The big fat STEP megathread (NOT for getting help with maths questions)

I've noticed that difficulty of papers vary a lot. For example, I've managed to do 8 questions from III 2001, but I can only do 1 from III 2000.

They vary quite a bit. Did anyone else think STEP II 2005 was ridiculously easy? I managed to do more on that paper than on most of the older STEP I papers.

I have seen a lot of uni's mention STEP in relation to the maths degrees.

What exactly is it?
And would I be able to take it if I wanted to?

The wiki page more or less sums it up.

It's an entrance exam which is required primarily by Cambridge and Warwick (but Durham has been known to give out a few STEP offers)... it draws on A-level knowledge but requires you to think way more outside the box than you'd expected to do in an A-level exam. You can do it even if it's not required for your uni admission, though, but you'd have to be a little bit crazy.

Where do you take it? If I apply for Oxford and I want to take the STEP anyway, where will I sit it?

Hi,

My scenario is a bit different. Most people take the full A level maths in the first year of college, and the further maths A level in the next year.

Our teachers have decided we will do the FP1 exam in June, and the C4 in January next (acedemic) year. A bit of a problem, as most of the questions in the STEP require alot of C4 ^^.

Is it a good idea to just learn C4 now and prepare over the summer? That would be my idea of a holiday or concentrate on my other subjects (computing..physics) and secure my 2 A's in them.

Also:
Do I even have any chance to even get interviewed at Oxbridge with my ...not so great GCSE grades (1 A*, 3 A's and 6 B's, (2 of the B's were in DiDa and we were on the new OCR course for Science which resulted in me getting 2 less A*'s than I should have (science in the news!!!))). I love maths, I must be one of the few people that read maths in their spare time for fun and get annoyed when my teachers say 'differential' instead of 'derivative' (and tell me that I can't write y' as a substitute for dy/dx).

Its only used in offers by Cambridge and Warwick, but taking it is encouraged (or was, when I last looked, over a year ago) by Oxford (which has its own entrance exam), Bristol, Imperial...,

The important thing about it for me was that it was a lot more challenging, and therefore more 'fun' (in some slightly warped sense) than the ordinary Further Maths A level.

It also looks good on ur CV (obv.)

Wait, wut? Correct me if I'm wrong but, I would imagine most employers won't even know what it is and hence it becomes even more useless than A levels after you graduate.

Advanced Problems in Core Mathematics Stephen Siklos

"... a candidate who did two complete probability questions and one complete mechanics question will obtain the same grade as one who did four complete pure questions"

I was under the assumption that each and every question is worth 20 marks, but in light of the info, this only applies to the pure questions. Am i right?

My copy of that booklet says 'three complete probability questions'. Since there are only 2 probability questions as of the 2008 paper, I'm guessing the change was made blindly without updating the latter part of the sentence, changing its meaning.