I have been preparing for the STEP II and III exams administered by the University of Cambridge by solving several papers (I've done hundreds of problems).
I am quite good at interpreting and using the novel mathematics involved in the sort of questions administered in the test.
However, one place I consistently get stuck in is where there is a hidden 'trick' in the question that needs to be identified in order to proceed. I often get stuck when this happens and it takes me a long time until I get a spark of inspiration and solve the problem.
There is limited time in the STEP Exam and because of this issue, I am usually unable to complete the paper in mock exams.
After some research, the only advice I have found is to practice more. However, the questions administered are so new and don't fall into a certain class of problems that can be solved using similar methods. I feel doing more and more practice isn't helping me and only very rarely is there a similar trick involved to solve the question.
Just to clarify, I have fairly good mathematical thinking and have almost no issue in understanding and manipulating the complex maths found in STEP. My main difficulty is getting stuck when certain 'tricks' have to be used and I don't know how to identify them.
What can I do to increase my probability of these hidden 'tricks' striking me more? Is it even possible? Note that I have about 2 months remaining and don't have a very long time to improve, although I have definitely already put in more than the required effort that typical STEP candidates put in.
Also, I'm sorry for the general nature of the question but I hope you get my concern.
Thanks for any help.
When I was a university student studying Mathematics I was always stressed out during tests. But for my final Math course (Number theory), I approached it differently. Every time the professor finished a topic, I searched for related final exam questions from all over the English-speaking world. Some of these questions were easier than what we were required to know; some were harder. But I did them all. Since I had done so many questions from so many professors, I felt that there was nothing that my professor could ask on the final exam that could give me any sort of difficulty except maybe some challenging bonus question. I was quite relaxed during the final exam and got an A+. Perhaps you could search for exams similar to your exams but from different universities. Best of luck!