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2 more weeks

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2010 8:46 pm
by smuckers
just started studying for the gre math test anyone taking it in nov

Re: 2 more weeks

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:16 pm
by Long
How are you guys preparing ? Anyone took the test, can you tell me how does the difficulty of the real test compare to the 0568 test and the cracking test? I finished the cracking book and 4 official tests but I did the official tests first, and just finished the cracking last week. I don't know what score I may get now. I'm really worried.
I heard somewhere that if you get 80% in the cracking test, you will get 70% in the real one, is it true ?

Re: 2 more weeks

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:51 pm
by Chapel
Long wrote:How are you guys preparing ? Anyone took the test, can you tell me how does the difficulty of the real test compare to the 0568 test and the cracking test? I finished the cracking book and 4 official tests but I did the official tests first, and just finished the cracking last week. I don't know what score I may get now. I'm really worried.
I heard somewhere that if you get 80% in the cracking test, you will get 70% in the real one, is it true ?
I took the test in October and I felt that it was significantly harder than the released practice tests. Although, lots of people seemed to say this so I wouldn't doubt if I did roughly as well on the real one as I did on the practice ones (roughly 55%).

Re: 2 more weeks

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 8:51 am
by alex
sometimes this forum really stresses me out.

Re: 2 more weeks

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 4:38 pm
by mdornbos
I personally think the test is a garbage test. Standardized testing is in general garbage, but this test does not accurately show a students strengths. I'm pretty much a straight A student and I bust my ass in math and studied for months and months for this test and did absolutely awful. How did the people get in the 800's get there? Have they taken an insane amount of math classes or did they study for years for this test?

Re: 2 more weeks

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 11:01 pm
by owlpride
Have they taken an insane amount of math classes or did they study for years for this test?
Neither. I don't know much math but I know the core material inside out. Helping underclassmen with their math homework did a lot for me in that regard. It forced me to review the material from each course several times and think through a different set of problems each time.

Not very long ago did I come across a linear algebra problem that showed me just how much my understanding of the subject has improved over time. "Show that a projection matrix (over the reals) has a basis of Eigenvectors, with all Eigenvalues 0 or 1." A problem very similar to this one showed up on my linear algebra final. I remember struggling a lot just to show that the Eigenvalues are 0 or 1, and I had no idea how to approach the existence of Eigenvectors part. Now I not only have the geometric intuition to say that this is immediately obvious, but I have also become more comfortable with the algebraic machinery needed to prove it (in several different ways, actually).

The more exotic questions on the GRE (like graph theory) can be solved with a bit of common sense; no advanced math needed.