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<a https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7467335'> Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>
<a https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7467335'> Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>
<a https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7467335'> Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

STEP Prep Thread 2020

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Original post by Complete Idiot
I think it was hard. I didn't finish any questions, but I did 6 attempts to varying degrees of completion. My question choice was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8. Did anybody who did question 8 have the glitch I did? It was really troublesome. The moment where I was like "I've failed" was when I was halfway through my attempt at question 8 and then the screen started glitching out and I couldn't concentrate (I'm very sensitive to that sort of distraction, which is why I wear earplugs during exams).

You should fill in the 'special consideration' form which is meant for cases exactly like that
How were 9 and 10 I was wondering if mechanics were easier
Original post by RuneFreeze
You should fill in the 'special consideration' form which is meant for cases exactly like that

That's a good point. Do you know how I could do that?
Yes! I had the same problem with question 8. Is there anywhere we can complain about this/try and get it fixed? It made it really difficult to do the question, and I eventually just gave up and moved on.
Original post by Pseudonium
I didn’t myself (didn’t actually click on Q8 though), but one of my friends taking the exam did have this glitch, where the screen expanded and contracted really fast or something?


Yeah it was exactly that
Original post by User04592
How were 9 and 10 I was wondering if mechanics were easier


The initial result of 9 was quite easy. I gave up after that though as I couldn't see where the inequalities were supposed to come from. Question was quite standard circular motion, although you didn't actually need to know anything about circular motion as it was just energy conservation and equilibrium). I got the first two results but I think I messed up somewhere in the next bit as the algebra wasn't nice.
(edited 3 years ago)
Where do you get the special consideration form? I had a problem where proctor made me do 5 360s in the first question and it really messed me up
Original post by Student_942
Where do you get the special consideration form? I had a problem where proctor made me do 5 360s in the first question and it really messed me up

https://support.admissionstesting.org/hc/en-gb/articles/205628475-Special-consideration-process
Something that really confused me in question 8, I don't know if anyone else was confused by this, is it said a<h<c, which to me didn't quite make sense because surely a<h<b? Maybe they put in the less specific result to not give too much away for the sketch? I just thought it was odd
Does anyone know whether doing Ctrl+ would have made the questions appear larger on the screen? Or if there was some other way of doing so?

(I didn't think of doing this during the exam :s-smilie:)
How many marks do you think you will get? I would say not more than 60, I used to get 80-85 in every paper from 2015. Now, I do not think I will meet my offer of 1,1. I hope 2,1 but definitely with a 60, not 1,1.
Original post by RuneFreeze
Something that really confused me in question 8, I don't know if anyone else was confused by this, is it said a<h<c, which to me didn't quite make sense because surely a<h<b? Maybe they put in the less specific result to not give too much away for the sketch? I just thought it was odd

You're correct: I have a<h<b as well because F(a) is a minimum while F(b) is a maximum

Also: had basically the same experience as you xD. I only managed 1 perfect solutions but had 4 other almost complete ones
Original post by RuneFreeze
Something that really confused me in question 8, I don't know if anyone else was confused by this, is it said a<h<c, which to me didn't quite make sense because surely a<h<b? Maybe they put in the less specific result to not give too much away for the sketch? I just thought it was odd

I don't think so cause we had to prove c=2h anyway (it was stated directly). But I can't remember it being a<h<c. Although I might be remembering it wrong.
Original post by RuneFreeze
Something that really confused me in question 8, I don't know if anyone else was confused by this, is it said a<h<c, which to me didn't quite make sense because surely a<h<b? Maybe they put in the less specific result to not give too much away for the sketch? I just thought it was odd

I think they just wanted to emphasise that the important thing about h was that it was between the other two roots, rather than the stricter inequality. Maybe you only need the a<h<c inequality for a later part of the question? I'm not sure because I didn't get very far in that question. You're also probably right about them not wanting to give away the sketch.
Did anyone manage Q1? It's a real bummer to not be able to do the first question especially when it was calculus. Did part i easily then gave up after a bunch of substitution efforts
Original post by Complete Idiot
I think they just wanted to emphasise that the important thing about h was that it was between the other two roots, rather than the stricter inequality. Maybe you only need the a<h<c inequality for a later part of the question? I'm not sure because I didn't get very far in that question. You're also probably right about them not wanting to give away the sketch.

I don't think you do, I pretty much did everything but the very last part in that question. The 'key' is just that h lies between a and b (though the inequality in the question I believe was 0<h<c)
I could do part i and ii, but I wasted a bunch of time on part iii with no results.
I'm glad the general consensus it was pretty tricky; I didn't manage to finish any questions which was disappointing, and I've got no chance of getting a 1 unless the grade boundaries are at 2019 level or lower 😣 The online exam put me off quite a lot, did any else have the proctor asking stuff loads? I had to do a 360 view about 3 minute in, then again about 20 mins later and they asked to show them my mobile phone, which was on the other side of the room (as per the rules) so that confused me and distracted me a lot. I hope they're not like that next time...
Original post by deathbySTEP
Did anyone manage Q1? It's a real bummer to not be able to do the first question especially when it was calculus. Did part i easily then gave up after a bunch of substitution efforts

I managed the second part of question 1 but after hearing people say that it took multiple substitutions I'm thinking I did it completely wrong because I just did one sub, but I also didn't actually spend much time on it, and I didn't ever go back and check that it was right, so I could have made a mistake. A bit worrying lol
How many marks for the last part of Q8?

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