Doing STEP in June 2017 when graduating this November

I'm based in Australia and just discovered Mathematics with Physics was an option at Cambridge. I'm much more mathematically inclined and love the idea of doing mostly maths in my first year. However, since I do my IB exams in November this means I would need to sit the STEP 6 months after my maths exam. Since I'm planning on doing a bit of travelling next year, I'm a bit worried I'm gonna be a bit rusty by then. Also, if I were to get an offer for maths it would be conditional, whereas if I applied for natural sciences the decision I get in January would be final. Would I be better off applying for Natural Sciences instead? Any advice would be great x

Reply 1

Doones

21

Original post by xyrn

I'm based in Australia and just discovered Mathematics with Physics was an option at Cambridge. I'm much more mathematically inclined and love the idea of doing mostly maths in my first year. However, since I do my IB exams in November this means I would need to sit the STEP 6 months after my maths exam. Since I'm planning on doing a bit of travelling next year, I'm a bit worried I'm gonna be a bit rusty by then. Also, if I were to get an offer for maths it would be conditional, whereas if I applied for natural sciences the decision I get in January would be final. Would I be better off applying for Natural Sciences instead? Any advice would be great x

Interesting question - maybe @alow can help?

Also ask the Christ's Admissions Tutor in his thread:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4238242

Reply 2

username1865079

14

Original post by xyrn

I'm based in Australia and just discovered Mathematics with Physics was an option at Cambridge. I'm much more mathematically inclined and love the idea of doing mostly maths in my first year. However, since I do my IB exams in November this means I would need to sit the STEP 6 months after my maths exam. Since I'm planning on doing a bit of travelling next year, I'm a bit worried I'm gonna be a bit rusty by then. Also, if I were to get an offer for maths it would be conditional, whereas if I applied for natural sciences the decision I get in January would be final. Would I be better off applying for Natural Sciences instead? Any advice would be great x

Original post by jneill

Interesting question - maybe @alow can help?

Also ask the Christ's Admissions Tutor in his thread:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4238242

OP might be better off if he posts the question on@Christ's Admissions thread asap.
The thread title says it's until 2 Sep, but he's still replying this morning. Not sure how long he'll keep the thread open. (I've already asked him on the thread)

Reply 3

alow

19

Original post by jneill

Interesting question - maybe @alow can help?

Also ask the Christ's Admissions Tutor in his thread:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4238242

Thanks

Original post by xyrn

I'm based in Australia and just discovered Mathematics with Physics was an option at Cambridge. I'm much more mathematically inclined and love the idea of doing mostly maths in my first year. However, since I do my IB exams in November this means I would need to sit the STEP 6 months after my maths exam. Since I'm planning on doing a bit of travelling next year, I'm a bit worried I'm gonna be a bit rusty by then. Also, if I were to get an offer for maths it would be conditional, whereas if I applied for natural sciences the decision I get in January would be final. Would I be better off applying for Natural Sciences instead? Any advice would be great x

Phys NatSci has a lot of maths in it if you want it to. We basically do all of the same maths methods as the mathmos, but they obviously do a lot more pure stuff and a lot more statistics.

Have a look here, scroll down to the bottom and there are the NatSci second year examples sheets: http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/examples/

People who do MwP don't really have an advantage over physicists, so I'd only recommend applying for it if you think you might want to do maths after the first year as it's a lot easier to go from maths to physics than physics to maths.

Also if you look at the application stats (http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics), only about half of people who get a maths offer are accepted (i.e. about half miss their offer for STEP), whereas almost everyone that gets offered for NatSci gets their grades. STEP is really hard, even for people that just want to do maths and spend a lot longer preparing.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

Doones

21

Original post by vincrows

OP might be better off if he posts the question on@Christ's Admissions thread asap.
The thread title says it's until 2 Sep, but he's still replying this morning. Not sure how long he'll keep the thread open. (I've already asked him on the thread)

Yes, although the CAT has previously kept threads open for a few bonus days :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 5

username1865079

14

Original post by jneill

Yes, although the CAT has previously kept threads open for a few bonus days :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

You know, he's a Cambridge professor. Reading calendar is not really their forte.
They do May Week in June...... :tongue:

Reply 6

xyrn

OP

Original post by jneill

Interesting question - maybe @alow can help?

Also ask the Christ's Admissions Tutor in his thread:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4238242

Thanks for telling me about this- hope he replies!

Reply 7

xyrn

OP

Original post by alow

Thanks

Phys NatSci has a lot of maths in it if you want it to. We basically do all of the same maths methods as the mathmos, but they obviously do a lot more pure stuff and a lot more statistics.

Have a look here, scroll down to the bottom and there are the NatSci second year examples sheets: http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/examples/

People who do MwP don't really have an advantage over physicists, so I'd only recommend applying for it if you think you might want to do maths after the first year as it's a lot easier to go from maths to physics than physics to maths.

Also if you look at the application stats (http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics), only about half of people who get a maths offer are accepted (i.e. about half miss their offer for STEP), whereas almost everyone that gets offered for NatSci gets their grades. STEP is really hard, even for people that just want to do maths and spend a lot longer preparing.

Yeah I've been looking at the maths course and I am considering doing it after first year. It seems more flexible than the NatSci course (I think) and I'd be able to do a lot of applied maths anyway. But I don't know if I can be bothered worrying about the STEP when I'm snorkeling in Asia or something..

Australian universities also give out decisions early January so if I were to get a conditional offer I'd have to decline my offer here in Melbourne.

Thanks btw this was very helpful!

Reply 8

alow

19

Original post by xyrn

Yeah I've been looking at the maths course and I am considering doing it after first year. It seems more flexible than the NatSci course (I think) and I'd be able to do a lot of applied maths anyway. But I don't know if I can be bothered worrying about the STEP when I'm snorkeling in Asia or something..

Australian universities also give out decisions early January so if I were to get a conditional offer I'd have to decline my offer here in Melbourne.

Thanks btw this was very helpful!