Is it worth getting tutoring for my daughter who sits the Step Maths exam in June?

4

Just that really, she has a conditional offer but has to do the Step exams in June and requires a grade 2.
Obviously she has done a lot of practice papers and is improving.
Just wondering if it is worth doing half a dozen or so sessions with a Tutor who knows the Step exam well.
Any thoughts?
If you know of an online tutor who you would recommend for this specific exam, would you be able to message me their details?
Thanks

Reply 1

melancollege

Universities Forum Helper

18

Original post by Johnbuoy

Just that really, she has a conditional offer but has to do the Step exams in June and requires a grade 2.
Obviously she has done a lot of practice papers and is improving.
Just wondering if it is worth doing half a dozen or so sessions with a Tutor who knows the Step exam well.
Any thoughts?
If you know of an online tutor who you would recommend for this specific exam, would you be able to message me their details?
Thanks

I would say a tutor isn't necessary. There are techniques but most of them can be understood with practice. Where is the offer for? Cambride give a lot of support for their Maths offer-holders, but I would guess it is for a different university / course if it is a grade 2.

Reply 2

Johnbuoy

OP

4

Original post by melancollege

I would say a tutor isn't necessary. There are techniques but most of them can be understood with practice. Where is the offer for? Cambride give a lot of support for their Maths offer-holders, but I would guess it is for a different university / course if it is a grade 2.

It's for imperial

Reply 3

mqb2766

21

Original post by Johnbuoy

It's for imperial

I guess at this stage (its roughly a month to go), its a toss of the coin. How is she currently doing / what problems does she have? You need roughly 50% to get a 2 step 2 (maybe a bit less, though it depends on the year) which isnt easy but should be doable with some solid practice.

To give appropriate advice, Id guess a tutor may take a lesson or two to dial into an appropriate level. Also a tutor may give some advice, but to be able to apply it in practice usually takes a fair amount of practice and time is obviously limited. Depending on her situation (is she at school or ...), getting some feedback on how she writes up questions may be useful to not drop marks unnecessarily, though the step pages have some sample solutions (and other resources).

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 4

Johnbuoy

OP

4

Original post by AlexHarding

I had a friend who was doing Step papers and found it very useful to just get a few intensive sessions in with a Tutor beforehand. Obviously most of the work would be done at this point but to get another perspective on the paper before doing it helped a lot, especially considering how important it is.
I can get the details of the tutor for you if you wanted?

Yes please, that would be great.
Thanks.
Feel free to PM me.

Reply 5

Muttley79

20

Original post by Johnbuoy

Just that really, she has a conditional offer but has to do the Step exams in June and requires a grade 2.
Obviously she has done a lot of practice papers and is improving.
Just wondering if it is worth doing half a dozen or so sessions with a Tutor who knows the Step exam well.
Any thoughts?
If you know of an online tutor who you would recommend for this specific exam, would you be able to message me their details?
Thanks

DO NOT get a tutor from any recommendation on here - you have no idea that they are genuine.

Can't she ask for help at school? They know her best ...

Reply 6

Muttley79

20

Original post by Johnbuoy

Yes please, that would be great.
Thanks.
Feel free to PM me.

Don't respond please - you have no idea of who they are.

Reply 7

DFranklin

18

Original post by Johnbuoy

Just that really, she has a conditional offer but has to do the Step exams in June and requires a grade 2.
Obviously she has done a lot of practice papers and is improving.
Just wondering if it is worth doing half a dozen or so sessions with a Tutor who knows the Step exam well.
Any thoughts?
If you know of an online tutor who you would recommend for this specific exam, would you be able to message me their details?
Thanks

At this point, the main thing that's going to improve her chances is time spent doing questions, I think.

One question I'd have: what are you/she hoping they'll get from sessions with a Tutor? When I applied to Cambridge (long ago, different exam setup), there were no model answers, and my teachers couldn't help with the questions or how they were marked. So a good tutor

(\dagger)

that could actually do the questions and had an idea how Cambridge marked things was very useful. But there are a lot more resources available now if you're stuck on a particular question or topic.

I think it would be difficult for a tutor to help with things like exam technique over such a short time frame - particularly as most people preparing for STEP are pretty good at working out exam technique on their own.

If you're after help on particular questions, or even "here what she did on a mock exam", feel free to post here; there are a few posters who know STEP pretty well and are happy to help (as long as you manage to make any images you attach easily readable - (sorry, pet bug bear of mine!)). One suggestion on that front (that I think is worth doing regardless of whether you're looking for help) : keep track of time while you're doing questions / full papers and note the time in the margin occasionally (every 5-10 minutes) as you go along. It gives an idea of where you are actually spending your time.

(\dagger)

Be aware that finding tutors who can actually do STEP questions confidently enough that the session time doesn't feel "wasted" (in the sense that they spent half the time thinking/going in the wrong direction) may not be that easy. Several tutors I tried weren't really better at the questions than I was.

Reply 8

StephenUjunwa

11

Yes

Is it worth getting tutoring for my daughter who sits the Step Maths exam in June?

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