The 2012 STEP Results Discussion Thread

Ah, good point. I marked it and it was a 1 close to an S, my teacher marked it and it was a 1 closer to a 2. Neither of us knew exactly what the criteria were, just best guesses based on how correct my answers were and what they were missing.

So yeah, it could have been lower in reality... it would really help if we had a better idea of how to mark it are there guidelines anywhere?

e.g. "For an answer worth 15-20 marks, the candidate must do _______" etc?

I haven't seen anything like that, I guess teachers are our best markers.

What warning points? You must have been dreaming...

(Posted the OCR Solomon papers this time last week - didn't realise they were commercial and that's a Bad Thing™)

Started STEP in September, been tackling it lightly since then but haven't touched it since December. Did a STEP I mock in exam conditions (or as close as you can get in a public library with kids screaming... never going back ) and got a 1 which I'm pretty happy with!

I've also solved a few STEP II and III problems, but that obviously still needs work I just started early for interview prep basically

That sounds good...I think there are vectors in STEP I and II but not in III; so I'd definitely give that a look over even if it's not as detailed as the other stuff...but I don't think there's any matrices on the STEP syllabus any more is there ?

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to be the reason this guy doesn't go over matrices and there's some questions about them in the exams :P

Oh yes, there is vectors from C4 in STEP I and II, but I doubt dot product will appear since it doesnt appear in the syllabus. And I was pretty sure matrices weren't there too

Did you mean dot product? It certainly is on the syllabus. There are no longer matrices on the syllabus.

Oh god, I meant cross product!

I thought I might make my initial contribution to this thread by asking whether anyone has any pre-1987 STEP papers (if they exist) and whether I am the only one who takes three times as long to do the applied as the pure; it usually takes about 45-60 minutes to knock off a given applied q, which is not going to cut it in the exam

STEP I, II & III are on different days this year! This means that we can sit all 3 - woooooo!

I thought I might make my initial contribution to this thread by asking whether anyone has any pre-1987 STEP papers (if they exist) and whether I am the only one who takes three times as long to do the applied as the pure; it usually takes about 45-60 minutes to knock off a given applied q, which is not going to cut it in the exam

I thought I might make my initial contribution to this thread by asking whether anyone has any pre-1987 STEP papers (if they exist)

and whether I am the only one who takes three times as long to do the applied as the pure; it usually takes about 45-60 minutes to knock off a given applied q, which is not going to cut it in the exam

Yes it is - 45 minutes for a question is fine. You have three hours to get four good solutions out. If you can do a recent pure question in 15 minutes you're doing very well...

I thought I might make my initial contribution to this thread by asking whether anyone has any pre-1987 STEP papers (if they exist) and whether I am the only one who takes three times as long to do the applied as the pure; it usually takes about 45-60 minutes to knock off a given applied q, which is not going to cut it in the exam

They don't exist afaik there are specimen papers but apart from that...
Before 1987 they used an exam called the CCE.

wrt how long it takes me to do questions: I'm more consistent with mechanics in that I can usually do about 3/4 in two hours when I'm working properly (or really lucky) whereas pure I find I can either polish off or at least see where a question is going pretty quickly or (more often) I just hit a wall.

Yes it is - 45 minutes for a question is fine. You have three hours to get four good solutions out. If you can do a recent pure question in 15 minutes you're doing very well...



Now if only they weren't on the same days as Physics and Economics... not like those are popular subjects with mathmos or anything

Wasn't it only very recently that FP3, M5 and STEP i and iii were on the same day?



My biggest problem with applied tends to be converting the wording of the question into equations...does anyone have any advice on that?

My biggest problem with applied tends to be converting the wording of the question into equations...does anyone have any advice on that?

Love how the thread is coming alive! My plan is a semi week off (i.e. not studying too hard) then get through as much M3/4/5 FP3 and S2/3 as I can then whilst trying some of the pures then move on to the applied as well.

I was advise to focus on knowing my pure inside out rather than learning more Maths but with only have Physics 5 to work for the extra modules and opening up the range of questions I can tackle would surely be a better tactic?