STEP Prep Thread 2016

For q 2 STEP II 2009, for the last part I used the 2nd 3rd and 4th turning points instead 1st 2nd 3rd hence my area calculated is almost the same, but the log term is different. How many marks would I lose for this?

Something like 3/4/5, probably.

ok, thanks Such as dumb mistake, especially when I had the graph infront of me. Also (I promise this is the last question ), for q3 in that paper, for the first part I used the formulae $t=tan \frac{x}{2}, \sin x = \dfrac{2t}{1+t^{2}}, \cos x= \dfrac{1-t^2}{1+t^2}$ from the formula book whereas the ms did spend extra time rearranging to get the fraction interms of sins and coss so they didnt have to use this formula. Im guessing my method is fine but just checking it is?

Are we talking about the same question? Wasn't Q3 just this? Although - without context, your method sounds perfectly fine, defo.

this was step II But ok Im convinced its fine

this was step II But ok Im convinced its fine

Mad bad, I meant this. But yeah, I'm convinced it's fine too.

Mad bad, I meant this. But yeah, I'm convinced it's fine too.

Yep I also used the formulae from the booklet (always break them out when you're dealing with tan half-angles) and worked backwards to get some nice easy solutions.
Pretty sure it's fine, I mean they did choose to provide us with those formulae, so we're always allowed to quote them without proof unless they specifically ask us to derive them.

Ah ok. What is up with the massive jump from 1 to S on some papers though!? I thought this paper went quite well with 4 fulls and 2 partials but if I end up with an S (98) its literally going to be on the boundary.

ok, thanks Im always slightly wary though incase the marker just looks at the first method they have infront of them and ignores all else but I guess they are much more thorough with step.

'Mad bad' lol.
Anyway, I think he's talking about 07.

Ah ok. What is up with the massive jump from 1 to S on some papers though!? I thought this paper went quite well with 4 fulls and 2 partials but if I end up with an S (98) its literally going to be on the boundary.

Yeah it's possible that an A-Level examiner would do something silly like that but certainly not STEP since they probably see alternative solutions all the time .

Ah ok. What is up with the massive jump from 1 to S on some papers though!? I thought this paper went quite well with 4 fulls and 2 partials but if I end up with an S (98) its literally going to be on the boundary.

Ok, so the deciding factor on my grade is how many marks do you reckon part iii of q7 (II 2009) is worth?

A lot of the questions on this paper were reasonably straightforward by STEP standards, and a number barely even took any time to complete - question 1 for example. It seemed reasonably frequent that the hardest part of a question would be the arithmetic :P Provided you avoided small slips it wasn't too hard to get a good number of 20s. Judging from the examiner's report it sounds like the marking was quite generous at times - you could get 15/16 on question 5 even if you missed the nuance of part ii. Admittedly 7 part iii was one of the trickier STEP integrals I've seen but the previous 6 questions were all very approachable. Which questions did you try?




I reckon 8 marks - so not having done it gives you 12.

I had a go at 2-7. Yeah, I mean most questions seemed pretty straightforward but I then fell for the trap of thinking "Ive got about 5 full answers so Ill just spend the rest of my time trying to make sure I get as many as possible on these and half heartedly attempt my 6th question". But yeah some small little errors cost me on average about 2-3 marks per question (+ part iii on that one which wasnt completed fully) so it all added up.

When you do Q1 out of your mock, you're gonna hate yourself for not doing it in your mock; just saying.

Ok, so the deciding factor on my grade is how many marks do you reckon part iii of q7 (II 2009) is worth?

I had a go at 2-7. Yeah, I mean most questions seemed pretty straightforward but I then fell for the trap of thinking "Ive got about 5 full answers so Ill just spend the rest of my time trying to make sure I get as many as possible on these and half heartedly attempt my 6th question". But yeah some small little errors cost me on average about 2-3 marks per question (+ part iii on that one which wasnt completed fully) so it all added up.

ffs XD Im so annoyed now, I couldve so easily got a clear S on this paper but I just didnt.