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STEP Support Programme

Villier Park STEP Course

Has anyone been on or heard about the Villers Park Stepping Stones to STEP success course in the Easter holidays? The programme looks strange, and not particularly focused on STEP preperation, mostly composed of lectures on different topics that aren't really related. I was wondering if it would be useful or not, and if it expands on the Offer Holder day which I attended last week, and if it is worth spending 3 days at.
Thanks alot

Hi - do you have a link to the course? (or the programme?)

It's not related to the offer holder days :-)

As I said earlier, this course is nothing to do with us!

It looks like it could be quite interesting, and in terms of cost is seems reasonable (compared to other profit making courses). The objectives seem good, but as you say the programme, whilst potentially interesting, doesn't seem to be entirely geared towards STEP exam prep - and quite a lot of time is spent on "project work". It's up to you - you might decide that you want to spend 3 days with other people doing potentially interesting maths (if not necessarily STEP), or you might want to spend 3 days working through STEP questions at home (using the forums here if you get stuck!)

If you do decide to go, please let us know how useful you found it! You can send us an email at step@maths.org.

4.00-5.00 Arrivals
5.15 Welcome and Introduction to course
5.45-6.45 Mathematical relays
7.00 Dinner
7.45 Introduction to Projects followed by Preparation

8.30 Breakfast
9.15 Number Theory and the Science of Secrecy: Practising Pure
10.45 Coffee Break
11.00-12.45 Public Key Cryptography: Polishing Pure
1.00 Lunch
2.00 Combinatorics and Casino Cunning: Probing Probability
4.00 Break
4.30 The STEP Exam: The Facts, Figures and Philosophy
5.30-6.45 Project Preperation
7.00 Dinner
7.45 The Ups and Downs of Juggling - a presentation by Dr Paul Cook, Electronics and Telecommunications Consultant

8.30 Breakfast
9.00 Planetary orbits: Mastering Mechanics
10.30 Coffee Break
10.45 Hard sums and Cantilevered Books: Perfecting Pure
12.15 Final Project Preperation
1.00 Lunch
1.30 Project Preperations
3.15 Course Evaluation
3.45 Departures

Useful Links

Underground Mathematics: Selected worked STEP questions

STEP Question database

University of Cambridge Mathematics Faculty: What do we look for?

University of Cambridge Mathematics Faculty: Information about STEP

University of Cambridge Admissions Office: Undergraduate course information for Mathematics

Stephen Siklos' "Advanced Problems in Mathematics" book (external link)

MEI: Worked solutions to STEP questions (external link)

OCR: Exam board information about STEP (external link)

AMSP (Advanced Maths Support programme): Support for University Admission Tests (external link)