STEP content, breadth or depth?

Considering you've done M3, some of the Mechanics questions will already be accessible to you. Covering M4 and M5 may be advantageous, but it will depend on how much time you have. 11 Questions (8 pure + 3 mechanics) should easily be enough choice to get the 4 required good answers for a 1.

However, if you have a choice between doing STEP questions or learning mechanics, do the practice questions, because for STEP it is much better to have an strong grasp of some things, rather than a weak understanding of lots of things, as most of the marks come from the later parts of the questions.

Assuming you've done the pure, it would be better to do past papers instead of learning new material.

Now, for STEP III, I've not covered all the material needed to do the Mechanics or Statistics section of the paper.
I have however done M3, which leaves me with M4, M5, S3 and S4 left to do.
Would it be better to completely cover Mechanics or Statistics and then dedicate time to those questions, and ignore the other, for example, covering all of Mechanics, and completely ignoring the Statistics questions in favour of concentrating on Mechanics practice, but limiting myself to core and Mechanics, or to go over both sides at the disadvantage of not having spent as much time on an individual section but having more questions to choose from?

Thanks!

I completely ignored the mechanics questions and the STEP III stats questions when I took STEP because I hadn't learnt the material for A levels - I think if you spend enough time with the pure material you can be well-prepared enough for the exam to feel happy trying 6 out of 8 pure questions.

Thanks for the feedback, seeing how you're at Cambridge now I'll definitely take this into consideration.

I've ticked off what I've done and marked what I still need to learn on the STEP specification found in the Siklos booklet, and there's only a few things left to do, relative motion, moment of inertia and motion of a rigid body about a fixed axis. So from what you're saying, I should just focus on getting a good grasp of these, practice the STEP questions and ignore the rest of mechanics in M4 and M5?

You should as it's the right way to go if you want to guarantee your place at a top uni.

Rather audaciously, I attempted mechanics questions in STEP II and III, so got a 1 and a 2 when I was hoping for a grade higher in each Nevertheless, I got into my firm

That's what I would do (and that's what I did). Usually the first two question will be relatively accessible, and so you'll be looking for two more good answers out of the remaining 6 to get a 1, and with a solid grasp of pure, you should be able to attempt 6 or 7 of the pure questions

I guess I will just stick with the knowledge that I got from M3 and perhaps finish off the mechanics on the side (not much left anyway) and only attempt the applied questions if I have the knowledge for them, that seems to be the best way after reading everyone's responses.
Pure is sexier after all.




That's brilliant, thanks also for your feedback.

Really?

Well, I suppose you'd expect that from an applied mathematician

Now, for STEP III, I've not covered all the material needed to do the Mechanics or Statistics section of the paper.
I have however done M3, which leaves me with M4, M5, S3 and S4 left to do.
Would it be better to completely cover Mechanics or Statistics and then dedicate time to those questions, and ignore the other, for example, covering all of Mechanics, and completely ignoring the Statistics questions in favour of concentrating on Mechanics practice, but limiting myself to core and Mechanics, or to go over both sides at the disadvantage of not having spent as much time on an individual section but having more questions to choose from?

Thanks!

I wouldn't do any of that. There are sufficient Pure questions to keep you busy for 3 hours! Use your time to do as many past paper questions as you can rather than learning more material.

...

I'm ignoring all Mechanics & Stats as well. Learning new material is a waste of time at this point - the exam isn't soon but it isn't too far away either. Work on past papers and boss the pure section.

When I took STEP there were often some pretty generous probability questions on II - I wouldn't write it off completely.

I'm ignoring all Mechanics & Stats as well. Learning new material is a waste of time at this point - the exam isn't soon but it isn't too far away either. Work on past papers and boss the pure section.

When I took STEP there were often some pretty generous probability questions on II - I wouldn't write it off completely.

> Boss the pure section
You make it sound so easy , though I've only start preparing 5 or so days ago.



Are there similar "gift" questions on III?

The main thing about the probability questions on III is that they usually require more than just knowledge of S1 and S2, so you'd need to do some extra prep if you want to attempt them.