STEP Resources

Do not worry if your school is not able to provide help with STEP.

There is plenty of material with which you can help yourself.  A list, probably not including everything available, is given below.

• You will certainly want to work through past papers.  But beware: the STEP syllabus changed for the 2002 examination (in line with Curriculum 2000) so any papers from before this date may well contain questions on the old, much wider, syllabus. 

          Past papers and hints/solutions for the past four years are available at a modest price from:

   OCR Publications, PO Box 5050 Annesley Nottingham, NG15 ODL

   Tel: 0870 870 6622   Fax: 0870 870 6621   E-mail: publications@ocr.org.uk

• Older papers and solutions can be obtained from the OCR archives:

Archives Department OCR 1 Hills Road, Cambridge CB1 2EU

E-mail: archives@ucles.org.uk

• You may also find the booklet Advanced Problems in Mathematics useful; it consists of 43 STEP-like problems with discussion, hints, and full solutions.  It is available, again at a modest price, from OCR Publications at the above address.

• A draft of a new booklet Advanced Problems in Core Mathematics is available on the Mathematics website

This is similar (but not identical) in style to the older Advanced Problems in Mathematics.  It consists of about 70 problems based on past STEP questions, but in some cases 'improved' to make them more interesting.  Each question comes with a preliminary discussion, full solution and post mortem.

• You can also get help from the Mathematics Millennium Project on-line maths site (http://www.nrich.maths.org.uk).  You can ask NRICH questions about any part of mathematics, and you will get a rapid response ranging from the complete answer to the beginning of a discussion.

• You will also find STEP Mathematics page which is part of the Meikleriggs' Mathematics' suite uk very useful.  This site contains, among other things, examination-style solutions to all STEP papers from recent years.