STEP preparation guide

Your STEP revision plan: from first module to results day

Q: How long before the exam should I start preparing for STEP?

The official free STEP Support Programme sets a baseline of well over a year: Foundation modules from Year 12, studied weekly over about six months, STEP 2 modules from September of Year 13, STEP 3 modules from January, then timed past papers. The later you start, the more your plan should tilt towards timed papers, but with solid foundations the four to five months between an offer and June is workable.

Q: What is the STEP Support Programme, and is it free?

It is the official preparation programme developed by the Faculty of Mathematics at Cambridge, designed to help applicants build advanced problem-solving skills for STEP. It consists of online modules for individual study with hints and full solutions, it is entirely free and open to everyone, and it comes with an official staged timeline.

Q: Is it too late to start STEP preparation only after receiving an offer?

The window is roughly four to five months: tight but workable. The STEP 3 modules are officially recommended to start in January anyway, so what needs compressing is the Foundation and STEP 2 stages: move through the modules quickly in January and February, switch to timed papers from 2019 onwards (with official worked solutions) by April, and alternate full papers in May. Keep A level revision running alongside, since the Cambridge minimum offer level pairs A*A*A with grade 1 in both STEP 2 and STEP 3.

Q: How do I register for STEP? Can I enter myself?

You cannot enter yourself: you must be registered at an authorised test centre, which makes the entry for you. The 2026 window ran from 1 March to 4 May; fees are £102.50 per paper at UK centres and £142.25 (or $179.75 / €166) outside the UK, with some centres adding an administration fee. The 2027 dates have not yet been published, so work from the OCR website, and sort your centre as soon as your offer arrives.

Q: Which years of STEP past papers should I prioritise?

Centre your work on STEP 2 and STEP 3 papers from 2019 onwards: Cambridge has written official fully worked solutions for those years, and the formulae booklet was discontinued in 2019, so those papers match current exam conditions. Earlier papers work as supplementary material. STEP 1 has not been offered since the June 2021 sitting, so STEP 1 papers you find online belong to a discontinued paper and should not form the spine of your plan.

Q: Are STEP 2 and STEP 3 sat on the same day?

No: the two papers are sat on separate days. In the 2026 series STEP 2 was on 4 June and STEP 3 on 10 June, starting at 9am at UK centres, with international centres setting their own local times. The exact dates and weekdays move each year, so check the official publication for the 2027 series.

Q: When do STEP results come out, and what if I just miss my offer?

Results land in mid-August: for 2026, by 08:00 UK time on 13 August, with grade boundaries published the same day and grades passed to universities through UCAS; results enquiries closed on 20 August at £50.75 per paper. The Cambridge admissions team also receives answer booklets directly and judges near-miss candidates on their actual work, so the right move is to contact the College or university straight away rather than assuming the outcome.

STEP is a condition of your offer, the papers are sat in June, and the official preparation resources assume you started more than a year earlier. That gap is where every good revision plan begins. This guide assembles the free STEP Support Programme timeline, the past papers with official worked solutions from 2019 onwards, the registration process and the exam-week logistics into a plan you can actually run, whether you start in Year 12 or only after your offer arrives.

9 sections2,152 words11 min read5 official sources

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STEP Prep at a Glance

Official baseline: Foundation modules from Year 12 over about six months; STEP 2 modules from September, STEP 3 from January, then timed past papers
Past-paper spine: STEP 2 and 3 from 2019 onwards: official worked solutions, current exam conditions; STEP 1 was discontinued in 2021
Marking: Everything attempted is marked and the best six count; grade 1 on STEP 2 fell at 62 out of 120 in 2026
Entry: You cannot enter yourself: only through an authorised centre; the 2026 window ran 1 March to 4 May
Exams and results: Papers on 4 and 10 June 2026; results on 13 August, with boundaries published the same day

Figures describe the 2026 series; the 2027 dates have not been published and OCR reserves the right to change dates and fees, so always plan from the official pages for your own year.

In short

The free STEP Support Programme sets the baseline timeline: Foundation modules from Year 12 over about six months, STEP 2 modules from September of Year 13, STEP 3 modules from January, then timed past papers.
Build past-paper work on 2019 onwards: those years have official fully worked solutions and match today's no-formulae-booklet conditions; STEP 1 was discontinued from the June 2021 sitting.
Everything you attempt is marked and only your six best answers count; in 2026 grade 1 on STEP 2 fell at 62 out of 120, so train question selection and complete write-ups rather than coverage.
Entry is only through an authorised centre and you cannot register yourself (2026 window: 1 March to 4 May), so sort your centre as soon as the offer lands; 2027 dates await official publication.
The two papers are sat on separate days (4 and 10 June in 2026); results land in mid-August with boundaries published the same day, and Cambridge reads answer booklets directly for near-miss candidates.

Part 1 of 3

Sections 01 to 03

Start with the timeline: where STEP sits in your application

STEP runs on the opposite schedule to most admissions tests, and that single fact shapes the whole plan. You do not sit it before applying: Cambridge states plainly that sitting STEP will be a condition of your offer, and gives a worked example of applying in October 2026 and sitting STEP in June 2027. OCR's guidance matches from the other side: STEP is usually sat in the same calendar year as admission. Here is the 2026 series laid end to end.

2026Timeline

Mar 26

Apr 26

May 26

Jun 26

Jul 26

Aug 26

Registration opens

1 March

Registration closes

4 May

Entry must be made through an authorised centre before this date; you cannot register yourself.

STEP 2 sat

Code 9470

STEP 3 sat

Code 9475

Results day

13 August

Published by 08:00 UK time, with grade boundaries out the same day.

Results enquiries close

20 August

Hard deadline Event WindowThe 2027 dates have not been published; read this as the shape of the year rather than a fixed annual pattern.

Two conclusions follow. First, the pressured stretch runs from the moment your offer arrives to early June: roughly four to five months for most people. Second, the official preparation resources assume you started far earlier than that, which is where the next section picks up. Worth knowing too: STEP is open to all, so you can enter even if your offer carries no STEP condition.

The STEP Support Programme: the official free backbone

The most important resource in any STEP plan costs nothing. The STEP Support Programme is developed by the Faculty of Mathematics at Cambridge to help applicants build advanced problem-solving skills and prepare for STEP: online modules for individual study, with hints and full solutions, free and open to everyone. What makes it the backbone of a revision plan is that it carries an official timeline.

01From Year 12

Foundation modules

Weekly study over about six months.

02September of Y13

STEP 2 modules

Material pitched at STEP 2 level. STEP 2 is based on A level Mathematics and AS level Further Mathematics, so a September start lets the modules build on foundations you are consolidating anyway.

03January of Y13

STEP 3 modules

Material pitched at STEP 3 level. STEP 3 is based on A level Mathematics and the full A level Further Mathematics (the specification notes the prescribed pure content comes with some modifications and additions, not a straight copy), so a January start runs alongside what you are still being taught.

04After the STEP 3 modules

Timed past papers

Full papers against the clock from 2019 onwards, checked against the official worked solutions.

The message underneath is that the official designers assume well over a year of preparation: STEP rewards problem-solving stamina that has had time to grow, not a cramming sprint.

The ideal route: starting in Year 12

If you are in Year 12 now, the official timeline is already a ready-made plan; the job is simply to attach it to your school year.

	Main line	Notes
Year 12, spring and summer	Foundation modules, one fixed slot a week	About six months; trains the stamina of thinking an unfamiliar problem through
Summer after Year 12	Consolidate A level Maths and AS Further Maths	These are exactly what STEP 2 is based on
Year 13, from September	STEP 2 modules	Runs alongside the UCAS season; protect the weekly slot
Year 13, from January	STEP 3 modules	Feeds off, and back into, your Further Maths lessons
Late spring	Timed full papers	Officially recommended once the STEP 3 modules are done

Three execution points. The modules are designed for weekly study, so one or two steady slots beat a weekend binge of five. October is crowded with personal statements and other admissions tests, so bank some STEP 2 module progress in September before the squeeze. And once your offer arrives, shift the balance from modules to timed work. The reward for this route is that there is no sprint at the end: by June you have been living with this style of question for a year and a half.

Part 2 of 3

Sections 04 to 06

The realistic route: January to June after your offer

The more common story: the offer lands in winter and serious preparation starts in January. The first thing to notice is that you are not actually behind on STEP 3, because the official recommendation is to start those modules in January anyway. What needs compressing is the Foundation and STEP 2 stages. Across four to five months, a workable split looks like this.

January to February

Move through the Foundation material quickly (work weak areas properly, skim what you find easy) while starting the STEP 2 and STEP 3 modules.

March

Finish the modules, mix in single questions against the clock, and sort your centre and entry (for 2026 the window closed on 4 May; do not let this drift).

April

Switch to timed full papers from 2019 onwards, checked against the official worked solutions, at least one a week.

May

Alternate STEP 2 and STEP 3 papers weekly, and keep an error log you review every week.

Final fortnight

Full papers under genuine exam conditions (see the exam-week checklist below).

Two pieces of discipline hold the plan together. A levels cannot be parked: the Cambridge minimum offer level pairs A A A with grade 1 in both STEP 2 and STEP 3, so passing the paper while missing an A level grade still sinks the offer; interleave the two. And a fixed weekly review session is worth more than an extra paper. A sensible weekly rhythm: two module or topic sessions, one timed paper, one review session in which you rewrite what went wrong.

Past papers: 2019 onwards comes with worked solutions

Past-paper work has an official anchor: Cambridge has written fully worked solutions to STEP 2 and STEP 3 papers from 2019 onwards, precisely so you can assess your progress on timed papers, which the programme recommends doing after the STEP 3 modules. There is a second reason 2019 makes a natural cut-off. The formulae booklet was discontinued in 2019, so papers from then on match today's conditions: no booklet in the exam, with the formulae you are expected to know listed in the appendix to the specification. Earlier papers are still useful material, but they were sat under different rules.

STEP 1 has not been offered since the June 2021 sitting. The STEP 1 papers you will find online belong to a discontinued paper, so do not mistake them for a current third paper: the spine of your plan is STEP 2 and STEP 3.

Review matters more than volume, and the marking rules dictate how to review: markers reward genuine progress towards a complete solution, a correct answer earns full marks whatever the method, but marks may be lost if the examiner cannot follow your working. So the loop for each paper runs as follows.

01Step 1

Sit it against the clock

A full paper, timed.

02Step 2

Rewrite before peeking

Before opening the solutions, rewrite the questions that stalled.

03Step 3

Compare line by line

Then set your work against the official worked solutions, line by line.

04Step 4

Classify into an error log

Classify each gap (missing knowledge, poor selection, unclear write-up) in an error log you revisit weekly.

Train the way the marking works

The marking rules should set your training priorities directly. Every question is out of 20; everything you attempt is marked, and your grade rests on the six questions you answered best, with no restriction on how many you attempt from any section. Officially, attempting more than six is not advised, and there is no bonus for completing a question. Note that this is not a pick-six-first format: every attempt counts, and the best six are selected at marking time.

Full marks per question

Six

Best answers that count towards your grade

28.14%

STEP 2 candidates at grade 1 or above in 2026

35.73%

STEP 3 candidates at grade 1 or above in 2026

	STEP 2	STEP 3
Grade S	84	80
Grade 1	62	56
Grade 2	52	48
Grade 3	34	30

2026 boundaries, each paper out of 120. They are set with reference to the intake of Cambridge, Warwick and Imperial and move year on year: treat the table as calibration, not a promise.

Translate 62 out of 120 into exam behaviour: roughly three fully finished questions plus one substantial partial attempt reaches grade 1, and even an S is a little over four complete questions. Three training conclusions follow. Each paper has eight pure questions, two mechanics and two probability/statistics, and your best six can all come from pure, so depth there is the safest base. Rehearse the opening scan: ten to fifteen minutes reading the paper before committing. And practise walking away, because a half-solved question still banks marks, so switching costs less than it feels.

III

Part 3 of 3

Sections 07 to 09

Registration and centres: earlier than you think

Registration has one hard rule: you cannot enter yourself. To take STEP you must be registered at an authorised test centre, which makes the entry on your behalf. For the 2026 series the window opened on 1 March and closed on 4 May. Fees are charged per paper, as follows.

UK centres

£102.50 per paper

Outside the UK

£142.25 per paper

Or $179.75 / €166

Centre admin fee

Added by some centres

Covers invigilation, despatch and room hire; ask your centre for the real total

Entry route

Authorised centres only

You cannot register yourself

In practice: if you are at a UK school, speak to your exams officer early and confirm the school can enter you. If you are an international candidate, in mainland China or anywhere else, locate an authorised centre well before the window opens; centres run their own internal deadlines and charges. The sensible move is to sort the centre as soon as your offer arrives, in parallel with the studying, not after it.

Two cautions for planners. The 2027 dates have not been published, and OCR reserves the right to change dates and fees, so always work from the official key-dates page for your own year. And STEP is usually sat in the same calendar year as admission: entry in autumn 2027 means the June 2027 sitting.

Exam weeks: two papers, two days

The two papers are not sat on the same day. In 2026, STEP 2 fell on 4 June and STEP 3 on 10 June, six days later; in the UK the papers start at 9am, while international centres set their own local times. Plan the gap deliberately: take a day to reset after STEP 2, then run a focused STEP 3 week with one timed paper, a pass over the hardest STEP 3 module topics, and formula recall.

Your final fortnight of mocks must match the real conditions, because the points below are where STEP differs most from the computer-based tests you may have sat. Check them one by one.

Calculators

Not permitted, and not required.

Formulae booklet

None is issued; the formulae you are expected to know are listed in the specification appendix, so drill them.

Pens and instruments

Answers in black pen only, diagrams in pencil; rulers, protractors and compasses are allowed.

Graph paper

Not permitted; any graphs are sketched inside the answer booklet.

Rough work

No extra paper is issued; rough work goes in the answer booklet, and only what is in the official booklet is marked.

Bilingual dictionaries

Not permitted, which international candidates should get used to well in advance.

Presentation is itself a scoring matter: the specification requires solutions that are clear, logical and legible, with working fully set out and final answers simplified, and warns that marks may be lost if examiners cannot follow your working. Write every practice paper to the standard of a stranger reading it without effort, so nothing changes on the day.

After results: what happens in mid-August

Results day

13 August 2026

Published by 08:00 UK time

Grade boundaries

Published the same day

Delivery

Passed to universities through UCAS

Results enquiries

Closed 20 August, £50.75 per paper

2026 series figures

Cambridge applicants get one further safety mechanism: answer booklets are sent directly to the Cambridge admissions team (officially, copies of the booklets go straight to them), so that candidates who narrowly miss can be judged on their actual mathematics rather than on the grade alone. That has a direct consequence for exam behaviour: even on a paper that is going badly, keep writing clear, complete mathematics for the questions you can do, because the booklet itself may be read page by page.

If the grade does fall short: the STEP grades required vary by College, so the terms of your own offer are what count. Holders of a flexible offer (eight Colleges are taking part for 2027 entry) have two routes to meet it by construction.

	Route one	Route two
A level grades	AAA	AAA*
STEP requirement	Grade 1 in both STEP 2 and STEP 3	Grade 1 in either paper (both still taken)

The two routes built into the flexible offer, for holders of offers from participating Colleges.

Whatever the situation, the right move on results morning is to contact the College or university rather than deciding the outcome for them.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How long before the exam should I start preparing for STEP?

The official free STEP Support Programme sets a baseline of well over a year: Foundation modules from Year 12, studied weekly over about six months, STEP 2 modules from September of Year 13, STEP 3 modules from January, then timed past papers. The later you start, the more your plan should tilt towards timed papers, but with solid foundations the four to five months between an offer and June is workable.

What is the STEP Support Programme, and is it free?

It is the official preparation programme developed by the Faculty of Mathematics at Cambridge, designed to help applicants build advanced problem-solving skills for STEP. It consists of online modules for individual study with hints and full solutions, it is entirely free and open to everyone, and it comes with an official staged timeline.

Is it too late to start STEP preparation only after receiving an offer?

The window is roughly four to five months: tight but workable. The STEP 3 modules are officially recommended to start in January anyway, so what needs compressing is the Foundation and STEP 2 stages: move through the modules quickly in January and February, switch to timed papers from 2019 onwards (with official worked solutions) by April, and alternate full papers in May. Keep A level revision running alongside, since the Cambridge minimum offer level pairs A A A with grade 1 in both STEP 2 and STEP 3.

How do I register for STEP? Can I enter myself?

You cannot enter yourself: you must be registered at an authorised test centre, which makes the entry for you. The 2026 window ran from 1 March to 4 May; fees are £102.50 per paper at UK centres and £142.25 (or $179.75 / €166) outside the UK, with some centres adding an administration fee. The 2027 dates have not yet been published, so work from the OCR website, and sort your centre as soon as your offer arrives.

Which years of STEP past papers should I prioritise?

Centre your work on STEP 2 and STEP 3 papers from 2019 onwards: Cambridge has written official fully worked solutions for those years, and the formulae booklet was discontinued in 2019, so those papers match current exam conditions. Earlier papers work as supplementary material. STEP 1 has not been offered since the June 2021 sitting, so STEP 1 papers you find online belong to a discontinued paper and should not form the spine of your plan.

Are STEP 2 and STEP 3 sat on the same day?

No: the two papers are sat on separate days. In the 2026 series STEP 2 was on 4 June and STEP 3 on 10 June, starting at 9am at UK centres, with international centres setting their own local times. The exact dates and weekdays move each year, so check the official publication for the 2027 series.

When do STEP results come out, and what if I just miss my offer?

Results land in mid-August: for 2026, by 08:00 UK time on 13 August, with grade boundaries published the same day and grades passed to universities through UCAS; results enquiries closed on 20 August at £50.75 per paper. The Cambridge admissions team also receives answer booklets directly and judges near-miss candidates on their actual work, so the right move is to contact the College or university straight away rather than assuming the outcome.

SOURCES

Official sources

MORE GUIDES

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