STEP Prep Thread 2018

Ah, so one needs to do all 3 STEP papers! That will be a challenge. Last question and sorry if these questions have already been answered - how many fully answered questions are needed for a 1 or an S?

I'm guessing STEP 1 for Warwick etc. Your last Q is tricky. Usually 4 solid answers for a 1 in STEP 3, 4.5-5 for STEP 2.

If you do STEP 1 too, more variable imo, the 1 boundary has been anywhere from about 64 to 84 in the past 7 years.

Ah alright, thanks for the help! One last question (really sorry for the questions) but do you know where one can learn how to do STEP questions? After A level/FM, what does one need to learn or practice? I know doing past papers is the best thing but there's ever so much and I don't want to waste them. Before I do past papers, are there worksheets that resemble STEP style and difficulty? Since after A level, it's a gigantic step.

Ah, so one needs to do all 3 STEP papers! That will be a challenge. Last question and sorry if these questions have already been answered - how many fully answered questions are needed for a 1 or an S?

You could try the MAT, its slightly easier and SMC and BMO1 helps quite a bit, especially for number theory as well as general thinking skills although BMO1 is quite a lot harder so dont stress if you cant get them. Having said that, the best practise for STEP is STEP so doing the questions without looking at the answers is a good strategy.

I know they say 4 solid answers in STEP 1 gets a 1, but you can usually get by with 3 full answers and 3 partial solutions(with a reasonable amount each)

Alright thanks a lot! So the order is:
- Maths A level new spec
- Further Maths (FP1-FP3, S2, M2-M3)
- UKMT: JMC-JMK-JMO, IMC-IMK-IMO, SMC-SMK-BMO1 (and maybe BMO2) i.e. I will read the UKMT books on number theory, geometry etc
- STEP 1,2,3

Thanks a lot man!

Um, I take it you are going into Upper Sixth with BMO1 would be a good idea(it builds on combinatorics, geometry and number theory) but I would advise against BMO2 if you are preparing for STEP, its not really comparable and the ideas you pick up in BMO2 are a lot different to BMO1. This does of course depend on how good you are at the UKMT stuff, but definitely number theory(the STEP number theory questions are gifts compared to BMO1 Q4,5 number theories).

Yeah that makes sense, I will follow that. I'm actually going into year 11 but I love Maths but now I realize that I have a huge road to drive to get to the world of STEP. I'm planning on sitting the Maths a levels this year and then try STEP in year 12 or if by a miracle, this June. I saved up my birthday money for the last 2 years and I'm going to get tuition for STEP (a lot of it haha). Thanks for the help!

Is step purely for maths or is there any courses which it would benefit to have done STEP.

For example i want to do engineering and am wondering if STEP will be beneficial to me in any way.

Thanks

Ok then, you have plenty of time if you stay focused, BMO1 stuff is definitely going to be useful then(dont look at the solutions if you can help it). I took STEP 1 in Year 12, taking it in Year 11 might be quite a lot of work with GCSE's and all but definitely possible. For BMO1, only try it if you can realistically qualify through the SMC, otherwise doing the Intermediate Olympiad would be a good build up. Given you have ages till STEP, I may as well list a few more resources, artofproblemsolving.com is a great site and the contests page has the AMC10/12, in terms of difficulty AMC 12 is way harder than SMC but also has further maths stuff(complex numbers, etc) so that could be useful.

To be honest, given you have started so early, doing actual Step questions is probably not worth it now(unless you can already do them!!) and you want to learn how to think through UKMT stuff.

Yeah, BMO1 seems to be the most useful. Last year I sat the SMC and got a Bronze reward (which is nothing compared to STEP) however I'll have another go at it this November and hopefully qualify for BMO1 (I'm much better than what I was back then and plus I've been reading some books on number theory, modular arithmetic, etc. so finger's crossed it helps!). And thanks a lot for the resources - I googled it and AMC 12 looks like to be good practice for future Maths but as you said, it'll require FM stuff so I'll need to finish off FM first.
I agree there's no point starting STEP questions now - I've gone through many past papers and only solved 2 problems from all the past papers so I have a huge road to go! I'm getting started on UKMT all the way from JMC (and will do every question of every tier until I make it to BMO). Thanks a lot for the help!!

Last point personally, I think the artofproblemsolving.com system is a lot better than the UKMT at teaching olympiad style maths(they have great books on it and start from the real basics to high level IMO training courses) and its a lot more organised, so you could try that.

Anyone got any advice? I've been doing the STEP foundation modules and have been struggling a bit. I'm willing to put in as much time as necessary but don't really know how to proceed and how to get better!

Is step purely for maths or is there any courses which it would benefit to have done STEP.

For example i want to do engineering and am wondering if STEP will be beneficial to me in any way.

Thanks

Yeah that makes sense, I will follow that. I'm actually going into year 11 but I love Maths but now I realize that I have a huge road to drive to get to the world of STEP. I'm planning on sitting the Maths a levels this year and then try STEP in year 12 or if by a miracle, this June. I saved up my birthday money for the last 2 years and I'm going to get tuition for STEP (a lot of it haha). Thanks for the help!

What year are you going into

Yeah that makes sense, I will follow that. I'm actually going into year 11 but I love Maths but now I realize that I have a huge road to drive to get to the world of STEP. I'm planning on sitting the Maths a levels this year and then try STEP in year 12 or if by a miracle, this June. I saved up my birthday money for the last 2 years and I'm going to get tuition for STEP (a lot of it haha). Thanks for the help!