STEP Prep Thread 2015

Step 2, 2004, question 10. How is the distance travelled at the end 6m? The time to the collision is 2 seconds, it takes 1 second to travel 3m up the slope, after which it travels down the slope for 1 second. It has acceleration 4, so s = 2t^2 so why isn't the distance 5m?

Reply 1461

pryngles

9

THIS IS MAKING ME WANT TO GIVE UP ON WARWICK AND MATHS IN GENERAL AND JUST LIVE A LIFE OF CRIME INSTEAD.

I'm the only one in my year doing STEP and none of my teachers have done it so I'm pretty much on my own, anyone else in the same position? If yes, hello new friend :biggrin:

You're all being incredibly helpful with your replies and it's great to be able to read through your tips etc.

We can do this! :biggrin:

Reply 1462

username1162972

18

Original post by pryngles

THIS IS MAKING ME WANT TO GIVE UP ON WARWICK AND MATHS IN GENERAL AND JUST LIVE A LIFE OF CRIME INSTEAD.

I'm the only one in my year doing STEP and none of my teachers have done it so I'm pretty much on my own, anyone else in the same position? If yes, hello new friend :biggrin:

You're all being incredibly helpful with your replies and it's great to be able to read through your tips etc.

We can do this! :biggrin:

Yes, my teachers have never done it, im the only one in my year doing it aswell.

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Reply 1463

Dalek1099

21

Original post by SamKeene

Who knows, maybe if the list is written up neatly in latex.

Example in stack-exchange here. Example in STEP II 2011 Q2

Neither have I, but we can all learn and discover the tricks together ^.^

Ay, the Weierstrass Sub is definetly used every now and again in step. I remember part of a STEP II question was deriving the half tan formulas.

You're right there is another thread, I just never see new stuff posted in there much - and was thinking of writing it all up in latex anyway.. hmm...

I think I remember doing that question with x-1/x in Y11 I think it was easy but I messed up with a negative sign.I have more tricks the arctan addition rule is a must to learn and its practically identical to the tan addition rule so not hard to learn and I have seen it come up twice recently in my STEP classes so you are ruling yourself out of a lot of questions.You should also learn that for double integrals rdrdtheta=dxdy not sure if they will be that nasty but it came up in my mock Cambridge interview so they might be nasty and ask it.

Reply 1464

DomStaff

2

Original post by pryngles

THIS IS MAKING ME WANT TO GIVE UP ON WARWICK AND MATHS IN GENERAL AND JUST LIVE A LIFE OF CRIME INSTEAD.

I'm the only one in my year doing STEP and none of my teachers have done it so I'm pretty much on my own, anyone else in the same position? If yes, hello new friend :biggrin:

You're all being incredibly helpful with your replies and it's great to be able to read through your tips etc.

We can do this! :biggrin:

Having no help at school will be a lot more common than you think, hence why Cambridge host an Easter Prep thing.

Reply 1465

ubisoft

3

Yeah, you're lucky to find teachers who can teach further maths properly, nevermind STEP.

Reply 1466

shamika

16

[QUOTE="DFranklin;53387045"]

Original post by DomStaff

Yes, but they're fairly uncommon.

Kind of depends how easy you find it to learn: I'd say it's worth learning basic probability, conditional probability,

For the benefit of STEP takers, you might want to check that conditional probability is covered in your S1 syllabus (it is in Edexcel, FYI).

Bayes theorem,

This isn't included explicitly in the STEP specification, and it isn't in the Edexcel syllabus. Definitely think it's worth knowing though (I don't really understand how it isn't covered by S1 :confused:

)

the standard distrbiutions (Binomial, Poisson, Normal etc),

Bizarrely, Binomial and Poisson are in Edexcel S2, after the Normal distribution is covered in S1.

probability density functions/cumulative distribution functions, expectation, variance.

This is really the fundamental stuff for a lot of questions, but you really only need the definitions. I would add the definition of the median too.

But when I list it out like that it does feel like quite a lot. I guess I know it well enough to consider it "background knowledge" and it's only when pinned down that I realise how much is actually there!

I reckon a fair few here would be able to start trying STEP questions with that background - for example, STEP II 2010, Q12 is possible with just this knowledge. So is STEP I 2011, Q13 and STEP 1 2005, Q14. Spending an afternoon learning that material shouldn't be out of the reach of some of you here. Wikipedia and your exam board's core textbooks should be enough.

PS: I agree with DFranklin's thoughts on how long to spend on a question. The only thing I'd add is that keeping a fair few papers (~5 years) to treat as mocks is definitely a good thing because you need to practice choosing questions, which is a definite art. So many people get stuck in the real exam by not practising question choice. See additional ranfom thoughts here.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1467

shamika

16

Original post by pryngles

THIS IS MAKING ME WANT TO GIVE UP ON WARWICK AND MATHS IN GENERAL AND JUST LIVE A LIFE OF CRIME INSTEAD.

I'm the only one in my year doing STEP and none of my teachers have done it so I'm pretty much on my own, anyone else in the same position? If yes, hello new friend :biggrin:

You're all being incredibly helpful with your replies and it's great to be able to read through your tips etc.

We can do this! :biggrin:

This thread is made specifically for people like you. Don't be shy, ask as many questions as you want (although trust me when I say resisting the urge to give up and ask as soon as you get stuck is going to massively benefit you in the long run)

Reply 1468

DomStaff

2

Anyone else been invited to the STEP Easter school at Cambridge?

Reply 1469

username1162972

18

Original post by DomStaff

Anyone else been invited to the STEP Easter school at Cambridge?

Na have you?

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Reply 1470

username1162972

18

Original post by DomStaff

Anyone else been invited to the STEP Easter school at Cambridge?

I thought i would, but ......

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Reply 1471

raff97

8

Original post by DomStaff

Anyone else been invited to the STEP Easter school at Cambridge?

How does the choosing work? like I go to a state comprehensive in an extremely under-represented area in the UK and we haven't sent anyone to oxbridge for 4 years despite it being a large school (300-350 per year group) and I haven't been invited.

Reply 1472

DomStaff

2

Original post by physicsmaths

Na have you?

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Original post by raff97

How does the choosing work? like I go to a state comprehensive in an extremely under-represented area in the UK and we haven't sent anyone to oxbridge for 4 years despite it being a large school (300-350 per year group) and I haven't been invited.

Yeah. Got the email this morning.

Don't know exactly what the criteria is, but to put it into to perspective. My school has ~1000 pupils from Y7-13 and there are probably about 50 students in Y13. I don't know if that helps.

However, you may still get one soon.

Reply 1473

rhiam

1

So whos going to the step easter school?

Reply 1474

username1162972

18

Original post by rhiam

So whos going to the step easter school?

Apparently not me LOL. Kind of annoyed as i get no help. Ill ask the fitz people this thursday what they playin at.

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Reply 1475

rhiam

1

Original post by physicsmaths

Apparently not me LOL. Kind of annoyed as i get no help. Ill ask the fitz people this thursday what they playin at.

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ah that sucks maybe ask your school to email them, I'm pretty sure one of the reasons im on it is that my head of sixth emailed the college, not sure what he said but i guess he told them the school couldnt provide any support with step

Reply 1476

username1162972

18

Original post by rhiam

ah that sucks maybe ask your school to email them, I'm pretty sure one of the reasons im on it is that my head of sixth emailed the college, not sure what he said but i guess he told them the school couldnt provide any support with step

Yes i shall. Someone who went last year said it was really really good.

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Reply 1477

username1162972

18

Original post by rhiam

ah that sucks maybe ask your school to email them, I'm pretty sure one of the reasons im on it is that my head of sixth emailed the college, not sure what he said but i guess he told them the school couldnt provide any support with step