The Student Room Group

STEP Prep Thread 2015

With 2014's STEP exams having finished, it is about time for all of us taking the exams next June to take the baton. Below is the familiar OP put together by LOTF two years ago, with a few small edits and adjustments, so thank you to him for that.

Note:STEP is mainly used for final offers, but it can be helpful to look at STEP I before your interview to get practice of doing difficult problems. Don't worry if you can't do many problems quickly, your aim should be at least to get used to having to think hard about a question.

\star For those taking STEP in 2015, here is the place to discuss, post problems, or ask any questions you may have regarding the exam! \star



Download the STEP Megapack here

This includes the following:

Past papers, solutions, exam reports 1987-2012 (download separately for years 1998-2014 here)
Formula booklet (download separately here)
Stephen Siklos' booklets (download separately here and here)
Spreadsheet to print out and keep track of which questions you have done (download separately here)

See here for a cross reference between the Siklos booklets and the original STEP papers from which the questions are taken.

The University of Warwick has uploaded a few videos of worked out STEP questions here, which you may find helpful.

The 2013 & 2014 papers can be found using the following link:

http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/our-services/subject-specific/step/preparing-for-step/


\star

TSR has a solution bank of its own if you are interested:

1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991
1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996
1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001
2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006
2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011
2012 I · 2012 II · 2012 III
2013
(note: there are currently no solutions for 2009 on TSR)

Avoid recent papers & solutions at all costs (2011 - 2014)! You will need these as mocks in June 2015!


\star

FAQ

When should I start preparing?

Start preparing early (but be careful not to use up all the past papers too fast!).

Where do I start?

S. Siklos' booklets are a good place to start (link above). Once you feel more comfortable with the questions, you may
want to tackle STEP I papers. It is good to begin with papers that are not too old (the exam has somewhat changed since 1987)
but not too recent: I would say start around 2002.
Contrary to what it might seem like on this thread, most people start their preparation in January when they know what uni offers they have. Whilst its always helpful to start as soon as possible, it is still possible to do very well if you start your preparation after you've received your offers
Your aim should be approximately 45 minutes per question.

What if I get stuck?

Don't worry if STEP seems difficult at first - it is meant to be hard, and everyone is feeling the same. When you're stuck,
keep searching. This is crucial, because unless you're superhuman, you will get stuck in the exam at some point, and you will not have a hints & answers booklet by your side.
Get used to the idea of spending lots of time on a single question.

Will it get easier?

Yes - but this doesn't mean it will get easy. With practise, you will come to enjoy the problem solving,
and you will start recognising certain techniques/tricks which inevitably make the questions more accessible.
Also, it should be said that many questions seem very difficult from the outside, but turn out to be
easier than expected once you start writing things down.

Is it strategic to focus on pure only?

No. Since preparation time isn't an issue, it is best to give yourself more choice
and work on all areas of STEP questions. If you are doing a substantial number of mechanics or stats modules (e.g. you are doing M3 or S2), then you should definitely look at the relevant applied sections. Not only does this increase your question choice, sometimes you can get a gift question, which is much rarer in the pure section.

Read the post below for more information

(many thanks to shamika)

\star

Required knowledge

Look here or the last pages of Siklos' booklets:
http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/images/47831-step-specification-rebranded-.pdf
STEP I & II:

C1-4 + M1-2 + S1-2 + proof by induction

STEP III:

Above + FP1-3 + M3-5 + S3-4

The syllabus for III is very wide,
so the above is roughly what the questions can touch on.

Useful tricks (TSR thread) & Graph sketching


\star

Marking

STEP grades: S (Outstanding), 1 (Very good), 2 (Good), 3 (Satisfactory), U (Unclassified)

Mark-schemes are not published so it is difficult to say how STEP is marked. What we do know:

Questions are marked out of 20, no bonus points - you should look at no more than
6 questions in the exam (total out of 120). All questions are marked but only the marks from the best 6 contribute towards the final grade. Any fully-correct answer will be awarded maximum marks.
No points are given for mathematical elegance. Most marks are method marks: according to DFranklin
small slip-ups will only cost you 1-2 points. Four good (not necessarily perfect) answers will generally
award you a 1.

The Exam Reports (link above) are informative on marking too - take a look.

Grade boundaries for years 2000-2014 (previous years are not available):

Spoiler



\star

Exam conditions

The exam lasts 3 hours sharp. With the exam sheet, you will be given the formula booklet (link above).
It is the same each year. Calculators have been banned since 1997.
You will have to write in black ink, and correction fluid is not permitted.
Drafting paper is allowed (ask your school to provide some if you want any), but generally it is advised to
write most of your working down on the exam sheet - even if this means writing out multiplications.

\star

Standard (STEP) offers

University of Cambridge: 1,1 in STEP II, III
University of Warwick: 1 (if A*A* not ach.) or 2 in any paper
Imperial College London: 2 in STEP II or III (occasionally)
University College London: 1 (if A*A* not ach.)
University of Bath: 2 in any paper (occasionally)

\star

This year's exam dates have been released, and are as follows...

STEP I - Mon 15 June 2015 (am)
STEP II - Wed 17 June 2015 (am)
STEP III - Fri 19 June 2015 (am)

In the week before the exam...

Read this post.

(thank you shamika)

\star

Good luck!


If you have any contributions/comments please let me know!
(edited 9 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Here's the extended FAQ referred to in the first post. It's rather long, so I've hidden the answers in spoiler tags. Of course, you only need to read something if you need the answer or you're curious!

I appreciate that between the first and second posts there is a lot of information so if you're feeling overloaded just ask in the thread :smile:

An introduction to STEP

Spoiler



What is STEP?

Spoiler



What is the purpose of STEP?

Spoiler



I've heard STEP is really hard...

Spoiler



You mentioned some resources?

Spoiler



Any other resources?

Spoiler



What should I know before starting STEP I and II?

Spoiler



What should I know before starting STEP III?

Spoiler



How much work do I need to do?

Spoiler



Why are other universities starting to ask for STEP?

Spoiler



What about other exams?

Spoiler



Would you recommend I look at any of those exams?

Spoiler



Should I bother with mechanics and statistics?

Spoiler



Is there anything special to learn for pure?

Spoiler



What sort of maths should I know that's not on the A-Level syllabus?

Spoiler



This is all a bit overwhelming. Where the heck do I start?

Spoiler



I'm really struggling

Spoiler



Is there anything I can learn from the 2012 thread(s)?

Spoiler



Above all, if you've got any questions at all, just ask! Good luck :smile:
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 2
Are we all jumping ship to here?

Posted from TSR Mobile
One potential update this year would be to the advice regarding "4 good solutions".
Original post by Principia
With 2014's STEP exams having finished, it is about time for all of us taking the exams next June to take the baton. Below is the familiar OP put together by LOTF two years ago, with a few small edits and adjustments, so thank you to him for that.

\star For those taking STEP in 2015, here is the place to discuss, post problems, or ask any questions you may have regarding the exam! \star



Download the STEP Megapack here

This includes the following:

Past papers, solutions, exam reports 1987-2012 (download separately for years 1998-2012 here)
Formula booklet (download separately here)
Stephen Siklos' booklets (download separately here and here)
Spreadsheet to print out and keep track of which questions you have done (download separately here)

See here for a cross reference between the first Siklos booklet and the original STEP papers from which the questions are taken.

The University of Warwick has uploaded a few videos of worked out STEP questions here, which you may find helpful.

The June 2014 papers can be found using the following link:

http://www.admissionstestingservice.org/our-services/subject-specific/step/preparing-for-step/


\star

TSR has a solution bank of its own if you are interested:

1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991
1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996
1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001
2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006
2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011
2012 I · 2012 II · 2012 III
2013
(note: 2008 and 2010 are incomplete, and 2009 seems to be non-existant)

Avoid recent papers & solutions at all costs (2011 - 2014)! You will need these as mocks in June 2015!

For the moment, the links are there more for coherence than anything else.

\star

FAQ

When should I start preparing?

Start preparing early (but be careful not to use up all the past papers too fast!).

Where do I start?

S. Siklos' booklets are a good place to start (link above). Once you feel more comfortable with the questions, you may
want to tackle STEP I papers. It is good to begin with papers that are not too old (the exam has somewhat changed since 1987)
but not too recent: I would say start around 2000.
Doing one question a day starting January/February and then moving on to full papers in April/May is a good plan.
Your aim should be approximately 45 minutes per question.

What if I get stuck?

Don't worry if STEP seems difficult at first - it is meant to be hard, and everyone is feeling the same. When you're stuck,
keep searching. This is crucial, because unless you're superhuman, you will get stuck in the exam at some point, and you will not have a hints & answers booklet by your side.
Get used to the idea of spending lots of time on a single question.

Will it get easier?

Yes - but this doesn't mean it will get easy. With practise, you will come to enjoy the problem solving,
and you will start recognising certain techniques/tricks which inevitably make the questions more accessible.
Also, it should be said that many questions seem very difficult from the outside, but turn out to be
easier than expected once you start writing things down.

Is it strategic to focus on pure only?

No. Since preparation time isn't an issue, it is best to give yourself more choice
and work on all areas of STEP questions. You never know where a gift-question might lie.
Also, rumor has it that the applied questions tend to be slightly easier than the pure ones.

Read the post below for more information

(many thanks to shamika)

\star

Required knowledge

Look here or the last pages of Siklos' booklets

STEP I & II:

C1-4 + M1-2 + S1-2 + proof by induction

STEP III:

Above + FP1-3 + M3-5 + S3-4

The syllabus for III is very wide,
so the above is roughly what the questions can touch on.

Useful tricks (TSR thread) & Graph sketching


\star

Marking

STEP grades: S (Outstanding), 1 (Very good), 2 (Good), 3 (Satisfactory), U (Unclassified)

Mark-schemes are not published so it is difficult to say how STEP is marked. What we do know:

Questions are marked out of 20, no bonus points - you should look at no more than
6 questions in the exam (total out of 120). Any correct answer will be awarded maximum marks.
No points are given for mathematical elegance. Most marks are method marks: according to DFranklin
small slip-ups will only cost you 1-2 points. Four good (not necessarily perfect) answers will generally
award you a 1.

The Exam Reports (link above) are informative on marking too - take a look.

Grade boundaries for years 2000-2014 (previous years are not available):

Spoiler



\star

Exam conditions

The exam lasts 3 hours sharp. With the exam sheet, you will be given the formula booklet (link above).
It is the same each year. Calculators have been banned since 1997.
You will have to write in black ink, and correction fluid is not permitted.
Drafting paper is allowed (ask your school to provide some if you want any), but generally it is advised to
write most of your working down on the exam sheet - even if this means writing out multiplications.

\star

Standard (STEP) offers

University of Cambridge: 1,1 in STEP II, III
University of Warwick: 1 (if A*A* not ach.) or 2 in any paper
Imperial College London: 2 in STEP II or III (occasionally)
University College London: 1 (if A*A* not ach.)
University of Bath: 2 in any paper (occasionally)

\star

This year's exam dates have not yet been released, and will be updated as and when they are...

STEP I -TBC
STEP II - TBC
STEP III - TBC

In the week before the exam...

Read this post.

(thank you shamika)

\star

Good luck!


If you have any contributions/comments please let me know!


Please stop this thread Mr M has agreed for my thread to become the official thread now and has removed the Dalek1099 bit.Your OP is pretty much plagiarism it has to be different each year and you have removed my useful links.
Reply 5
I was thinking that, but AFAIK that is still the official advice and the boundaries this year were a bit lower.
Reply 6
Good luck everyone taking this year! I took all three exams this past summer and got S1S (2 marks off an S in II..), I was not particularly active in the 2014 thread but I completed 500+ questions so I am very familiar with it all. I am keen to be active in this thread, though I fear that I will have a lot of work piled on me from October! Feel free to PM me anything about Cambridge admissions too, I am starting at Trinity this October so can address any questions regarding applications, interviews, etc- I don't claim to be an expert in any of this, just someone who's had recent hands-on experience.
Original post by Principia
.....


The link to the specification leads to the old Cambridge Assessment site, not the Admissions Testing one.

I would suggest that
"I would say start around 2000."
be changed to 2002, since that's when the current specification started.
Original post by Dalek1099
Please stop this thread Mr M has agreed for my thread to become the official thread now


I don't think I said that!
Original post by Dalek1099
Your OP is pretty much plagiarism it has to be different each year and you have removed my useful links.


Not plagiarism if I agree to it...
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Mr M
I don't think I said that!


By removing my name the thread is now STEP Prep Thread 2015 making it the official thread and then principia has now made a fake thread after the name change making it not official.
Good luck everyone :h:.
Original post by Dalek1099
By removing my name the thread is now STEP Prep Thread 2015 making it the official thread and then principia has now made a fake thread after the name change making it not official.

:giggle:
Original post by Dalek1099
By removing my name the thread is now STEP Prep Thread 2015 making it the official thread and then principia has now made a fake thread after the name change making it not official.


This is about providing the best support possible to STEP candidates not pandering to your ego. If your thread is the best then yours will prevail. You have a headstart after all.
Original post by Mr M
This is about providing the best support possible to STEP candidates not pandering to your ego. If your thread is the best then yours will prevail. You have a headstart after all.


This is about providing the best support possible to STEP candidates not pandering Principia's ego.The official STEP thread is the thread that is of name "STEP Prep Thread 2015" first and mine was before Principia's was released.I have already put my flag down and claimed the STEP Thread.Now lets stop this pathetic idea of two STEP threads with people confused which to go to and lets delete this thread-I have already reported it.
Original post by Principia

Marking

STEP grades: S (Outstanding), 1 (Very good), 2 (Good), 3 (Satisfactory), U (Unclassified)

Mark-schemes are not published so it is difficult to say how STEP is marked. What we do know:

Questions are marked out of 20, no bonus points - you should look at no more than
6 questions in the exam (total out of 120). Any correct answer will be awarded maximum marks.
No points are given for mathematical elegance. Most marks are method marks: according to DFranklin
small slip-ups will only cost you 1-2 points. Four good (not necessarily perfect) answers will generally
award you a 1.


This is probably really fussy, but I feel that here you should specifically state that only your six best solutions go towards your final mark/grade.

Spoiler


To people taking STEP - I will try and help out where I can - so feel free to quote me if you have any questions about anything STEP/university admissions. Just like Ben385, I took all three exams this summer and completed a lot of questions, so I should be familiar with it all.

I wish you all the best of luck! :biggrin:
Original post by jtSketchy
This is probably really fussy, but I feel that here you should specifically state that only your six best solutions go towards your final mark/grade.

Spoiler


To people taking STEP - I will try and help out where I can - so feel free to quote me if you have any questions about anything STEP/university admissions. Just like Ben385, I took all three exams this summer and completed a lot of questions, so I should be familiar with it all.

I wish you all the best of luck! :biggrin:


The original OP has a lot of mistakes like 45 minutes per question 180/6=30 minutes per question, doing 4 questions means you automatically lose 40 marks and you have to hope the grade boundaries aren't too high/the questions aren't harshly marked or its game over for you so on my OP it says 30 minutes per question.
Original post by Dalek1099
The original OP has a lot of mistakes like 45 minutes per question 180/6=30 minutes per question, doing 4 questions means you automatically lose 40 marks and you have to hope the grade boundaries aren't too high/the questions aren't harshly marked or its game over for you so on my OP it says 30 minutes per question.


Actually 45 minutes per question is the official advice and is not a mistake. Not everyone doing STEP is doing it to get into Cambridge.
Original post by Principia
...


Suggested changes - you might want to get thoughts from others to ensure there's consensus before you make the changes, to avoid you having to change it back:

1) Since it's currently pre-interview season, perhaps add near the top: "STEP is mainly used for final offers, but it can be helpful to look at STEP I before your interview to get practice of doing difficult problems. Don't worry if you can't do many problems quickly, your aim should be at least to get used to having to think hard about a question."

2) The line "The June 2014 papers can be found using the following link:" should be updated to "The 2013 and 2014 papers can be found using the following link" (because the Megapack doesn't include anything post 2012. If someone can be bothered they can update the Megapack but that's not that big a deal.)\

3) I've never really understood why "Avoid recent papers & solutions at all costs (2011 - 2014)! You will need these as mocks in June 2015" is bold and red. I don't think this is good advice. Maybe change this to something like "If you have started your prep early, make sure you keep a few papers spare near the exams to use as timed mocks. The latest exams are the most useful for this purpose. Because of this, please use spoiler tags before May if you want to discuss questions from 2010 onwards."

4) The answer to the question "When should I start preparing?" is also not great. I suggest changing it to "Contrary to what it might seem like on this thread, most people start their preparation in January when they know what uni offers they have. Whilst its always helpful to start as soon as possible, it is still possible to do very well if you start your preparation after you've received your offers."

5) In the second answer in the FAQ, replace "It is good to begin with papers that are not too old (the exam has somewhat changed since 1987) but not too recent: I would say start around 2000." with "The most relevant papers will be from 2002 onwards as this is when the syllabus last changed. However, the style of the papers has remained similar from 1994, although certain questions (e.g. those involving matrices) are currently off syllabus. Questions pre-1994 are still useful, but only if you've exhausted everything else."

6) In the last question, I suggest a response like: "If you are doing a substantial number of mechanics or stats modules (e.g. you are doing M3 or S2), then you should definitely look at the relevant applied sections. Not only does this increase your question choice, sometimes you can get a gift question, which is much rarer in the pure section."

7) In the marking section, replace "Four good (not necessarily perfect) answers will generally award you a 1." with "If you look at the grade boundaries you will see that four "good" answers is typically enough for a 1, i.e. a mark around 60. These days, the increased competition and variability in exam difficulty means that the grade 1 boundary can be significantly more than this."

8) If it's not there already, somewhere we should also mention NRICH. Not only is it an official resource (in the sense it is recommended by Cambridge), last year they created a huge amount of resources for STEP. They also have a forum with advisors (which aren't as good as us :tongue:)

Thanks again for organising, I will add the extended FAQ into the second post now.

DJMayes
...

DFranklin
...

und
...

Lord of the Flies
...

davros
...

tiny hobbit
...


(Sorry for the mass quoting but I thought it'd be easier if you saw this so we can make this OP the best it can be and then forget this ridiculous saga of multiple threads.)
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Star-girl
Actually 45 minutes per question is the official advice and is not a mistake. Not everyone doing STEP is doing it to get into Cambridge.


I can't see how telling people to throw away 40 marks is good advice.Also, the last parts of the question are generally a lot harder so if you avoided them(if you got stuck) and did all 6 this would be a much better plan, with 6 decent answers=1.
With regards to 4 good answers for a 1. I would say it would be fair and helpful to suggest that in STEP III often 4 good solutions for a 1 is true but for STEP I and II while this is sometimes the case it is rarer (though it can happen, for example this years STEP I was a lot harder than usual and the 1 boundary was adjusted suitably to 63)

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