skip to content

STEP Support Programme

Step Question Assignment 2

I am on the second part of the step Question where I have to find and prove the maximum and minimum values when c>0. Any help would be appreciated thank you.

C is a number so it is either positive or negative . If you square u can't get negative and so maximum is biggest >0 (srry for no mathjax I'm learn)

I think you are thinking about assignment 1 here (where $c$ can be negative). In assignment 2 you are told that $c$ is positive.

Oops I meant $ c€R$ To be official

Think about what the quadratic will look like. Parts (iv) to (vii) of question 2 are meant to prepare you for this part as they are all quadratics but in some cases the minimum value occurs at one end of the given range of $x$ and in others it doesn't.

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)