Our Story

STEPMaths was the brain child of Maths teachers, teaching in schools with very bright pupils, but few teachers to engage with them or stretch them to fulfil their potential.

Doing further research into schools in and around London, it appeared that only rarely did schools have teachers with the expertise to help students to succeed with the challenging MAT and STEP papers, which are now being requested by increasingly many universities as offer requirements. Even some independent schools did not have that much experience in preparing students for Oxbridge entry.

1-1 tuition for STEP papers did exist, but for the most part, was very pricey. Parents could expect to pay a minimum of £50 per hour, stretching to £150 per hour in some cases. Given the sheer variety of questions that the STEP and MAT examinations test, a few hours of private tuition might not suffice.

Hence we decided to create a series of intensive courses, each focusing on a different area or set of topics, some of which are not in the A-level syllabus but very helpful when answering STEP questions. The courses were designed to complement each other, and after each one, students should find that they were able to answer an increasingly large subset of questions from past papers, with much more confidence. Essentially, students receive 15-20 hours of tuition for the price of at most 5-7 hours otherwise.

An immersion into an environment of mathematical thinking and problem solving, working with like-minded students with different ways of approaching problems and being supported and guided by experienced tutors are just some of the benefits of attending a STEPMaths course. As the courses have been created and planned by qualified teachers, with pedagogical theory in mind, students are able to thrive under their instruction.

For students applying to Oxford, or other universities not needing STEP, there is a tendency to think that simply looking at MAT papers and questions is sufficient. We don’t agree – at STEPMaths, we believe that ANY problem solving practice will be beneficial to all students. In particular, there is a degree of overlap between MAT and STEP I, and so we encourage students taking MAT to improve their problem solving skills holistically, by tackling all sorts of questions including those in MAT, STEP, AEA and Interview style questions during our MAT preparation courses.

Having successfully conducted insightful and extremely well received Maths courses for students applying for Mathematics or Computer Science, we set our sights on creating the best possible offering for exams containing Physics, such as PAT, ENGAA, and NSAA, which also contained a significant portion of mathematics and an emphasis on problem solving and application.

Since then, our infamous Maths and Physics centred Interview Practice Courses have gained a reputation for being amongst the best, specialist interview preparation courses for Maths, Physics, Engineering and Computer Science applicants. Students repeatedly cite the pressurised environment of the course and the difficulty and originality of the questions we throw at them as key factors which made their real interviews seem like a walk in the park. STEPMaths’ interview courses have sold out consistently and have called for extra dates to be added each year.

Our courses were flourishing and helping so many students. Yet we soon realised that STEPMaths’ potential impact was limited by solely hosting in-person courses in London. We set our sights on creating a solution for students which would be affordable, all encompassing and easily accessible to all.

And so our online resource subscriptions for STEP, MAT, PAT, ENGAA, NSAA, TMUA and CSAT were born. Primarily in video format, all our online resources place great importance on understanding not just HOW to tackle a problem but also WHY one should tackle the problem in a specific way. What clues are hidden in the problem that indicate that a particular approach would work best? We focus on giving hints and not on giving away the answers.

All created by tutors who themselves have successfully navigated these exams, the videos allow students to be privy to the detailed thought processes of an expert problem solver. The online resources are available instantly and can be accessed at the students’ convenience. Over 200 students took advantage of these resources within the first two months of them being launched!

Blown away by the overwhelmingly positive experiences that our students had with our online materials, STEPMaths knew that the same logic and clarity which underpinned all of its Maths and Physics teaching could be applied to Problem-Solving and Critical-Thinking Questions too.

Although such questions (commonly found in exams such as the TSA, BMAT) are seemingly disparate, It is possible to find trends, similarities, common threads running through the questions. If one looks carefully enough, one can extract the key intention behind the question, a skill in itself. At STEPMaths, we felt that if we could demonstrate how to get to the heart of each question and not be thrown off by the peripheral information, then students would be empowered to answer questions quickly and accurately under time pressure.

And it just so happens that Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving are the two skills which occur repeatedly in many of the new tests that Cambridge introduced in 2016, such as the ECAA, GAA and PBSAA (Cambridge’s Economics, Geography and Psychology admissions exams, respectively)

So in August 2018 STEPMaths has launched a 3700-strong video resource bank of questions spanning the subject areas of Mathematics, Physics,  Problem-Solving, Critical-Thinking, Chemistry & Biology. We’ve even included a large number of video essay plans for the TSA, ECAA, GAA and PBAA, created by tutors who themselves scored in the top 0.25th percentile in their admissions tests.

We have something for anyone studying for the following tests:

• STEP – Maths at Cambridge, UCL, Bath…Computer Science at Imperial
• MAT – Maths/Computer Science at Oxford and Imperial
• TMUA – Maths at Durham, Warwick, Lancaster…

• PAT – Physics, Engineering and Materials Science at Oxford
• ENGAA – Engineering at Cambridge
• NSAA – Natural Sciences or Veterinary Science at Cambridge
• CSAT – Computer Science at Cambridge

• BMAT/UKCAT – Medicine, Veterinary Science, Dentistry
• TSA – Several Courses at Oxford, Cambridge and UCL including PPE and E&M
• ECAA – Economics at Cambridge
• GAA – Geography at Cambridge
• PBSAA – Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Cambridge

At STEPMaths, we believe is prolonged exposure to, and the willingness to persevere through tough problems that builds the problem solving brain, and which will help any student applying for a highly competitive numerical or logical degree at a top university in the UK, or indeed anywhere in the world.

Not convinced whether our resources will work for you? We have thought about this and don’t want you to regret signing up to our online subscription areas. We so confident that you will benefit from and enjoy the resources, that all of our online resources come with a 24 hour free trial.

We hope you enjoyed learning about STEPMaths’ journey. Please do contact us if we can help in any way.

UniPrepCo Limited
A company registered in England and Wales
42-46 Station Road, London, HA8 7AB
Company No: 10351661