The STEPs are coming up! Do you have any tips to answer the questions most efficiently?

Tricky. It is a good idea to spend 5 minutes beforehand, thoroughly reading all the questions. (Having said this, I never do that in any exam.) Consider beforehand what sorts of questions you are likely to answer. I am pretty sure I won't be answering any questions which require graph sketching. I don't know much about matrices. I am no good at statics in the mechanics (too much long-winded algebra). And I have to avoid all the statistics, as I haven't done any at A-Level standard. Question 1 is normally easier than the rest, so consider carefully starting off with that. (Unless it is one of those horrible questions like count the number of ways of making 20p using 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p coins.) Apart from that I don't know really what to say. Last year when I did STEP Maths II, I spent the first 2 hours panicing, flicking from question to question, getting absolutely nowhere and then got 4 out (and 2 partially out) in the last hour. It is probably because they are so unpredictable (unlike A-Level maths) that Cambridge and Warwick like to use them for admission.

In my opinion the mechanics questions require less thought but are generally a bit more tedious than the pure maths. So they can be quite a nice break in between deep thought about the pure maths.

Anyway, we will be able to compare answers after Friday.

Yours,

Michael

I am doing STEP from a school that has never done.. well.. anything before; they don't even know I'm doing it. I have the past papers though. You can't say the combinations questions are horrible Michael! They're the only chance I've got to get at least one right! I would also go for the graph one IF that's all or most of the question, as it is too much wasted time for a small part. You could say half an hour for each question (provided those are your best six).

Not knowing the A-Level syllabus very well, it is a trip into the unknown... I usually spend too much time doing the questions in different ways from the intended answer, but still ending up with the right solution most of the time. And the Prb/Stats is totally out. I'll only try a mechanics one if I'm desperate, or it looks easy.

Neil M

The reason I say the counting questions are horrible is that they are time consuming, difficult to explain (you have to convince the examiner you have counted thoroughly) and hard to check. Obviously they look attractive because they require no knowledge, but they really are harder than the other questions.

Graph sketching and statics are just two things I'm personally very bad at (most other people are quite good at them). Obviously I can't avoid these forever, but in the short term they're out!

I think you'll be fine - not doing A-Levels will not be any sort of disadvantage really. The SYS 1 paper covers nearly everything you need (but check out the Taylor expansion, solutions to differential equations of 2nd order and also integrating factors for 1st order differential equations) and its style is infinitely closer to STEP than the A-Level is. Of course part of the point is that they don't want STEP to be partcularly close to A-Level maths at all.

I've got the 1999 STEP 2 paper in front of me here. Q1 you shouldn't have any problem with (why didn't I do that one...?). Question 2 - part ii) is slightly tricky, but the whole question requires no specialist knowledge beyond solving a quadratic and the definition of complex numbers.

Qu.3 - you will be at an advantage doing SYS here. This is because induction is barely used at A-Level (it is the last topic in the double maths syllabus, and is only used in extremely simple cases) and generally has to be self-taught for potential STEP do-ers. The question is a little bit untidy, but well worth an attempt.

Question 4,8 - you could argue that A-Level candidates would have an advantage here. This is because we learn properties of polynomials, series, complex numbers and approximations in very slightly more detail here. Q6 - the only knowledge you need is basic manipulation of logs and integrands, covered completely by SYS1. Q5,7 - again no extra knowledge required apart from the very basics. Just needs a bit of care. (Whoops!)

Obviously the mechanics is much easier for A-Level candidates as M1-3 are quite comprehensive (M4 is not tested, even by STEP 3 sadly because it is easily the most interesting module out of the 8). So if you're not sure which questions you will be able to do best, go for the pure in your case. It's a shame you're not doing STEP 3, because this has matrices and group theory and this is covered superbly by SYS2 (whereas the A-Level coverage is virtually non-existant).

Overall I think that STEPS are generally perceived as being much harder than they actually are. I'm sure most A-Level candidates applying for maths at university could easily do STEP1-2 a year early - just very few people consider it. In general I would never elect to do any sort of exam early, but in the case of STEP it provided such a welcome relief from the tedium of A-Level maths that it was well worth it.

Yours,

Michael

Michael - Are you sure that M4 is not tested? There is a question (I think that was in 96 STEP 3) that requires one to form the energy equation and differentiate that with respect to the parameter. Moreover, there are questions that requires the principle of independence of translation and rotation. Surely that must be in M4.

I think I will go for the pure question first, maybe then a question each on mechanics and stats.

I heard that the grade boundaries are (approximately):
5 qs completed correctly S
4 qs completed correctly 1
3 qs completed correctly 2
etc., but I am not sure that is the way it works.

Kerwin

That sounds good! I think if I can do 6 of the Pure questions perfectly, I'll walk away when I've finished them.

I still think the counting type ones are much easier... you want to avoid the logic battle ones.. interesting but take too long. You can do the counting ones with a bit of thought, and the answer doesn't take long to write down. If you have to go through all the combinations, it isn't worth it for a) time, and b) the marker will see that you missed the point!

BTW Is STEP 2 the 29th and STEP 1 the 30th?? Also, do you have the times? I would expect them to be uniform across the country, but of course, you never know with the Aberdeenshire education organisation (or lack thereof).

Good luck to everybody else... and remember, if you get stuck, I've probably gone home by now!

Kerwin - you may be right. I was under the impression that the independence of rotation and translation was in M3, but I'm not an expert on where exactly the boundary between M3 and M4 lies because I took these exams in the same sitting, so learnt both at the same time. I didn't know that differentiating the energy equation was under any of the M modules. (But it's really only a matter of E = integral[F dx] so shouldn't be too hard to work out on the spot.) I guess I didn't learn M4 that thoroughly. I've just noticed that in STEP 3 they expect you to know how to deal with forces in vector forms (finding moments, reducing to a force and a couple and all of that stuff) which is not in M3.

The parts of M4 I'm sure are not tested are the application of the equations:

a(transverse) = 1/r d/dt(r² theta dot)
a(radial) = r double dot - r theta dot squared

for particles, although I guess a special case of the former appears in the form L = I theta double dot. I don't think they have L = d/dt(angular momentum) for rigid bodies which follows immedediately from addition of the first equation to itself for all the particles in the rigid body.

As for the grade boundaries, I think it must depend also somewhat on the questions you don't get completely right. Although they stress a few complete solutions are much better than many isolated fragments, I can't believe they altogether ignore the incomplete solutions. They do actually put numerical grade boundaries on (as a rough guide for the examiner), and for STEP III last year these were something like:

S - 93/120
1 - 70/120
2 - 50/120

Which is very generous, considering that for STEP Physics (Thursday) you need 80% for an S, in greater time pressure.

Yours,

Michael