Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Thanks for everyone's help.

Anyone else taking the October test?

I'm in on this one. So you can expect I'll lower the average.

-Riley

I felt the test was fairly easy. With that being said I can think of many careless mistakes I made. Overall, the test was easier than the 4 practice tests available.

-Riley

Was this very close to 1077 ?

Somewhere it was said that 1077 template is mostly followed ?

I honestly thought that this test was harder than the 0177 test. It had more questions that you just had to know and less that you could figure out.

Even though it was relatively easy in my opinion, I only answered about 60 question. I decided to stay conservative for the first test. Plus there were many things that seemed to be easy concepts, I just had forgot to review them. Sad, sad deal...

Here's to hoping for at least a 700+

-Riley

Where is everyone who took the PGRE today? I am starting to freak out about how I did on the exam today. I am trying to decide if I should retake it and I really don't want to. What do you think of the test today?

I felt it was easy, but I wasn't completely prepared for it!

-Riley

I completed around 80 question from 100.

Are we allowed to discuss the questions? I recalled exactly 82 questions from the test. I just can't seem to remember the other 18 questions for the life of me. I hope that I don't remember them because they were easy and therefore didn't leave an impression on me.

irockhard wrote:Are we allowed to discuss the questions?

I think in this post, our friend just want to compare how many question we completed,

it really help him to determine wheater retake or not,

hikmahrepubllika wrote:

irockhard wrote:Are we allowed to discuss the questions?

I think in this post, our friend just want to compare how many question we completed,

it really help him to determine wheater retake or not,

I thought our moderator condensed several threads into this general thread so we can talk everything related to today's test, no?

irockhard wrote:Are we allowed to discuss the questions?

The statement they make you copy and sign says "I also agree not to disclose the contents of the test I am taking today to anyone," so unfortunately that sounds like a no.

I also took it today. There seemed to be fewer long calculation questions and more fast do-you-know-this-topic questions than on the practice exams, which I guess could be good or bad depending on your strengths. (Am I even allowed to say that?) I thought it was a little easier because of the time issue. I hope the curve doesn't end up being too bad though...

kroner wrote:

irockhard wrote:Are we allowed to discuss the questions?

The statement they make you copy and sign says "I also agree not to disclose the contents of the test I am taking today to anyone," so unfortunately that sounds like a no.

I also took it today. There seemed to be fewer long calculation questions and more fast do-you-know-this-topic questions than on the practice exams, which I guess could be good or bad depending on your strengths. (Am I even allowed to say that?) I thought it was a little easier because of the time issue. I hope the curve doesn't end up being too bad though...

They made me do that when I took the SATs too. Afterwards, there were hundreds of people discussing the questions on a big forum (yes, there were a lot of people preoccupied with post test anxiety like me). There is really nothing they can do about it.

Well sure, the ETS probably doesn't have any snipers positioned outside your window. You only asked if it's allowed.

IMO it was pretty difficult. Not even one MOE or dimensional analysis question I could remember; I think ETS is reducing them. Hope I did not make too many mistakes

hk wrote:IMO it was pretty difficult. Not even one MOE or dimensional analysis question I could remember; I think ETS is reducing them. Hope I did not make too many mistakes

Let's hope that there is a genorous curve.

there was 1 unit problem and 2 or 3 limit condition problems. Quite a few "physical" problems where no calculation was needed. I hope this helps and does not conflict with the statement made about "not disclosing"...
yippee... GRE OVER!
hope I'll go into the 900s ... was about time, anyway...

P.S. sorry for posting in another section... won't happen again!

there were dimensional analysis problems, I'm very sure of that! I also solved some with limit conditions too... My problem: I usually don't remember any problem after the test, only generalities. I'm not sure about these "curving"-things... what means that? I start questioning the results of statistics because as I see people try everything to obtain "gaussians" even if nature contradicts them...

I agree with most of what has been said. I thought a lot of the problems were knowledge based (more so than the 2001 exam.) I was happy with the few I could solve with dimensional analysis or looking at limits. I answered 92 overall, hopefully didn't botch up too many answers :/

Do not talk about specifics of questions on this forum. You signed a statement saying you wouldn't, and posts of this nature will be deleted.

Remember when trying to compare difficulty ("I thought it was easy, I thought it was hard, I answered X questions, I answered Y questions") that there are three different forms A,B, and C and they vary in difficulty so unless you state which form you had with your comment, it is pretty much entirely useless.

grae313 wrote:Do not talk about specifics of questions on this forum. You signed a statement saying you wouldn't, and posts of this nature will be deleted.

Remember when trying to compare difficulty ("I thought it was easy, I thought it was hard, I answered X questions, I answered Y questions") that there are three different forms A,B, and C and they vary in difficulty so unless you state which form you had with your comment, it is pretty much entirely useless.

I'm curious as to why students have to sign a form saying they won't discuss specifics of questions. This would seem logical to me if the questions may be reused. However, if the questions are reused, those who take the test in october and then again in november have quite a distinct advantage over students who only take it once. This seems unfair, but it is the only explanation I can come up with as to why it is required to sign the statement...

I wonder how much overlap there is between the forms.

grae313 wrote:Do not talk about specifics of questions on this forum. You signed a statement saying you wouldn't, and posts of this nature will be deleted.

I hope the administration of the forum strictly abide by this. Otherwise, November test takers will have several advantages over October ones ... . As for the form of the PGRE test, I am of the impression that most statements suffer from objectivity ... therefore as you said this factor doesn't seem very helpful.

phys297 wrote:I'm curious as to why students have to sign a form saying they won't discuss specifics of questions.

Because students take the exam in New York three hours before others take the exam in California, not to mention the time difference between other countries.

Because some questions are reused and certainly questions may be very similar.

Because there is a chance that disclosing questions will give some students an unfair advantage.