The offer Cambridge makes to a student admitted to mathematics usually includes specific grades in STEP, two three-hour papers sat in June, at roughly the same time as the written exams of the French baccalauréat. For a student at a French lycée, it is the hardest hurdle of the application, and the one prepared too late.
What Cambridge asks for in STEP
For 2027 entry, the Cambridge mathematics page is unambiguous: all colleges usually require at least grade 1 in two STEP papers, STEP 2 and STEP 3, on top of the condition on the school-leaving qualification. For the French baccalauréat, Christ's College gives as an example a minimum offer of 17 out of 20 overall, with at least 17 in each subject, and adds that most recent successful applicants exceeded those scores.
Eight colleges offer a flexible offer, which allows stronger results elsewhere to compensate: Downing, Emmanuel, Girton, Jesus, Newnham, Robinson, Sidney Sussex and Trinity Hall. In every case, STEP still has to be taken. And it comes after a first test: Cambridge also requires the TMUA in October, before the interview.
The papers
STEP is run by OCR, a British exam board. Only two papers remain, STEP 2 and STEP 3. Each lasts three hours and offers twelve questions: eight in pure mathematics, two in mechanics, two in probability and statistics. Each question is marked out of 20, and only the six best answers count, 120 marks at most. Grades run from S, the highest, through 1, 2, 3 and U.
STEP 2 assumes A level Mathematics and part of Further Mathematics; STEP 3 assumes the whole of Further Mathematics. That is where the difficulty lies for a French student: even with specialist maths and the maths expertes option, part of that syllabus has never been covered at the lycée, starting with mechanics, which in France belongs to physics. It has to be learned separately.
STEP registration from France
Candidates cannot register themselves. The exams officer of an OCR-approved centre registers them, giving their name, date of birth, UCAS number, universities and course codes. OCR offers a centre search, and a school that is not a centre can apply to become one, in France as elsewhere. The centre may set a deadline earlier than OCR's: finding a centre should therefore start at the beginning of the calendar year.
Calendar and fees: the 2026 session. Entries by centres from 1 March to 4 May 2026, STEP 2 on 4 June, STEP 3 on 10 June, results on 13 August. Fee per paper outside the UK: £142.25 or €166, plus any centre fees. On 3 October 2026, OCR has not yet published the June 2027 dates; they are to be checked on its "key dates and fees" page.
STEP Cambridge past papers and grade boundaries
OCR publishes STEP 2 and STEP 3 past papers from 2019 to 2025, with examiners' reports, as well as older papers and the updated specification. The boundaries for each grade are published every year in the explanation-of-results documents, on OCR's "scoring and results" page. They vary from year to year with the difficulty of the papers, which rules out aiming for a fixed number of marks: you aim for the grade.
The Cambridge Faculty of Mathematics also offers a free preparation programme open to everyone, the STEP Support Programme, at step.maths.org.
Preparing for STEP from the French curriculum
Preparation happens in three stages. First, fill the gaps in the syllabus: mechanics and the Further Mathematics chapters absent from French specialist maths, ideally during the summer before terminale. Then learn the format: a STEP question takes half an hour, comes with no hint of method, and requires a full written solution, in English. Finally, practise on past papers, in real conditions, from January to June, alongside baccalauréat revision, since the two come within days of each other.
I prepare students for STEP in maths private lessons, from the official past papers, starting in première for those aiming for Cambridge. For all the tests, see Oxford and Cambridge admissions tests, and for the October test, TMUA preparation.