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Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 5:38 am
by rrgreat123
I am planning to give test by end of this year .I have covered Calculus 1,2,3 . ODE , Group Theory ,Basic Real Analysis . Can anyone who got more than 90 percentile suggest me some tips as well as books for my preparation .I will be highly obliged

Thanks from India

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 7:15 pm
by Incognito
I've heard that the 'The Princeton Review' book is good. I can't really attest to this though because I didn't really use it but rather skimmed through small pieces of it.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2015 7:49 pm
by MathCat
I got 80th percentile. The Princeton Review book is good practice, but it's not all you need to do. I think they don't emphasize the theoretical stuff as much as the test does. I was lucky because I knew that stuff anyway, from recent courses.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 1:04 am
by Kilgore_Trout
Make sure you have Ring theory down. The majority of the Abstract Algebra are on rings and not groups.

Princton, REA, and past exams are all helpful but there is a huge gap bewteen them and the relatively new exam. Also I finished the all the past exams with 15 min left but when i took the real thing I ran out of time both times I took it.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 2:33 am
by joga
Hey,

I guess you can just prepare using old papers and solving problems from textbooks. But also do learn some good mathematics and have a strong application. I am from India too and I would just want to add that a 900 plus score alone won't get you very far. Your application would be in best hands with a good Math GRE score and some significant study. Knowing established mathematicians writing you sensible recommendations I guess makes up atleast 70% of your applications. (If you have independent work then your work can count for about 30% and the recommendations for 50%). The rest would be grades and scores etc.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 3:57 am
by MathCat
Kilgore_Trout wrote:Make sure you have Ring theory down. The majority of the Abstract Algebra are on rings and not groups.

Princton, REA, and past exams are all helpful but there is a huge gap bewteen them and the relatively new exam. Also I finished the all the past exams with 15 min left but when i took the real thing I ran out of time both times I took it.
Agreed. It is definitely worth doing the old exams under timed conditions to strategize, and it still gives you a sense of the exam. But I'd say the exam is more advanced and more theoretical than the old ones. There was a balance of ring and group theory questions when I took it, though. Perhaps the ring questions stood out more in your memory. I'd say the algebra questions were pretty tough, too, but maybe that's just my weakness.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 8:34 pm
by arctanX
Princeton Review is excellent, SubjectMath.com is even better, REA - waste of time and not relevent.

I prepared using all of those including the 4 past exams and got 97%. I hope this helps.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 6:09 am
by rrgreat123
arctanX wrote:Princeton Review is excellent, SubjectMath.com is even better, REA - waste of time and not relevent.

I prepared using all of those including the 4 past exams and got 97%. I hope this helps.
Thanks ..can you list out books for individual subjects liek calc ,linear algebra you used and about your experience at exam

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 9:27 am
by arctanX
For theory review I used only the Princeton Review book and SubjectMath.com. Then I solved any simulating test possible (4 past exam, 1 from Princeton Review, 1 from SubjectMath.com and all the SubjectMath.com little quizez). I also solved a few of REA's but it is obvious immediately that those question are too advanced for the exam.

For the test you don't need to know proofs, only concepts, main theorems and lemmas, and problem solving techniques for time efficient solutions. That is why I did not "hit the textbooks" and went directly to solving problems.

The test was a bit harder than the previous exams and about the same as the Princeton Review's and SubjectMath's. I used a lot of tricks and shortcuts for many problems and ended up choosing answers that I am 90% sure were right, but I guess that is the way to go. You don't have the time to double check your answers. I skipped problems that took me more than 3 minutes, and did not choose an answer to 3 problems altogether. The time was up just when I finished the last problem, there was no time to go over the harder problems.

As future mathematicians, we are used to 100% certainty in our solutions. However for this specific test we need to free ourselves from that burden. I went out from the exam with an ambiguous feeling about my performance, but got 97th percentile.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 3:20 pm
by kevingee22
Those of you who used SubjectMath.com, did you pay for the practice tests / lectures or is some of it available for free online? They are not free on the website besides a couple sample questions, and I could not find a PDF of the practice test; $30 for a practice test is quite steep.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2015 11:42 am
by arctanX
Yes, it is not free. However it's high quality and developed especially for the mGRE.
Personally, I hated the thought of not getting to the school I wanted just because of $30 here and $40 there. Also, there is not much else out there. So in my opinion - worth it.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:24 pm
by User0821
arctanX wrote:For theory review I used only the Princeton Review book and SubjectMath.com. Then I solved any simulating test possible (4 past exam, 1 from Princeton Review, 1 from SubjectMath.com and all the SubjectMath.com little quizez). I also solved a few of REA's but it is obvious immediately that those question are too advanced for the exam.

For the test you don't need to know proofs, only concepts, main theorems and lemmas, and problem solving techniques for time efficient solutions. That is why I did not "hit the textbooks" and went directly to solving problems.

The test was a bit harder than the previous exams and about the same as the Princeton Review's and SubjectMath's. I used a lot of tricks and shortcuts for many problems and ended up choosing answers that I am 90% sure were right, but I guess that is the way to go. You don't have the time to double check your answers. I skipped problems that took me more than 3 minutes, and did not choose an answer to 3 problems altogether. The time was up just when I finished the last problem, there was no time to go over the harder problems.

As future mathematicians, we are used to 100% certainty in our solutions. However for this specific test we need to free ourselves from that burden. I went out from the exam with an ambiguous feeling about my performance, but got 97th percentile.
Judging from your post history, you seemed to have taken the GRE subject test a while back before subjectmath.com was established. This suggests to me that you are lying and are advertising the site yourself.

The site does look promising, so why do you feel the need to hide your identity? You are clearly site's creator, Gilad Pagi. Your stats indicated here are identical to the ones on your biography on various sites:

http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic ... 704#p12704

Undergrad Institution: Not in the US
Major(s): Double B.S Math + Engineering
Minor(s):
GPA: First in class
Type of Student: Male, International

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (98%)
V: 158 (78%)
W: 3.5 (38%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 900 (97%)

TOEFL Score: 113 = R29/L30/S26/W28

Program Applying: Pure Math

Research Experience: Completed M.S, published one article
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor + TA in Calculus and Linear Algebra

Applying to Where:
University of Michigan - Admitted

https://www.udemy.com/u/giladpagi2/

https://il.linkedin.com/pub/gilad-pagi/34/706/16b

I really don't want to bring you down or anything, but I am currently enrolled in your modules. If I had seen this prior to enrolling, I would have thought this was a scam. Fortunately, the lectures you provide are very helpful as I am studying for the exam. In the future, I suggest you be honest when advertising and not misleading.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:31 pm
by User0821
Just to clarify my post above, no the site is not a scam. The lectures offer great review material and quizzes at a reasonable cost. I haven't purchased the practice exams so I can't vouch for those.

I am just a little frustrated with the advertising ploy.

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 6:05 am
by neochara
For those who have taken the online course by "subjectmath.com", was it basically just covering whatever was in the princeton-review preparation book?
Thanks!

Re: Need suggestions by 90 Plus Percentile people

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 8:34 pm
by User0821
neochara wrote:For those who have taken the online course by "subjectmath.com", was it basically just covering whatever was in the princeton-review preparation book?
Thanks!
The review material matches pretty closely with the Princeton Review. There are also little quizzes in each module.

I still haven't purchased the practice exams so I can't give a review. I'm still a little peeved at his advertising schemes. It appears he gave some fake reviews of his own practice exams on amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/SubjectMath-com-P ... Descending

http://www.amazon.com/SubjectMath-com-P ... Descending