STEP Prep Thread 2018

why do you say so? why do you not recommend doing more than 2-3 timed past papers?

can anyone help me with this? I've sketched the function for odd and even values of s but I still have no idea...

The timed papers give you practice at choosing 6 questions, and doing the questions under time pressure. It is good to do at least one of these.

However what will get you really good at STEP is trying all the questions on a paper, so that you try ones that you might be put off if doing them under exam conditions.

Hello guys,

Would it be too late to start preparing for STEP I in late Feb / early March? I'm only taking STEP I and I am taking the exams or have taken the exams for the modules required for the STEP I (C1-4, M1-2, S1-2).

That should be fine (although I would always recommend starting as early as possible!). Have you covered C3 or C4 yet? One of the problems can be that students have not met some of the calculus needed to attempt STEP questions early enough.

If it would be helpful, I can scan through the STEP support modules and work out which ones introduce the chain rule, integration by substitution etc.

Hi all,

We are currently thinking about what to do next with the STEP Support programme. Since September we have written solutions to the Mixed STEP I questions and have filled in the gaps on a lot of the Foundation Module solutions.

One idea I have had is to provide solutions to a set of "Mock papers" (2016 or 2017), along the lines of the solutions we have already done (so thoughts, discussions etc not just the bare solution). We could maybe publish this in May half term and then take it down after the exams.

Any thoughts? I know some people don't like solutions to questions from recent papers being on the site! Also it would mean writing full solutions etc to almost 40 STEP questions, so would take quite a lot of time (which could be used to do other things).

Anything else we should be doing (baring in mind we are a very small team!)

That sounds amazing, but odds are you wouldn't get feedback right now - as I'm sure you're aware, we are all yet to receive offers from Cambridge, and aspiring students of other students are in the minority. I'd assume you'd gather better information after the 10th.

Maybe go back a bit further (to avoid 2016/2017). You might also want to consider explicitly picking "exceptionally hard" years - I think there are useful points to be made about not panicking, question selection (and the desirability of not limiting yourself to the pure questions!). And I suspect a lot fewer people will mind having a "horror paper" potentially spoiled by solution discussion.

I'm sure I (and a few others on here) could possibly provide some help as well.

Cheers. Looking back at the grade boundaries it looks like 2014 was hard for STEP I and STEP III, and 2015 was hard for STEP II (and STEP I again).

I'll think about this idea a bit more, and maybe ask some of the first years here what they think. It depends a bit how students want to use something like this - if they want a set of fully worked solutions (i.e. fuller than the Exam board solutions and mark schemes) so that they can self evaluate a "Mock" exam then I would have thought a later exam would be better. However if they want to use it as a "Pre-Mock" (what ever that is) then a slightly earlier one would be best.

Hi all,

We are currently thinking about what to do next with the STEP Support programme. Since September we have written solutions to the Mixed STEP I questions and have filled in the gaps on a lot of the Foundation Module solutions.

One idea I have had is to provide solutions to a set of "Mock papers" (2016 or 2017), along the lines of the solutions we have already done (so thoughts, discussions etc not just the bare solution). We could maybe publish this in May half term and then take it down after the exams.

Any thoughts? I know some people don't like solutions to questions from recent papers being on the site! Also it would mean writing full solutions etc to almost 40 STEP questions, so would take quite a lot of time (which could be used to do other things).

Anything else we should be doing (baring in mind we are a very small team!)

I’ve got a different idea. Plenty of us on TSR should be able to help someone stuck on pretty much any STEP question, and have been for a number of years. Instead of detailed solutions, how about further beefing up the resources for those parts of the A level syllabus people find hard and are thus unpopular? Vectors, geometry and complex numbers spring to mind.

Some (detailed) notes on these topics with detailed hints and discussion for all past STEP questions in these areas would be most welcome I’m sure. We need to get people focusing on these, not leas5 because they’re probably the most useful bits of the A level syllabus for first year undergraduates. Getting more people confident in these areas would be a massive win and is something I doubt a TSR user could dedicate the time to produce - ie it’s pronanly ideal for you

Thanks for everything you do to support students through STEP!

I think that would be quite useful close to the exams- in May like you say. Perhaps a few more questions on each S2 &3 modules? Although I haven't started them yet the modules seem to be a lot smaller than the S1 ones, but this is presumably because the S1 modules were designed to guide you, with the preparation etc?

Big +1 for this. Students already have access to solutions and help with questions, from TSR solution threads, to mark-by-mark breakdown markschemes to examiners solutions. Spending a significant amount of time preparing a detailed markscheme for one or two years of STEP that will only be useful to a (relatively) small number of students in a relatively small time-frame (a month or so before the exam) is very small marginal gain for a large time investment.

This idea is useful to a relatively larger batch of students (anybody from Year 12 onwards) and useful throughout the entire cycle rather than just pre-exam. Also agree with the list of topics that A-Level students find hard and often put little effort into at STEP. Perhaps include some STEP-specific stats resources (STEP stats & probability has a rather different feel to what A-Level students learn and are used to), given that candidates often neglect that section and miss some of the gifts that crop up in there, not to mention that it'd make a good intro to the Tripos Probability IA course.

Thanks everyone for their comments, I'll hang fire on the Mock exam for now and look into expanding the note for Complex numbers etc. If there is a sudden outcry of support for worked solutions for a Mock then I will revisit the idea :-)

The other thing I need to do is start preparing for the change in STEP syllabus next year.

Have fun with mechanics - not sure how that’ll work with the new syllabus having so little in the single A level... (it’ll be interesting to see how much Part IA changes at Cambridge, and similarly for other good unis as a result of the new syllabus).