skip to content

STEP Support Programme

Old STEP papers

Hello all,

I have already gone through STEP II and III papers from 2014 to 1998. (I am keeping 2015 and 2016 to use them as final mocks in the next weeks).

I am doing quite well in STEP II, so I would like to spend these remaining weeks before the exams getting more practice in STEP III. I am about to start going through the 1997 to 1987 papers. Would you recommend me to do only the Further B section or also the Further A ones? Are they both STEP III style?

Thank you

I think the 1994-1997 papers were split similar to the current way, i.e. STEP II is roughly A-Level maths and STEP III is roughly further maths. Having said that, the style is a bit different to the post-1997 papers. If you want to focus on STEP III, I'd say look at the 1994-97 STEP III papers first and then look at pre-1994 STEP II and III papers (though it doesn't make a difference between those two types). Bear in mind that syllabuses have changed quite a bit since then so there could be quite a few questions which require knowledge you don't have.

Thank you!

The current STEP specification came into force in about 2003. The pre-98 papers will contain questions on things like groups and matrices. It might be a good idea to check with the current spec (available from the Admissions Testing Service).

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)