STEP 2022: Grade Boundaries, Papers and Practice

Two papers were sat in STEP 2022: STEP 2 (paper code 9470) and STEP 3 (paper code 9475), each a 3-hour written examination marked out of 120. STEP 1 had been permanently discontinued from 2021, so 2022 was again a two-paper year. The papers followed the specification introduced by the 2019 reform: 12 questions per paper (8 Pure Mathematics, 2 Mechanics and 2 Probability and Statistics), with no formula booklet provided.

The official grade boundaries for 2022 (each paper out of 120, as published in the official Explanation of Results for that year):

No special administrative arrangements applied in 2022; both papers ran as regular written examinations.

STEP results are reported on five grades: S (Outstanding), 1 (Very Good), 2 (Good), 3 (Satisfactory) and U (Unclassified). The marking scheme is unusual: every question carries 20 marks, each paper is out of 120, and however many questions you attempt, only your best 6 answers count towards the total. A fully correct answer earns full marks whatever method is used.

Set against 2021, the S and grade 1 boundaries moved down on both papers in 2022. On STEP 2 the S boundary was 92 in 2021 and 81 in 2022, with grade 1 at 67 and 62 respectively; on STEP 3 the S boundary went from 89 to 82, and grade 1 from 67 to 63. Year-to-year movement is normal for STEP: boundaries are set each year in the light of how demanding the paper proved and how the cohort performed, so a boundary from one year should not be treated as a fixed target for another. Cambridge offer conditions vary by college and by year; the wording of your own offer is what counts.

The figures below describe the STEP 2022 questions as catalogued on FrontierVUE. They reflect the platform's own tagging, not any official analysis of the papers.

On difficulty, FrontierVUE holds 12 questions from STEP 2, of which 2 are tagged medium and 10 hard; the 12 questions from STEP 3 split the same way, 2 medium and 10 hard. Both papers share the standard make-up of 8 Pure Mathematics, 2 Mechanics and 2 Probability and Statistics questions. A paper dominated by hard questions is entirely normal for STEP, and the scoring counts only your best 6 answers.

On topics (again FrontierVUE tagging), the broad Pure Mathematics label appears 14 times across the year. Among specific topics, Coordinate Geometry leads with 7 tagged questions, followed by Mechanics, Induction and Recursion, Integration Techniques and Probability on 4 each, Differential Equations on 3, Curve Sketching and Complex Numbers on 2 each, and Inequalities on 1. Coordinate geometry stands out in 2022, so it is worth sharpening that topic before sitting these papers.

Head to /papers/step on FrontierVUE and open the 2022 entries to sit STEP 2 and STEP 3 under timed conditions: the interface reproduces the 3-hour exam rhythm, and after submission you get a question-by-question breakdown with a full worked solution for every question. The platform holds 111 STEP past papers (1987 to 2025) with 1,532 questions in total, and the latest two papers in each subject are free to try; the 2022 pair belongs in the systematic practice phase of your preparation.

Guides worth pairing with the papers:

The resource library also carries the official OCR specification and STEP Support Programme materials as background reading.