For any of your students studying for STEP direct them to this excellent portal from stepmaths.co.uk which has (all free) access to STEP questions and solutions. Create an account, login and you have access to a complete library of resources.

The resources are very clearly presented. For each question you have access to a pdf with the question, Examiners’ Report and both an Official and thanks to Peter Mitchell a fully worked handwritten solution.

Note that you can also download a copy of  Stephen Siklos’ Advanced Problems in Mathematics and Core Mathematics. Advanced Problems in Mathematics is excellent preparation for ANY undergraduate Mathematics course.

Following each question, you will find a discussion and a full solution. The clear Contents page lists all 43 problems. Each problem has been given a title and a rough indication of the mathematical content which means you can pick out questions by topic.

See also, from Cambridge University, their STEP Support Programme and from Nrich, Prepare for University.

These details are also available on Mathematics for Students.

On the subject of challenging questions for older students and with revision on our minds, perhaps a good time to remind everyone of the excellent MadAsMaths site.

MadAsMaths mark scheme example

The AQA Mathematics AS and A Level specifciations have now been accredited. Watch the AQA website for further resources on the new specification. Checking Teaching Resources we see that AQA are developing their route maps; I have always found the GCSE route maps very helpful indeed.

AQA Route Map

Something I have used a great deal with my GCSE teaching for both the current and previous specifications is AQA’s detailed and very clear teaching guidance.

AQA Teaching Guidance

An A Level Teaching Guidance extract is available.

We can also see Command Words which reminds me a little of the Exam Terminology document so useful at GCSE. There seem to be versions of this document in various places, I believe the first time I used it was back in the days when there were more Examination Boards, this may well have come from the then Southern Examining Group!

Under Assessment resources we find Specimen Papers and mark schemes; also an Assessment Guide on using a large data set. On the subject of large data sets, for information on all the Examination Boards and large data sets, read Bruce Hampton’s clear and detailed comparison.

I have added an AQA page to the A Level Reform series.

Eduqas will not be offering AS / A Level Mathematics specifications, but note their Level 3 Statistical Problem Solving Using Software. See also  the International Centre for Statistical Education (ICSE) with Plymouth University and you can follow @IntCSE on Twitter. It may be that some of the resources here will be useful for our teaching of Statistics.

Educas state: “The objective of this qualification is to assist the understanding of the problem-solving cycle of planning, collecting, processing and discussing in meaningful contexts and to use statistical software to process real data sets. It has been specifically designed to be taught in schools and colleges to equip learners aged 16-19 with a broad range of skills empowering them to successfully negotiate statistical problems in Higher Education or the world of work.”

Staying with the subject of Statistics AQA and Edexcel have accredited GCSE specifications; note that coursework is no longer a requirement of GCSE Statistics.

See more in the Mathematical Miscellany Collection.