Online courses for students preparing for STEP and AEA Mathematics

MEI provides real-time on-line tutorials and teaching sessions in STEP and AEA Mathematics. Students can access live interactive tuition at a time and location to suit them through a platform called Elluminate. (for more details of Elluminate, see here.)

Overview of courses

Each STEP and AEA course consists of 10 fortnightly tutorials running from February 2010 to June 2010.

Students are expected to look at the questions to be discussed in a session prior to that session and will be sent a weekly e-mail containing the questions, hints and reading references. For examples of these materials see below.

STEP Tutorial 1 – Questions
STEP Tutorial 1 – Hints and Reading References
STEP Tutorial 1 - Solutions

AEA Tutorial 1 – Questions
AEA Tutorial 1 – Hints and Reading References
AEA Tutorial 1 - Solutions

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STEP Course

Date	Topic
Session 1	Dividing by zero
Session 2	Inequalities and proof by induction
Session 3	Systematic search or proof by exhaustion
Session 4	Necessary and sufficient conditions
Session 5	Reduction ad absurdum and irrational numbers
Session 6	Curve sketching
Session 7	General solutions of trigonometric equations
Session 8	Differential equations
Session 9	Vectors
Session 10	Applied Mathematics (Mechanics and Statistics)

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AEA Course

Date	Topic
Session 1	Constructing a beautiful, coherent, concise argument: the proper use of notation.
Session 2	Using Series imaginatively
Session 3	Solving trig equations without getting too many or too few solutions.
Session 4	Co-ordinate Geometry: a use for GCSE Circle Theorems at last.
Session 5	Polynomials and Graphical Transformations
Session 6	Functions: how to make the simple look difficult.
Session 7	Vectors
Session 8	Differentiation Techniques
Session 9	Integration Techniques
Session 10	Unusual Questions: are they really hard?

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How to apply

To apply, students must complete an application form.

Download application form here.

The course fees are £150.

The source of payment of the course fees needs to given on the application form. We hope and expect that schools/colleges will use funding dedicated for use with gifted and talented students for this.

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Comments from students who have previously taken the course (formerly organised through the Further Mathematics Network)

 “STEP encouraged me to look at questions differently, keeping a close watch on similarities in question parts and looking for tricks to make the solution nicer instead of churning out endless algebra. I enjoyed exploring problems and their often surprisingly profound implications rather than just finding a number at the end.

  “The questions are refreshing and remind you that with intuition and confidence, the skills learnt at A-level are applicable to much more than repetitive exam questions. Practise of questions of this style enable a wide variety of problem solving skills to be developed and enjoyed.”

  “The interaction with the tutor was very good, work was commented on promptly and thoroughly and in session questions were answered equally thoroughly”

  “I thought the way problems were set, attempted and marked with comments each week was really good and the feedback on your work was constructive.

 “It was good sending out the email addresses for people in our group so that we could chat via email/msn etc in between tutorials which most of us did. I and two others often used to stay on after the tutorial and chat, via the chat box before the next tutorial started, about how much we done how we were finding it and general info which worked well.”

 “Interaction with my tutor was good, they were easy to talk to and very helpful. Interaction with the other students was also good and often helpful in clarifying things I didn’t understand. The graphics tablet was ideal and very simple to use. The headset was vital and without it it would have been impossible to explain ideas fully or ask questions. The tutor asking questions of participants directly was a good way to stop people from talking over each other and ensured everyone got involved. I’m very pleased I took part and thought it was really useful…”.

“I'm really grateful and I feel they have helped me progress in my preparation for STEP more than I ever could have done on my own.”

 “My tutor was always available on e-mail and made the session very interactive - perfect!”

 “I really enjoyed the lessons and felt challenged all the time.  I always felt I had achieved something every lesson, and it made me more confident in taking both STEP and AEA. “

 “My tutor always helped when I requested help via email, replying promptly with hints that were useful to me.”

 “My tutor has been brilliant and encouraging even in the difficult spots! Thank you to him and the Further Maths Network for allowing me this opportunity.”

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How the tutorials are delivered

Communication between tutor and student in Elluminate happens via keyboard, via microphone and headset and through handwritten mathematics via a graphics tablet.

As well as doing straightforward whiteboard work and using slide presentations, through Elluminate tutor and student can work together using any mathematics software, such as spreadsheets and graph plotters.

Here are some comments from students who have been learning through the Elluminate system:

“At first I thought it would be difficult to understand work learning it off a screen, but it actually helps to focus your concentration.”

 “The Elluminate system... it's an invaluable tool for furthering the reach of the FM Network.”

“The Elluminate system has allowed me to study for a course that I would not otherwise have been able to. The system is great, I have found that it can cope easily with classes of 10 to 15 students, and the microphones, whiteboard and application sharing mean the students can experience classroom style interaction with teachers and students that may be hundreds of miles away.”

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