Physics GRE Discussion Forums

for the october test takers, good luck!

It is done!

the content was actually pretty easy. Besides the kaon question, I'm pretty sure I would've gotten all the others if it weren't for the damn time limit. I left 7 blank and most of them I had narrowed down to 2 answers so I could come back at the end of the exam. That didn't work out too well >: (

we must have had different forms. no kaon question on my test.

man, i want another shot at that.

So, anyone have any ideas about the raw-to-scaled score conversion compared to the 2001 practice exam? Rough guess is that it was about the same difficulty, so the raw scores should be similar... I answered 70-some questions and am hoping to get in the 800's.

Ya it seemed very similar in difficulty to the 0177 exam, so the scaling will probably be about the same. I answered all but 6, but I admit that about 10 of those were *educated* guesses (narrowed it down to two). Overall, it wasn't an unpleasant experience, the proctors were nice and I got to write on a giant desk. The proctors had never administered a physics GRE before although to be fair I'm from a small university in Canada, where we don't believe in the GRE's

hmm I don't remember any Kaon questions either...

I really want to discuss some questions with people now, will ETS hunt us down??

It could have been much worse.

I do remember the Kaon question, and I left it blank.

All in all I answered 87 questions, so I think I should have a shot at doing well. I hope to get high 800's. The only way I'd get lower would be if i got around 20 questions wrong, which I doubt I did. Though I did have more "educated guesses" than I expected. O well, can't complain when you were able to answer close to 90% of the questions.

this is unrelated to the Kaon question, but you can read about CP symmetry here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-symmetry

Either you knew it or you didn't.

I am feeling pretty good about how it went, I took 0177 under exam conditions answered 63 questions and got 610, took 9677 a few weeks later answered 53 questions and got 680. This time I answered 83 questions, so I think I was a lot better prepared. Definitely going through all four practice exams helped, probable 50 questions were repeats.

WE'RE ALL GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL!!!

i did my own math...i am pretty sure i bombed. i thought i had some hemlock around here somewhere...oh there it is! See you all in hell, ****ers!

So how long 'til we get the scores, 6 weeks!? just for a computer to read some markings.....
Can we get them earlier if we ring and pay $10 or something or is that a myth

i heard that if you took the regular gre before taking this test, they'll give you THAT score over the phone instead of the physics gre score, which means you just wasted $12 or however much it called. Not from personal experience, but a friend just told me it happened to HIS friend. The guy then said it was impossible to get his money back.

Imperate wrote:So how long 'til we get the scores, 6 weeks!? just for a computer to read some markings.....
Can we get them earlier if we ring and pay $10 or something or is that a myth

You can usually get them earlier by phone (last year, they were available by phone before they said they would be).

imperate wrote:So how long 'til we get the scores, 6 weeks!? just for a computer to read some markings.....

Our Oct scores were available (by phone) 28 days after taking it. While waiting a month for the scores is painful, processing our tests is not just a matter of reading the scantrons. The scaling of a new version of the subject test (i.e. raw score of 50 gets 800) is not predetermined... ETS says it's calculated after some complicated statistical analyses of the test takers' answers. They also determine whether each of their questions functioned as intended and whether some were ambiguous and should be thrown out etc...

So all that takes some time, and it can't even be done until after all of the scantrons are shipped in to NJ, which itself can take a while when coming from foreign countries. So at least they're not taking that long just to torture us... that's a side benefit.....

quizivex, how did you figure out when the scores were available by phone?

My impressions of the test were similar to other people - it was similar to the 0177, but it emphasized properties of waves a bit more heavily (at least my version did).

I answered about 90 and checked each problem immediately after I finished it, which I'm happy with. Something that surprised me is how exhausted I got by about question 60, which didn't happen during the practice tests.

i started calling the "scores by phone" number once per day starting about 3 weeks after the test. you put in your registration number or whatever it asks you... and it will say, "score is not yet available"... then when the day comes that the score is available, it will ask you for your credit card number and then recite the score.

it's funny you say you started feeling tired at #60... i remember thinking the same thing right at #60.

Some past discussions of scores are on threads called "Oct 6th scores out" and "Nov 3rd scores available" or something like that.

About the Kaon question:

It was directly from the 2008 Nobel prize in Physics that was announced on October 7th, 2008!
So, if you kept up with physics news at all, you would have known the answer for sure.
Of course, this is just pure luck, since the questions for the test would have been selected way before Oct 7th.

You can read the detailed scientific summary here:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/phys ... yadv08.pdf