Applications for the 2026 STEP Prep Day will open in May 2026.

For reminders on when applications for events open, you can sign up to our Outreach Newsletter.

If you have any questions about the event please email outreach@robinson.cam.ac.uk.

The STEP Prep Day is a one-day event for students who are in Year 12 and are interested in studying Mathematics at university, and particularly at Cambridge. 

The 2026 STEP Prep Day will run on Saturday 11th July 2026. 

The aim of the STEP Prep Day is to introduce students to the STEP exam, the style of questions used in the STEP papers, and the thought required to tackle them. The event will include an admissions talk and Q&A, a tour of the College, and sessions designed to familiarise students with STEP questions, led by current students and teaching staff from the University of Cambridge. The focus of the academic sessions will be on Pure Mathematics, rather than the Mechanics or Probability and Statistics parts of the STEP syllabus.

STEP (Sixth Term Examination Paper) is an assessment done at the end of Year 13, which forms part of the conditional offer for Mathematics across all colleges of the University. For more information, please see here: https://www.ocr.org.uk/students/step-mathematics/

Eligibility 

This event is open to all students who will be in Year 13 (or equivalent) in September 2026 (current Year 12 students). To apply for the event, students must be studying Mathematics and Further Mathematics to A-Level, or IB Higher Level Mathematics. 

There are 30 places available on the STEP Prep Day. 

If the programme is oversubscribed, we will prioritise applicants who meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Have achieved high GCSE Grades in subjects involving a Mathematics or Physics component (e.g. GCSE Mathematics, GCSE Physics, GCSE Science, GCSE Additional Science).
• Have at any time been under the care of a Local Authority.
• Are currently eligible for Free School Meals, or who have been eligible for Free School Meals in the last 6 years.
• Are currently attending a school with low progression rates to higher-tariff universities.
• Are the first in their immediate family to attend university.
• Have home postcodes in areas of high socio-economic deprivation (IMD quintiles 1 and 2).
• Are from an ethnic background currently under-represented at the University of Cambridge (Black African, Black Caribbean, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Arab, or GRT (Gypsy, Roma, or Traveller).
• Have high AS/A-Level Predicted Grades in Mathematics, Further Mathematics and Physics (if taken).
• Live or attend a school in our link areas of Swindon, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire or the London Borough of Wandsworth.

Travel

We are able to reimburse some travel costs for participants. You can find more details about this, including how to make a claim, here.