Sixth Term Examination Paper II

Hi White Group Maths,

This is Student X here, a soon to be student of mathematics in university.

In about a month, I'm going to take the STEP II paper. In preparation for this, I've been doing practice questions since February, roughly 2 hours a day.

However, despite this practice... I feel no more confident than I did 3 months ago, and am quite worried. Do you have any advice on how to further prepare for this test? Or any tuition services to recommend?

Thanks so much for the help.

Sincerely,

Student X

Hi there , 

                 Thanks for writing in. It is encouraging to know you have commenced preparations for the STEP paper way before the actual sitting itself; it is perfectly normal to feel shaky despite months of drilling, because STEP isn't your conventional A Level exam to begin with-it demands the candidate to constantly expect the unexpected, and to be able to conjure solutions bordering on ingenuity. Above all, the compulsory possession of a rock solid Mathematical foundation so as to nimbly navigate various kinds of twists and turns. 

     Your exposure to various genres of problems by virtue of the efforts invested since February should be considerable by now, however you do need to ask yourself these three questions: 

1. What percentage of the paper did you manage to complete properly in recent attempts? Can things be improved? (Time management) 

2. Do you tend to remain overly fixated on a particular problem for way too long before moving on? Have you learnt not to allow little setbacks however frustrating overwhelm the big picture? (Cutting losses) 

3. Do you also make it a point to acquire the "moral of the story" underpinning specific problem types? (enhancing solving efficiencies and becoming more elegant in terms of solution design) 

Just to add, unlike the A Level papers, you may not have the luxury of excess time at the end to verify the correctness of previously scripted answers, so you must tread carefully from the onset. 

       I doubt tuition is what you really need at this very moment-it's more about readying your state of mind for the big event. An extremely nervous constitution can wreak substantial damage to your performance on that day itself, so start conditioning yourself to be cool-headed (of course easier said than done, nevertheless it still has to be done). Stop worrying about the final grade you will receive or the somewhat insurmountable difficulties lying in the immediate future, try to "enjoy" the process of conquering the paper instead.  

                And do remember to have an early rest on the night before the actual STEP examination. Good luck, and god bless. 

Best Regards,

Mr Koh