September mGRE

[w4rm4ch1n3]

I just finished the mGRE for September, 2017. I thought I did half decently. It was definitely harder than any practice material out there. Much harder. How did you all feel?

[hooruru1995]

This was my first mgre test.. I forgot to mark one question and guessed like 7-8 questions. It is harder than practice test provided I guess. How do others feel? Since this was my first time taking mgre, I cant say much.

[Channing]

Same here. The first half of the questions are fairly easy. But about 1/3 of the another half questions are quite difficult to me and I could say it's considerably harder than practice questions.

[w4rm4ch1n3]

I answered 40-45 ish deliberately, and marked A for everything else lol. It's a good thing im doing statistics phd and not math

[SMJKRT115]

Were they hard due to being advanced or due to being long computations?

[ConcernedSenior18]

I'll find out in 5 weeks, I guess. It could've gone okay, but I also wasn't doing very well on the practice tests, so relative to those it might have gone better. It also might have gone just as bad. A couple of questions were definitely harder than I expected, but most of the ones I understood I thought were reasonable questions (some I hadn't learned the material for). Much of the back end of the exam was difficult and those are where the vast majority of my guesses came.

[w4rm4ch1n3]

@smjkrt115 both. Some early problems were long computational, and some later ones were just advanced material. Less probability than I would have liked :/

[Peregrine]

The test was undoubtedly harder than any practice material I had seen/used. I was pretty comfortable with the first half of the test but it really ramped up in difficulty after that. I think I might've gotten like 40-45 right.

[jminep]

I took the April test and I think this one is actually a bit easier (or maybe it's just because I'm more prepared, not sure). Btw there seem to be several repeated problems.

[junglemath]

Has it ever happened that there were typos on the test that caused certain questions to be unanswerable? I'm pretty sure there were two such typos on today's exam.

[DDswife]

Can you post a "similar question" showing the typos you mean? I have never heard of that happening, but who knows.

[GWLeibniz]

I thought I spotted an error as well. In one of the questions it asked for the area of what was clearly solid, which seems wrong but perhaps I misread the problem.

I am interested in hearing how others did. I did every official practice test published by ETS, worked through the Princeton Review, through two tests by a fellow named Gilad Pagi, and worked through most of Agrawal's GRE prep book, and I still didn't feel prepared once I had a look over the actual test. Besides, I am just so slow when it comes to calculations. I honestly have no idea how I did; I had to guess on quite a few of them. I am pretty worried about getting into a graduate school. I have a excellent undergraduate GPA, a paper published in a professional level mathematical journal, and can get good letters of recommendation, but I am very anxious of this GRE. I am not really aiming for the top programs anyway. Do I have any chance?

I am find it so exasperating that graduate schools are more concerned about prospective students being able to do inane Calculus problems within 3 minutes rather than knowing, e.g., a few things about completely positive maps, von Neumann Algebras, etc.

PS If I do a MS in pure math first and then apply to a PhD program, do I have to provide GRE scores even if I have an MS? If this is possible, maybe I'll go for an MS first, since most MS programs don't require the GRE, and I shouldn't have any trouble getting into an MS program.

[roboticbass]

I agree with the above - the last 1/3 of the test really amped up in difficulty. I didn't realize until last night that the rules for incorrect answers had changed, and I forgot until the last 10 minutes - I left 6 questions unanswered when I could have just guessed with no penalty . Already signed up for the October test - we'll see what happens.

[ConcernedSenior18]

I remember thinking there was a typo or two as well, though I just figured it was really me making simple mistakes. So we shall see. I feel that if it did happen and ETS discovered it, they would have to strike that question from the scoring.

[Peregrine]

I am pretty worried about getting into a graduate school. I have a excellent undergraduate GPA, a paper published in a professional level mathematical journal, and can get good letters of recommendation, but I am very anxious of this GRE. I am not really aiming for the top programs anyway. Do I have any chance?

I don't think you'll have to sweat too much about getting into a nice program. I'm still pacing about what my score will be and I'm in your boat in terms of GPA and publishing (almost!) and letters. I've kind of seen this reiterated, but I think graduate schools know that the GREs can be a bit ridiculous sometimes. I'd go as far to say it's on the bottom of the totem pole below publishing, GPA, and letters -- maybe somebody who has already gone through the admissions process would be able to weigh in.

[spijuank]

So what advanced topic was the hardest this time around?

[Junaid456]

It'd be great if you could mention the type of nontrivial computational problems and advanced problems that appeared on the test so those of us appearing for the October test get to know what may be in store for us.

[w4rm4ch1n3]

I'd say something about it, but I don't think it's allowed.

[korobeiniki]

Yeah discussion of individual problems is not allowed. Some of them may show up again on the October test or later tests.

Also I don't think there's ever been a typo in these tests, at least not one that would make the question unanswerable. Chances are you were thinking too quickly about the problem and probably made a mistake yourself. If it says "find the area" while the rest of the problem clearly talks about computing the volume of a surface with a double integral, I think what you need to do is obvious from the context.

Really, the best advice IMO is nothing you haven't heard before: practice those computations, answer quickly and don't dawdle on the easy questions by double-checking everything as time goes by fast and you won't want to have 20 minutes left for the last 20 questions. Having a few quick facts in mind should also speed things up; for example, if you can already tell a limit goes to zero, don't waste time trying to verify by direct computation when the problem doesn't ask for it.

[Junaid456]

I'd say something about it, but I don't think it's allowed.

Yeah discussion of individual problems is not allowed. Some of them may show up again on the October test or later tests.

Also I don't think there's ever been a typo in these tests, at least not one that would make the question unanswerable. Chances are you were thinking too quickly about the problem and probably made a mistake yourself. If it says "find the area" while the rest of the problem clearly talks about computing the volume of a surface with a double integral, I think what you need to do is obvious from the context.

Really, the best advice IMO is nothing you haven't heard before: practice those computations, answer quickly and don't dawdle on the easy questions by double-checking everything as time goes by fast and you won't want to have 20 minutes left for the last 20 questions. Having a few quick facts in mind should also speed things up; for example, if you can already tell a limit goes to zero, don't waste time trying to verify by direct computation when the problem doesn't ask for it.

Yes, you don't have to mention the exact individual problems. But I was wondering if you could tell the types of different problems that showed up. From what I gather, the type of problems that show up, especially on the advanced topics, seem to vary a lot. For instance, were there any topology questions etc? Also, among the computational questions, which types of questions were the hardest? Did any hard precalculus questions show up? Or were the usual suspects from calculus.

[w4rm4ch1n3]

I will say that on the test I took, there was a LOT of abstract for some reason. Some questions I encountered in probability I knew that there was a 0 percent chance anyone could get it correct without a substantial knowledge of probability. So I suspect there were those types of problems for other subjects as well.

[Junaid456]

I will say that on the test I took, there was a LOT of abstract for some reason. Some questions I encountered in probability I knew that there was a 0 percent chance anyone could get it correct without a substantial knowledge of probability. So I suspect there were those types of problems for other subjects as well.

I'm afraid I don't quite follow in totality what you're trying to say. Do you mind responding via a private message?

[Peregrine]

From memory, and without revealing things specifically, there were quite a bit of concepts from analysis that I think may have screwed me because I spent a little more time practicing integration techniques, algebra, etc. The analysis ones are tricky because they often frame them as those questions where they give you statements I, II, and III and you have to select the combination of those statements that are true.

[Junaid456]

From memory, and without revealing things specifically, there were quite a bit of concepts from analysis that I think may have screwed me because I spent a little more time practicing integration techniques, algebra, etc. The analysis ones are tricky because they often frame them as those questions where they give you statements I, II, and III and you have to select the combination of those statements that are true.

Yes, those are very tricky, and one doesn't find such questions in analysis textbooks. One has to remember all the statements and counterexamples. Personally, I suck at the latter, so I'll try and revise both algebra and analysis by skimming through the books again.

[Tianma799]

From memory, and without revealing things specifically, there were quite a bit of concepts from analysis that I think may have screwed me because I spent a little more time practicing integration techniques, algebra, etc. The analysis ones are tricky because they often frame them as those questions where they give you statements I, II, and III and you have to select the combination of those statements that are true.

I feel basically the same. I don't know why everybody around me who took the test says that the test is fairly easy. Like the online world and the actual world are seperated. Feels so bad.