today's test

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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math_stu
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:05 pm

today's test

Post by math_stu » Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:10 pm

So how was today's test? How was it in comparison to the October test? (for those who took both of them?)

TheYoungin
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 10:18 pm

Re: today's test

Post by TheYoungin » Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:28 pm

dfs
Last edited by TheYoungin on Mon Jan 06, 2014 1:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

topsecret
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:28 pm

Re: today's test

Post by topsecret » Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:33 pm

I also thought it was significantly harder than October's test.

There was one question, number 34, that I swear was wrong. It's possible that misread it, but I thought it said:

Let A_n be a sequence of subsets of the integers. Which of the following are uncountably infinite?

1) A_1
2) intersection of all A_n
3) union of all A_n
4) functions from A_1 to {0,1}
5) functions from {0,1} to A_1

Obviously 1 to 3 are countable. 4 is uncountable iff A_1 is infinite. 5 is countable.
Maybe the problem actually asked, which of the following is not necessarily countable?

inferno
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:10 pm

Re: today's test

Post by inferno » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:19 pm

Took the test from India (November 10, 2012). attempted 51 with 5-6 guesses.

I found it quite difficult. Ran out of time as well. Wasted time on ques. which I am sure was wrong. Don't know how difficult the test was. I just wish it was format C test.

some i rem.
A cyclic group of order p^2. How many subgroups.
A straight forward application of Green's thm.
Last edited by inferno on Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

inferno
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:10 pm

Re: today's test

Post by inferno » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:32 pm

topsecret wrote:I also thought it was significantly harder than October's test.

There was one question, number 34, that I swear was wrong. It's possible that misread it, but I thought it said:

Let A_n be a sequence of subsets of the integers. Which of the following are uncountably infinite?

1) A_1
2) intersection of all A_n
3) union of all A_n
4) functions from A_1 to {0,1}
5) functions from {0,1} to A_1

Obviously 1 to 3 are countable. 4 is uncountable iff A_1 is infinite. 5 is countable.
Maybe the problem actually asked, which of the following is not necessarily countable?
True. it's totally wrong. Though 4) could be the closest candidate if the mentioned somewhere that A_1=Z.

topsecret
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:28 pm

Re: today's test

Post by topsecret » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:45 pm

inferno wrote:Took the test from India (November 10, 2012). attempted 51 with 5-6 guesses.

I found it quite difficult. Ran out of time as well. Wasted time on ques. which I am sure was wrong. Don't know how difficult the test was. I just wish it was format C test.

some i rem.
A cyclic group of order p^2. How many subgroups.
A straight forward application of Green's thm.
We didn't have either of those problems. Does that mean there are different versions for different countries? I took it in the US.

inferno
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:10 pm

Re: today's test

Post by inferno » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:51 pm

topsecret wrote:
inferno wrote:Took the test from India (November 10, 2012). attempted 51 with 5-6 guesses.

I found it quite difficult. Ran out of time as well. Wasted time on ques. which I am sure was wrong. Don't know how difficult the test was. I just wish it was format C test.

some i rem.
A cyclic group of order p^2. How many subgroups.
A straight forward application of Green's thm.
We didn't have either of those problems. Does that mean there are different versions for different countries? I took it in the US.
Yes, i think. I also did not find the qn. you posted in my test.

Shera250
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:53 pm

Re: today's test

Post by Shera250 » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:55 pm

No it doesn't. I had those questions as well and I took it in New York.

inferno
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:10 pm

Re: today's test

Post by inferno » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:58 pm

Shera250 wrote:No it doesn't. I had those questions as well and I took it in New York.
Did you find the qn. i posted in ny?

math_applicant
Posts: 157
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:15 pm

Re: today's test

Post by math_applicant » Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:10 pm

anyone knows a way to estimate the percentiles based on the raw score ? Since the test was significantly harder (at least much more computationally intensive) than the past years, do you think the bar for percentiles will be lower than previous years in terms of raw scores ? In particular, anyone knows an estimate of the raw score corresponding to the 80th % ?

ahfats37
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:52 pm

Re: today's test

Post by ahfats37 » Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:07 pm

I thought the test was significantly more difficult than the one in October. Lots of harder Calc II problems and harder linear algebra problems, which was probably my weakness going in. Like the previous poster said, very computationally intensive.

Shera250
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:53 pm

Re: today's test

Post by Shera250 » Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:03 pm

inferno wrote:
Shera250 wrote:No it doesn't. I had those questions as well and I took it in New York.
Did you find the qn. i posted in ny?
Yes.

nico
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:54 pm

Re: today's test

Post by nico » Sat Nov 10, 2012 10:29 pm

interesting...I took it in the US and I thought it was substantially easier...lots of algebra (linear and abstract) and a few complex analysis ones (my strongsuits :) ) and very little stats, diffeq and combinatorics (which I know almost nothing about).

The one in october was horrifying. I answered 54 and guessed at least 5. This time I managed to answer 62 and feel pretty confident about all but a couple...:/ hopefully I'm not delusional and something went horribly wrong...

Legendre
Posts: 217
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:05 am

Re: today's test

Post by Legendre » Sat Nov 10, 2012 11:39 pm

1. The test seems to be easier.

This is based on the number of questions people say they have done. E.g. 57-58 (8-9 blanks), 51 (5-6 guesses), 54 (guessed 5), 62. For the October tests, I see people doing 45+ questions. Percentile inflation yay. :cry:

Personally: October I answered 40 questions ( :lol: ). But answered 61 in November. Not sure if its the practice or other factors, or if the test is indeed easier. There were quite a few straight forward questions on my paper.

2. Different regions get different paper.

This is established over comments of people over this year's October and November tests. Also, my paper in Asia has zero of the questions you guys mentioned.

Also, there might be a typo in my paper: there is a double integral where the integrand evaluates to 0. But all the options are positive! I spent 10 minutes checking and couldn't see why the integrand isn't 0.

m_s
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 1:15 pm

Re: today's test

Post by m_s » Sun Nov 11, 2012 5:04 am

Legendre wrote:
Also, there might be a typo in my paper: there is a double integral where the integrand evaluates to 0. But all the options are positive! I spent 10 minutes checking and couldn't see why the integrand isn't 0.


Are you reffering to the double integral over an ellipse? It was a question in my paper too. I think that the integrant is 0 only in the boundary, but is positive in the rest of the ellipse.

Legendre
Posts: 217
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 1:05 am

Re: today's test

Post by Legendre » Sun Nov 11, 2012 8:07 am

m_s wrote: Are you reffering to the double integral over an ellipse? It was a question in my paper too. I think that the integrant is 0 only in the boundary, but is positive in the rest of the ellipse.
Oh lol. My mistake then. I guess I got confused because it was one of the last question I did and I am absolute crap at polar/spherical/cylindrical coordinates double integrals. Thanks. :lol:

JonMLTR
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2012 10:17 am

Re: today's test

Post by JonMLTR » Sun Nov 11, 2012 10:37 am

Ok hereis my input.

I have taken the test in November and I am quite demoralized right now.
I have answered 63 questions, the time was up as I started question 65 (and it was an easy algorithm question) of course coupled with the fact that I am not sure about 4-5 questions (it is easy to make mistakes, btw I also had a double integral on ellipse and it was not zero but I am sure I made a mistake since I was running out of time so I was sloppy, it is really sad because you know you are making errors at very easy things because you are getting out of time) :x .

I can't comment of the difficulty compared to the October test since this my first time. I can say it was harder than the ETS 2005 test but not by much.
Also there were more Abstract Algebra and Topology questions (both on which I have never taken any courses but studied myself in the last couple of weeks so I can not comment whether they were hard or easy).

I think 1 question was plain wrong and this is odd because because of all practice tests I did myself I have never faced with such thing. It probably cost me the final 2 questions because I spent too much time on checking every answer several times. I was quite fast in the beginning and as I read from this forum I was expecting questions to get longer.

Also I couldn't sleep well and it really hurts your speed in the later stages of the exam.

This is really demoralizing and it takes so long to receive the scores :cry: .


Anyone received scores of their Octobertest btw ?

topsecret
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:28 pm

Re: today's test

Post by topsecret » Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:37 pm

I got my scores from October's test by calling the phone line. I read elsewhere online that the scores usually are in a few days before they are scheduled to be officially available according to the ETS GRE website.

My scores were good, so I'm happy!

And to JonMLTR, it sounds like you did well. If your answers are accurate, then even if you get all the problems you guessed wrong, you are still in a good position to get an 800 or above. I've read online that most schools don't distinguish too seriously between different scores if they are above the 800 range. Once you get to that point, schools will see that you did well on the GRE and focus on the rest of your application.

mindreader
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 11:12 am

Re: today's test

Post by mindreader » Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:39 pm

topsecret wrote:I got my scores from October's test by calling the phone line. I read elsewhere online that the scores usually are in a few days before they are scheduled to be officially available according to the ETS GRE website.

My scores were good, so I'm happy!

And to JonMLTR, it sounds like you did well. If your answers are accurate, then even if you get all the problems you guessed wrong, you are still in a good position to get an 800 or above. I've read online that most schools don't distinguish too seriously between different scores if they are above the 800 range. Once you get to that point, schools will see that you did well on the GRE and focus on the rest of your application.
Mind sharing your score and percentile? :)

JonMLTR
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2012 10:17 am

Re: today's test

Post by JonMLTR » Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:42 pm

topsecret wrote:I got my scores from October's test by calling the phone line. I read elsewhere online that the scores usually are in a few days before they are scheduled to be officially available according to the ETS GRE website.

My scores were good, so I'm happy!

And to JonMLTR, it sounds like you did well. If your answers are accurate, then even if you get all the problems you guessed wrong, you are still in a good position to get an 800 or above. I've read online that most schools don't distinguish too seriously between different scores if they are above the 800 range. Once you get to that point, schools will see that you did well on the GRE and focus on the rest of your application.
I have seen your score in another thread and well done as it is a great score and thanks for not keeping them "topsecret" :mrgreen: .

Also thanks for the kind words, still I can't help thinking about the exam and this is really annoying since I won't be receiving my scores at least for a month. For example I realized that I made a stupid mistake in the easiest question that I answered corretly in the first 10seconds then somehow I convinced myself to change it, it was towards the end and being sleepless gets to you, I also realized that some questions that I thought I did a mistake are actually correct. This is tiring, I need to focus on other things...



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