STEP 2020: Grade Boundaries, the Remote Sitting, and Practice
STEP 2020, that year's sitting of the Sixth Term Examination Paper (the additional mathematics exam used in offers for mathematics and related degrees at Cambridge and some other universities), was unlike any other in the exam's history: STEP 1 was cancelled because of the pandemic, and STEP 2 and STEP 3 ran under remote proctoring instead of at test centres. This page collects the official grade boundaries, the facts of that unusual sitting, topic and difficulty statistics from the questions FrontierVue has catalogued, and how to practise both papers.
01
Which papers ran in 2020, and the official grade boundaries
Because of the pandemic, only two papers ran in 2020: STEP 2 (paper code 9470) and STEP 3 (paper code 9475), each marked out of 120. STEP 1 was cancelled outright, with fees refunded to registered candidates; the withdrawal was later made permanent from 2021, which left 2019 as the last year STEP 1 was ever sat.
The sitting itself was organised like no other year. There were no test centres: STEP 2 took place on 15 June 2020 and STEP 3 on 19 June 2020, both at 9:00 BST, delivered through the Mercer Mettl remote-proctoring platform. Registration was open only to candidates contacted directly by the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London or the University of Warwick, at a fee of 99 GBP per paper. Results were released on 13 August 2020, and no reviews of marking or appeals were offered that year.
The official grade boundaries, as published in the Explanation of Results for STEP 2020 (each paper out of 120):
| Paper | S | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STEP 2 | 77 | 54 | 42 | 25 |
| STEP 3 | 88 | 67 | 53 | 30 |
02
How to read the boundaries
STEP results are reported in five bands: S (Outstanding), 1 (Very Good), 2 (Good) and 3 (Satisfactory), with U (Unclassified) below that. Each question is marked out of 20, each paper out of 120, and only your six best answers count towards the total; a correct answer earns full marks whatever method you use. Boundaries therefore make sense only inside that best-six frame, not spread across the whole paper.
Set against the 2019 boundaries, the two papers moved in opposite directions. On STEP 2, the S boundary was 90 in 2019 and 77 in 2020, and grade 1 sat at 68 in 2019 against 54 in 2020. On STEP 3, S was 77 in 2019 and 88 in 2020, with grade 1 at 57 in 2019 and 67 in 2020. Boundaries are set each year in light of how demanding the papers were and how the cohort performed, so year-to-year movement is normal and one year's boundary is not a target for the next.
As for what Cambridge requires: STEP publishes only the S/1/2/3 boundaries. Cambridge offer conditions vary by college and by year, so the wording of the offer itself is the only reliable reference; there is no universal safe score.
03
Topic emphasis and difficulty in 2020 (FrontierVue catalogue statistics)
Everything in this section is FrontierVue catalogue statistics, based on our own question-by-question tagging of that year's papers; it is not an official analysis.
FrontierVue holds all 12 questions from each of STEP 2 and STEP 3 that year, both papers structured as 8 Pure Mathematics, 2 Mechanics and 2 Probability and Statistics questions. In our difficulty grading, STEP 2 breaks down as 3 questions rated Medium and 9 rated Hard. STEP 3 is the tougher paper in our catalogue: 11 of its 12 questions are rated Hard and 1 is rated Very Hard.
By topic tag (same catalogue basis), Pure Mathematics leads with 10 tagged questions, followed by Integration Techniques (5), Mechanics (4), Probability (4), Induction and Recursion (4), Curve Sketching (4) and Differential Equations (3), with Inequalities, Complex Numbers and Coordinate Geometry on 2 each. If your STEP 3 preparation leans on pure technique, the 2020 paper is a demanding check of integration and curve-sketching fluency in particular.
04
Practising the 2020 papers on FrontierVue
Both 2020 papers live in FrontierVue's STEP past-paper library: go to /papers/step, open the 2020 entry, and sit STEP 2 or STEP 3 in the timed interface, then work through the question-by-question analysis afterwards. Every question comes with a full worked solution.
The guides at /exams/step/guides/ cover exactly what this year rewards: step-2 and step-3 for paper-specific preparation, writing-solutions on what a complete written answer looks like, choosing-questions on picking the six questions that will carry your score, and grades on how marks turn into bands.
On the free tier, the two most recent past papers in each subject are free to try. In total the platform holds 111 STEP past papers spanning 1987 to 2025, with 1,532 questions, alongside a resource library that includes the official OCR specification and STEP Support Programme materials.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Why was there no STEP 1 in 2020?
STEP 1 was cancelled because of the pandemic: it did not run, and registered candidates were refunded. The cancellation then became permanent, with STEP 1 withdrawn from 2021 onwards so that only STEP 2 and STEP 3 remain, making 2019 the last year STEP 1 was actually sat.
What were the STEP 2020 grade boundaries?
Out of 120 per paper: STEP 2 required 77 for S, 54 for grade 1, 42 for grade 2 and 25 for grade 3; STEP 3 required 88 for S, 67 for grade 1, 53 for grade 2 and 30 for grade 3. The source is the official Explanation of Results for STEP 2020.
How hard was STEP 2020?
There is no official difficulty rating, so the boundaries are the closest objective reference: STEP 2's boundaries came in well below 2019's (S at 77 against 90), while STEP 3's rose (S at 88 against 77). In FrontierVue's catalogue statistics, 11 of STEP 3's 12 questions are rated Hard and 1 Very Hard, against 3 Medium and 9 Hard on STEP 2.
Where can I practise the STEP 2020 papers?
Both papers are in FrontierVue's STEP library at /papers/step, with a timed interface, question-by-question analysis and a full worked solution for every question. The two most recent past papers in each subject are free to try.
Sources
Official sources
By year
Other STEP years
FrontierVUE is an independent practice platform. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by UAT-UK, Pearson, OCR, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, or any official admissions-test owner.
FrontierVUE 是独立的备考练习平台，与 UAT-UK、Pearson、OCR、剑桥大学、 帝国理工学院或任何官方入学考试主办方均无隶属或背书关系。
Practise STEP 2020 online
Timed interface, worked solutions and per-question analytics. The two most recent past papers are free to try.