Test taken: Sixth Term Examination Paper (STEP)
Number of interviews: 1
Length of interviews: 30 minutes
Online interview: No

There was an hour-long test with some fairly hard questions on them. I answered 3 in full and 2 about half. I then took this paper straight to the interview where they marked the work I had done, and then asked me to do the questions I hadn’t attempted or completed fully. If I was stuck they would provide a hint, and on one question I struggled for a while, so don’t be put off if it is hard. The interviewer will always want to push you so that it becomes difficult or you don’t know what to do, so that they can see how you learn and think when doing something fairly unfamiliar. There was no mention of my personal statement of outside interests, it was purely focused on the maths.

I wouldn’t worry about your personal statement too much - in a maths interview they are very much focused on doing maths questions rather than quizzing your general maths knowledge. Practice doing tricky maths questions, use some STEP questions if you like or maybe some MAT papers as well. If you can practice explaining your answers to other students or set up a mock interview as communication with the interviewer is really important. Also practice asking good questions if you are stuck - an interviewer will be very happy to help you if you ask an intelligent question or explain where it is that you are struggling, and they would far prefer this to someone who sits struggling in silence - or maybe even someone who just whizzes through the questions with very little communication. The interview should almost feel like you are working with the interviewer rather than being put on the spot. But the key thing with all maths is practice practice practice.

For STEO the best thing to do is do as many past papers/questions as possible. It’s a unique exam so you need to be practiced in sitting a 3 hour paper where you choose the questions yourself - and start preparing early. STEP felt very daunting at first but once you start practising you will find yourself improving very quickly so don’t be put off. Loads of past papers are available from the STEP website, as well as free online resources such as the step support programme or Stephen Siklos’ book advanced problems in mathematics. Just keep practicing and you will feel much less intimidated.

Start preparing for STEP early 0not only will this help for the actual exam but it is good preparation for an interview as well. Don’t be nervous/panicked if you feel your interview isn’t going well, if you stay calm and ask intelligent questions the interviewer will help you and be very impressed with how you handle learning new material. Maths is all about practice, the more you practice the better you will get and the more confident you will feel.