Are the tests much difficult than prep?

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
Post Reply
mathdummy
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2010 10:57 pm

Are the tests much difficult than prep?

Post by mathdummy » Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:24 am

Took the test today,not at all happy with what i'v done :oops:
but the paper was much difficult than the one in practice book...
hope they lower the scales

Also, the REA book is not completely useless, though the reviews are not much of a use, the difficulty of the practice tests actually resemble the real thing!

There was a problem involving $$Jordan Blocks$$, (had no idea whatsoever)

Last 30 problems were really challenging... I finished first 30 in 1hr, still failed to answer about 10 questions out of the remaining 36! poof........ I think I'm gonna repeat, it was fun, after all.....!!

So how was your experience?

mewss
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:42 am

Re: Are the tests much difficult than prep?

Post by mewss » Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:45 am

.
Last edited by mewss on Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

mewss
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:42 am

Re: Are the tests much difficult than prep?

Post by mewss » Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:46 am

The last 20 questions were really hard, in the total contrast to the first part... Just for curious, know anyone about Oct. 9 exams, was there significant difference?

smartiful
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 12:11 pm

Re: Are the tests much difficult than prep?

Post by smartiful » Sat Nov 13, 2010 1:02 pm

I took the test in October, and today again as standby (*) - my October results were 69% and I wanted to make sure that the GRE score will not adversely affect my application.
Things I learned:

(i) studying and doing a lot of problems helps - it makes you faster at those sucky calculus problems, which gives you more time for harder ones in the end;
(ii) they reuse questions. At least 2-3 questions were also on the October test (possibly more, not sure), but they change them a little bit. There was at least one question which I messed up in October, but (hopefully) got it right this time. Other questions were similar to the 0568 exam;
(iii) there are problems on the test for which no elegant solution exist, and thinking about it too much will only cost you time better invested on computing/calculating/checking-cases/etc.

I am not sure, but I think one of the questions was stated incorrectly (an improper integral involving a lot of exponentials, which I thought would be undefined, but this was not one of the answer choices)?.



Post Reply