme/booklets or what not.

If you're not sure at what you think is best then I'd advise starting out with the booklets (most of us used the first old STEP booklet, fondly known as "APICM", but you could probably just as well use the first half or so of the new booklet. (i.e: STEP I level questions) - if you find the booklet boring, then I'd jump straight into past papers.



Yes, and it also contains some questions not on the other two booklets. But almost every problem on there is a past STEP question anyway, so...



Up to you. If I was forced to suggest an order, I'd say first booklet -> first half of new booklet -> second booklet.



Again, up to you and what you think will work best for you. I personally dislike the above three resources you link, they spoil STEP questions and give far too much guidance.



In my opinion, it's all going to come down to you doing past papers, whether that starts now or later on next year - assignments or booklets are simply an alternative way of doing past papers (with the assignments or modules or whatever they call them now spoiling the question) so it's not really worth overanalysing what resources you should use. Have a cursory glance at them, pick the one you like most and just start. Move on to another one if you get bored or just not feeling it. STEP is very far away, there's time to experiment.



Also, this is the 2016 thread - there's a 2017 STEP thread stickied to the maths forum; your question would be better off there.

How often does Relative Motion actually come up on STEP III? I've had a look through some past paper questions and can't find a single instance of it being explicitly referenced, although where I haven't finished M4 yet I'm not sure if it's important in other topics like Moments of Inertia etc. or that I'm otherwise just missing where elements of it are needed for questions? I'm self-teaching M3 and M4 (finished M3 now) on a gap year and while the rest of Mechanics has come quite easily I'm really struggling to grasp closest distance problems etc., although I'm fine with the idea of finding relative velocity and also using the equivalent for acceleration to carry out mechanics in an accelerating frame.

So ... I realise that there's a risk anything in this topic could technically come up, but for those who are more versed in Mechanics than me currently - is my lack of knowledge likely to prevent me from attempting any questions?

From memory, I concur, it doesn't come up very often. I'd also say that I think when it does come up, the questions tend to be foul (but I'd also say this is probably one of the areas I'm personally weakest at, which may bias my opinion).

The one M4 topic that seems to come up a lot is the approach where you find the (potential) energy E of a system, find equilibrium points by solving for dE = 0, and then do something about the behaviour of small oscillations around the equilbrium point by looking at the 2nd derivative of E.