Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hi everybody!

The second PGRE of this year is in history now, so I hope there are some people on this forum that have not become zombies yet and took September test. Do you have any thoughts about it? Does it similar too 2008 sample test? Does it have some interesting features?

I think it would be useful to hear from September test-takers for all propective test-takers. Let physicsgre.com live!

Hi everyone!!

Well, I took yesterday the test for the first time and some questions were similar to the 2008 test. But it seemed to me a little bit more difficult than the practise tests .There were many questions that I was not sure about. I just hope that it was the difficult version of the test. We'll see..Best of luck to everyone who is taking the test in October!

marie wrote:Hi everyone!!

Well, I took yesterday the test for the first time and some questions were similar to the 2008 test. But it seemed to me a little bit more difficult than the practise tests .There were many questions that I was not sure about. I just hope that it was the difficult version of the test. We'll see..Best of luck to everyone who is taking the test in October!

Thanks for your response! I think it's normal to be not so sure about the answers.
And what about the questions from special topics, were they from some narrow-specialized areas?

MomSaysImSpecial wrote:

marie wrote:Hi everyone!!

Well, I took yesterday the test for the first time and some questions were similar to the 2008 test. But it seemed to me a little bit more difficult than the practise tests .There were many questions that I was not sure about. I just hope that it was the difficult version of the test. We'll see..Best of luck to everyone who is taking the test in October!

Thanks for your response! I think it's normal to be not so sure about the answers.
And what about the questions from special topics, were they from some narrow-specialized areas?

Yes there were some questions that I had no idea where they did come from...Especially from solid state physics and quantum mechanics..I think that these topics are getting harder..But I would like to hear from someone else too..This is just my opinion...Did anyone else take the test? It would be very helpful to post your comments especially for the students who are taking the exam in October.

Hey guys,

Just took the test for the first time yesterday. Seemed pretty similar to the 2008 one, with some almost word-for-word questions, and had some do-able problems that weren't from 2008. Towards the end there were a couple toughies, though.
That damn Hamiltonian one toward the end totally fucked me up. Maybe my brain was dead by that point, but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me.


How many questions did everyone answer/how many do you think for sure you got right? I'm really curious about how the scoring breakdown is gonna work.

I only got to answer 76, and only a few of them were 50-50 guesses. 24 blanks total.

How did everyone else feel?

Hey,

I took the test on Saturday. I'm afraid I probably did as poorly as I've done on my timed practice tests. I'd say it was really quite similar to the 2008 test -- even easier in some spots (no log plots!). I can't remember a Hamiltonian question near the end, but I remember a Lagrangian in the middle that slowed me down a bit (as soon as I'm asked for those equations I start second-guessing myself...). In any case, I've got a couple of equations and topics I'm going to make sure I memorize before I go again in October. I think I'll get an analogue watch too, the clock in my testing room was faulty...

chump wrote:Hey guys,

Just took the test for the first time yesterday. Seemed pretty similar to the 2008 one, with some almost word-for-word questions, and had some do-able problems that weren't from 2008. Towards the end there were a couple toughies, though.
That damn Hamiltonian one toward the end totally fucked me up. Maybe my brain was dead by that point, but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me.


How many questions did everyone answer/how many do you think for sure you got right? I'm really curious about how the scoring breakdown is gonna work.

I only got to answer 76, and only a few of them were 50-50 guesses. 24 blanks total.

How did everyone else feel?

I answered about 84-86 questions but many of them were 50-50 guesses (maybe a lot of them)...I really got scared because everyone said that the real test is much easier than the practice tests. But maybe they are changing the test again at some points. Although it had some identical questions with the 2008 exam, some other topics were really new! Chump, where did you take the test?In USA?

I really didn't use time very well, I took too long on many, and it doesn't help that I sat in the back corner and the clock was on the back wall. I literally had to lean way out to even get a glimpse of the clock.

It was pretty similar to the 2008 practice test to me. I would say easier, but I took the 2008 practice test without studying at all (it was to get an idea of where to start) so my view is probably only because I actually studied for this test. I answered 62, a few were guesses, but I felt pretty comfortable with many of them. I only wish I had moved quicker. I'll be more ready to speed on the October one hopefully!)


Are you allowed to have an analogue watch?

marie wrote:

chump wrote:Hey guys,

Just took the test for the first time yesterday. Seemed pretty similar to the 2008 one, with some almost word-for-word questions, and had some do-able problems that weren't from 2008. Towards the end there were a couple toughies, though.
That damn Hamiltonian one toward the end totally fucked me up. Maybe my brain was dead by that point, but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me.


How many questions did everyone answer/how many do you think for sure you got right? I'm really curious about how the scoring breakdown is gonna work.

I only got to answer 76, and only a few of them were 50-50 guesses. 24 blanks total.

How did everyone else feel?

I answered about 84-86 questions but many of them were 50-50 guesses (maybe a lot of them)...I really got scared because everyone said that the real test is much easier than the practice tests. But maybe they are changing the test again at some points. Although it had some identical questions with the 2008 exam, some other topics were really new! Chump, where did you take the test?In USA?

I took the test in Boston. Are most of the people on here international, or from the states?

Also, about the watch thing (and for everyone taking the subject test after the general one) they're MUCH less strict about bringing things into the testing room, taking bathroom breaks, and everything else. For the general GRE, I had a metal detector waved at me before I went into the room, but this time the proctor came in five minutes before the test started and just asked us to put our bags away.

Scooter wrote:... Are you allowed to have an analogue watch?

I'm pretty sure you are. They make a big deal of telling you you can't have "digital" watches, or anything programmable, so I imagine they wouldn't have a problem with a simple analogue watch. Worst-case scenario though, I don't get to have it in the test, but I'll still have a watch again, so no big deal I guess.

chump wrote:

marie wrote:

chump wrote:Hey guys,

Just took the test for the first time yesterday. Seemed pretty similar to the 2008 one, with some almost word-for-word questions, and had some do-able problems that weren't from 2008. Towards the end there were a couple toughies, though.
That damn Hamiltonian one toward the end totally fucked me up. Maybe my brain was dead by that point, but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me.


How many questions did everyone answer/how many do you think for sure you got right? I'm really curious about how the scoring breakdown is gonna work.

I only got to answer 76, and only a few of them were 50-50 guesses. 24 blanks total.

How did everyone else feel?

I answered about 84-86 questions but many of them were 50-50 guesses (maybe a lot of them)...I really got scared because everyone said that the real test is much easier than the practice tests. But maybe they are changing the test again at some points. Although it had some identical questions with the 2008 exam, some other topics were really new! Chump, where did you take the test?In USA?

I took the test in Boston. Are most of the people on here international, or from the states?

Also, about the watch thing (and for everyone taking the subject test after the general one) they're MUCH less strict about bringing things into the testing room, taking bathroom breaks, and everything else. For the general GRE, I had a metal detector waved at me before I went into the room, but this time the proctor came in five minutes before the test started and just asked us to put our bags away.

Geez. I'm still not sure if I'm going to bother with the general test, but I sure hope my centre isn't that ridiculous.

So what advices may you give for October test-takers? Basing on this test, maybe we should practice more in some kind of questions or topics or even look for some types of tricks?

The test was definitely most similar to the 2008 test. I answered 86. I already know of a few stupid mistakes I made, but I knew those were going to happen no matter what... Reading the first chapter of Griffiths Particle book the week before the test got me at least an 4 extra questions right, so I strongly recommend reading that.

To be honest, I think the best advice that can be offered is that the test is (at least was) very similar to the 2008 test. It really depends on how you've personally been studying, so think about how you would improve your performance on that test.

For instance, I've been largely ignoring harmonics because they bore me to death and only ever seem to account for about one question, but now after seeing them show up again, I think it's probably worth my while to memorize another equation just to assure myself of one more correct answer. I'm probably in the minority for having overlooked that topic though, so you see it depends on the individual.

That's actually somewhat piqued my curiosity though. After writing that test, I've decided I need to revisit harmonics, spinors, and get my bloody signs right in Thermo. Have others who've taken the test thought of topics they'd revisit if they were to (or are going to) take the test again?

I agree about the thermal, a lot of those seem so easy, but it's just keeping things straight. I actually planned on reviewing thermal and probably hitting special relativity fairly hard. My prof for modern physics actually never had us do any special relativity questions, it was his last semester before he retired. It's something I could do, but I think I skipped most of them because I was just too slow at solving them.

Also might check out Griffiths particle physics book. Some of those were like, mmmmk... Probably takes less than 30 seconds to do this, however I don't know it.

You can now call in and get your scores for $12 or wait until the morning. I couldn't wait this morning so I called at around noon eastern and found out I got an even worse score than in April… I officially just wasted $162.

What time will it be out? At 12am or 8am?

Can anyone tell me what time is the online score available in the morning?

Last May it was up very early in the morning (eastern time). I can't remember exactly, but expect it to be there when you wake up.

Never mind it's online now. Best of luck.

.

860 is a great score. Here is what one top school says about average scores of its successful applicants: http://www.pma.caltech.edu/GSR/gre&toefl.html (PGRE avg score = 880).

So I think it will definitely keep you in the competition. And you know that PGRE scores are not the one determining factor.

Depending on the competition level at the schools you apply to, in the best case, your score would be in the top tier of scores, and in the worst case, your score would be average. So, I don't think you have to worry about it unless you were counting on your PGRE score to be the best part of your application (which isn't a good bet to make anyways).

I got a 770 67%. I was pulling for an 800 but I'm content with this.

hi guys
my score sucks 620
though my gpa is 4.00
thinking of still applying to schools above 80th ranking
lets 80-120
do you think i can make it?
or shall i wait for the april exam

620 isn't the worst score I've seen. You're probably not getting in to top 15 schools, but I wouldn't say you have to go all the way to 80 coming with a 4.0 GPA.