Maths MAT and STEP

Done my AS this year with Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Arabic. Going into A2 with Maths, Further Maths and Physics. I am also doing EPQ next academic year, it would be something about the history of Mathematics.

I am planning to study Maths at university in 2016. I haven't decided where I want to study but Oxford would be great. During this summer break I have studied C3, C4, FP2 and FP3.

About the MAT and STEP, is A2 knowledge enough to preform well and achieve S or 1 in STEP?
What else can I do to improve my application?

Reply 1

username1258398

19

Original post by AlmostNotable

About the MAT and STEP, is A2 knowledge enough to preform well and achieve S or 1 in STEP?
What else can I do to improve my application?

Yes. What other knowledge would you want to have at your disposal?*

Read plenty of maths books (take a look at the Cambridge reading list).

*Edit: Obviously just knowing the A-level really well isn't enough, you have to do many practice papers to get used to the style and difficulty of the exams; you don't need to learn additional content, though.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

BobLoblawLawBlog

16

Original post by AlmostNotable

Done my AS this year with Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Arabic. Going into A2 with Maths, Further Maths and Physics. I am also doing EPQ next academic year, it would be something about the history of Mathematics.

I am planning to study Maths at university in 2016. I haven't decided where I want to study but Oxford would be great. During this summer break I have studied C3, C4, FP2 and FP3.

About the MAT and STEP, is A2 knowledge enough to preform well and achieve S or 1 in STEP?
What else can I do to improve my application?

Fully undrstanding A2 Maths and further Maths is necessary, but nowhere near being a sufficient condition to doing well in STEP without further practice. The only way you can do well in STEP is by practising questions.

As long as you perform well in interview, there isn't really anything you need to do to strengthen your application as nowhere will really care.

Reply 3

Crystalux_blu39

1

Original post by AlmostNotable

Done my AS this year with Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Arabic. Going into A2 with Maths, Further Maths and Physics. I am also doing EPQ next academic year, it would be something about the history of Mathematics.

I am planning to study Maths at university in 2016. I haven't decided where I want to study but Oxford would be great. During this summer break I have studied C3, C4, FP2 and FP3.

About the MAT and STEP, is A2 knowledge enough to preform well and achieve S or 1 in STEP?
What else can I do to improve my application?

If I'm to give advice for MAT and STEP, it is to start NOW, even if you do not know if your offer require it. I made a mistake only starting STEP practice after I got my offer for Cambridge.
Even if in the end you don't get an offer, it helps a lot in A2 maths as nowadays exam boards place a lot of those trick questions here and there. If not, it just spead up your thinking thus giving you extra time in exams.
A2 knowledge is suffiecient to get around the first bit any the question but the rest is about recognising tricks and possible solutions which can only be done by a lot of practice.
By practicing you'll learn tricks in answering questions and new miscellaneous knowleged about A-level content.
STEP Courses run by some universities are very helpful, though expensive, it improves on how you approach a question. It can also teach you soem of the miscellaneous content that can be helpful. Though nost of the courses focuses on the pure. As for applied maths, doing some extra S3/M3 would be beneficial, depending on which applued you prefer. Though the number of people actually doing a statistics question is miniscule. But then again statistics in STEP is mostly S1 with some fancy pure maths later on..
It would be nice to hace a friend to work questions with as it can give you a new perspective in approaching a question.

Maths MAT and STEP

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