STEP 2018: Grade Boundaries and Past Paper Practice

Q: How hard was STEP 2018?

There is no official difficulty commentary, but two sets of numbers speak for themselves. First, the official boundaries: grade 1 on STEP 3 required just 59 out of 120, the lowest grade 1 line of the three papers that year. Second, FrontierVUE's catalogue tagging: 11 questions on each of STEP 2 and STEP 3 are tagged hard, and 10 on STEP 1. Both signals point to a demanding year, STEP 3 especially.

Q: What were the STEP 2018 grade boundaries?

Out of 120 per paper, the S/1/2/3 boundaries were: STEP 1 at 100/72/51/30, STEP 2 at 100/77/65/36, and STEP 3 at 87/59/49/27, as published in the official Explanation of Results for STEP 2018.

Q: Where can I practise the 2018 STEP papers?

All three 2018 papers are in the FrontierVUE STEP library at /papers/step, organised by year. You can sit them in a timed interface, review a question-by-question breakdown, and read a full worked solution for every question. The two most recent papers of each subject are free to try.

Q: How does STEP 2018 differ from the exam today?

2018 was the last year of the old specification: three papers, 13 questions each, with a formula booklet provided. The 2019 reform cut STEP 1 to 11 questions and STEP 2 and STEP 3 to 12, and withdrew the formula booklet; from 2021 STEP 1 was discontinued entirely, leaving only STEP 2 and STEP 3. What has not changed is the core scoring: 20 marks per question, best 6 answers counted, 120 in total, which is why the 2018 questions remain fully relevant practice material.

STEP 2018 (the Sixth Term Examination Paper sat in 2018) ran all three papers, STEP 1, STEP 2 and STEP 3, and was the final sitting under the exam's old specification of 13 questions per paper. This page collects the official grade boundaries for all three 2018 papers, explains how those boundaries actually work, summarises what the year emphasised based on the questions FrontierVUE has catalogued, and shows where to practise the 2018 papers under timed conditions.

STEP 2018 at a Glance

Papers sat: All three: STEP 1 (9465), STEP 2 (9470) and STEP 3 (9475)
Official boundaries (S/1/2/3): STEP 1 at 100/72/51/30, STEP 2 at 100/77/65/36, STEP 3 at 87/59/49/27
Format and scoring: 3 hours per paper, 13 questions, best 6 answers counted, 120 marks, formula booklet provided
Specification: The final year of the old specification, reformed from 2019
Difficulty tagging (FrontierVUE catalogue): 11 questions tagged hard on each of STEP 2 and STEP 3, 10 on STEP 1

The boundaries come from the official Explanation of Results for STEP 2018; the paper structure, formula booklet and 2019 reform are likewise official information. The final row is FrontierVUE's own catalogue tagging, not an official analysis of the papers.

4 sections809 words5 min read4 official sources

Which papers ran in STEP 2018, and the official grade boundaries

All three papers ran in 2018: STEP 1 (paper code 9465), STEP 2 (9470) and STEP 3 (9475). They shared the same format, set out below.

Duration

3 hours

The same on all three papers

Questions per paper

13 questions

8 Pure Mathematics, 3 Mechanics, 2 Probability and Statistics

How it is scored

Choose your questions; only the best 6 answers count

Out of a maximum of 120 marks

In the exam room

Formula booklet provided

Withdrawn in the 2019 reform

2018 also holds a particular place in STEP history: it was the last year of the old specification. From 2019 the exam was reformed, with STEP 1 cut to 11 questions, STEP 2 and STEP 3 cut to 12, and the formula booklet withdrawn. The 2018 papers are therefore the final outing of the classic thirteen-question format.

The official grade boundaries for 2018 were as follows.

	S	1	2	3
STEP 1	100	72	51	30
STEP 2	100	77	65	36
STEP 3	87	59	49	27

Each paper is out of 120, as published in that year's official Explanation of Results.

How to read the boundaries

STEP results are reported in five grades, and a grade boundary is simply the lowest total mark that earns that grade.

Outstanding

Very Good

Good

Satisfactory

Unclassified

The scoring rules matter alongside the boundaries: each question is marked out of 20, only your best 6 answers count, the paper total is out of 120, and a correct answer earns full marks whatever method you use. The 2018 boundaries are easier to interpret next to the previous year.

	2017 (S/1/2/3)	2018 (S/1/2/3)
STEP 1	99/72/55/39	100/72/51/30
STEP 2	101/80/69/34	100/77/65/36
STEP 3	95/69/57/28	87/59/49/27

Each paper is out of 120. Boundaries are set after marking, in the light of how demanding that year's questions turned out to be and how the cohort performed; none is fixed in advance.

Against that backdrop, the 2018 STEP 3 boundaries sat noticeably lower across the board (S at 87, grade 1 at 59), STEP 2 boundaries were also generally lower than the year before, while the grade 1 boundary on STEP 1 happened to be 72 in both years.

For your preparation: because boundaries are set only after marking, treat any single year's numbers as context rather than a permanent target, and be wary of anyone quoting a universal "safe score". As for admissions, Cambridge offer conditions vary by college and by year, so the wording of the offer itself is what counts.

What the 2018 papers emphasised (FrontierVUE catalogue statistics)

The statistics below come from the STEP 2018 questions catalogued on FrontierVUE (all 13 questions of each paper, matching the official structure of 8 Pure, 3 Mechanics and 2 Probability and Statistics per paper). They reflect FrontierVUE's internal tagging, not an official analysis of the papers.

On difficulty, the year skews hard.

3 medium / 10 hard

How STEP 1's 13 questions are tagged in the catalogue

2 medium / 11 hard

How STEP 2's 13 questions are tagged in the catalogue

2 medium / 11 hard

How STEP 3's 13 questions are tagged in the catalogue

Even STEP 1, nominally the entry-level paper, is mostly tagged hard under this scheme. On topics, the tag frequencies across the year were as follows.

Pure Mathematics (broad group)

24 question-tags

STEP Mechanics

9 question-tags

Integration Techniques

7 question-tags

STEP Probability

6 question-tags

Coordinate Geometry

4 question-tags

Inequalities

3 question-tags

Curve Sketching

3 question-tags

Induction and Recursion

2 question-tags

Differential Equations

2 question-tags

Complex Numbers

2 question-tags

The weight of integration and coordinate geometry suggests that substitution technique and geometric intuition are worthwhile warm-up priorities before sitting these papers.

Practising the 2018 papers on FrontierVUE

01Step 1

Open 2018 in the paper library

Go to the STEP past paper library on FrontierVUE (/papers/step) and open 2018, where STEP 1, STEP 2 and STEP 3 can each be opened separately.

02Step 2

Sit the paper under timed conditions

Sit the whole paper in the timed exam interface; each paper runs to 3 hours.

03Step 3

Review the breakdown afterwards

After submitting you get a question-by-question breakdown, and every question comes with a full worked solution.

111 papers

STEP past papers in the library (1987 to 2025)

1,532 questions

Questions across those papers in total

Two most recent

The two most recent papers of each subject are free to try

Before sitting the 2018 papers, a few guides pair well with them: /exams/step/guides/choosing-questions covers question selection strategy, which matters most on the old-specification papers where you pick from 13 questions; /exams/step/guides/writing-solutions covers how to write solutions that earn marks; /exams/step/guides/grades explains the grading machinery behind the boundaries; and /exams/step/guides/step-2 and /exams/step/guides/step-3 map out paper-specific preparation. The resource library also holds the official OCR specification and STEP Support Programme materials for systematic study beyond past papers.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How hard was STEP 2018?

There is no official difficulty commentary, but two sets of numbers speak for themselves. First, the official boundaries: grade 1 on STEP 3 required just 59 out of 120, the lowest grade 1 line of the three papers that year. Second, FrontierVUE's catalogue tagging: 11 questions on each of STEP 2 and STEP 3 are tagged hard, and 10 on STEP 1. Both signals point to a demanding year, STEP 3 especially.

What were the STEP 2018 grade boundaries?

Out of 120 per paper, the S/1/2/3 boundaries were: STEP 1 at 100/72/51/30, STEP 2 at 100/77/65/36, and STEP 3 at 87/59/49/27, as published in the official Explanation of Results for STEP 2018.

Where can I practise the 2018 STEP papers?

All three 2018 papers are in the FrontierVUE STEP library at /papers/step, organised by year. You can sit them in a timed interface, review a question-by-question breakdown, and read a full worked solution for every question. The two most recent papers of each subject are free to try.

How does STEP 2018 differ from the exam today?

2018 was the last year of the old specification: three papers, 13 questions each, with a formula booklet provided. The 2019 reform cut STEP 1 to 11 questions and STEP 2 and STEP 3 to 12, and withdrew the formula booklet; from 2021 STEP 1 was discontinued entirely, leaving only STEP 2 and STEP 3. What has not changed is the core scoring: 20 marks per question, best 6 answers counted, 120 in total, which is why the 2018 questions remain fully relevant practice material.

Sources

Official sources

By year

Other STEP years

STEP 2025 STEP 2024 STEP 2023 STEP 2022 STEP 2021 STEP 2020 STEP 2019 STEP 2017 STEP 2016

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.

Practise STEP 2018 online

Timed interface, worked solutions and per-question analytics. The two most recent past papers are free to try.

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