April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post Reply
shockwave121
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:43 am

April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by shockwave121 » Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:30 am

Anyone take the test yesterday? Any initial thoughts?

I think I answered between 75 - 85 questions. I know I got at least 6 or 7 wrong and there were a lot of guesses. Long and short I probably helped someone else's curve ;-)

Curious what everyone else here who took it thought of the test. Difficult / easy? Personally, there was a lot of material that looked familiar from the practice tests, but just as much that didn't look familiar.

Thoughts?

Spartanphy
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2010 4:59 pm

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by Spartanphy » Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:39 am

Yeah I took it as well. The test started off great for me but it got harder as the test went on. I left about 15 or so answers blank. Seems like I got a similar score to you. Test was easy

Atah
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:54 pm

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by Atah » Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:03 pm

Hi everyone!I took the pgre yesterday.i guess it was very easy test but i left 10 questions unanswered and a few questions i think are wrong..how do you think is there any chances to have high scores?

(Edited by grae313)

User avatar
WhoaNonstop
Posts: 853
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:31 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:02 pm

Atah wrote:What answer did you choose?
I chose the right one.

-Riley

User avatar
sphy
Posts: 209
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:23 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by sphy » Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:17 pm

Atah wrote:I remember one question...
I think you signed a sheet that says, "You are required (agreeing) to make these questions confidential." You know you're hampering your chance, you newbie. You're not allowed to do that.

User avatar
HappyQuark
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:08 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by HappyQuark » Sun Apr 10, 2011 4:06 pm

Atah wrote:Hi everyone!I took the pgre yesterday.i guess it was very easy test but i left 10 questions unanswered and a few questions i think are wrong..how do you think is there any chances to have high scores?
I don't remember that question but I do recall the one that asked about the tensile strength of Pauly D's hair. Did you say it was 1500N or 1850N?

Image

User avatar
sphy
Posts: 209
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:23 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by sphy » Sun Apr 10, 2011 4:16 pm

HappyQuark wrote:
Atah wrote:Hi everyone!I took the pgre yesterday.i guess it was very easy test but i left 10 questions unanswered and a few questions i think are wrong..how do you think is there any chances to have high scores?
I don't remember that question but I do recall the one that asked about the tensile strength of Pauly D's hair. Did you say it was 1500N or 1850N?

Image
(1500+1850)/2

User avatar
HappyQuark
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:08 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by HappyQuark » Sun Apr 10, 2011 4:28 pm

sphy wrote:
HappyQuark wrote:
Atah wrote:Hi everyone!I took the pgre yesterday.i guess it was very easy test but i left 10 questions unanswered and a few questions i think are wrong..how do you think is there any chances to have high scores?
I don't remember that question but I do recall the one that asked about the tensile strength of Pauly D's hair. Did you say it was 1500N or 1850N?

Image
(1500+1850)/2
1675 wasn't an option. The choices were

(A) 0 N
(B) 9.1 N
(C) 1500 N
(D) 1850 N
(E) Infinite

I know it can't be 0 and I also remembered that the ultimate conclusion of lattice guido theory was to do away with the classical notion that these hair constructions could ever reach infinite tensile strength. 9.1 N is, of course, the classical result for the strength of a single hair (akin to the ground state energy of hydrogen) so the entire head of hair must be greater. This leaves (C) and (D) but I couldn't decide between the two.

User avatar
grae313
Posts: 2296
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by grae313 » Sun Apr 10, 2011 4:29 pm

Hey guys, this is a reminder that our forum policy is to not allow the discussion of the details of any GRE or PGRE test questions. Thanks.

I'll let the Pauly D. question go just this one time, but nothing else!

shockwave121
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:43 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by shockwave121 » Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:18 pm

Right, grae. I've read enough of your replies to other poor denizens of this forum to know we collectively don't want to get on your bad side!

The more I've thought about certain [details withheld, see above] questions on the test, the more I'm realizing how many stupid mistakes I made.

I scored like 910 on 8677 and 890 on 0177, so I was feeling really good. But when showtime came, I think my nerves gave out. I was doing stupid things like not inverting fractions because I wasn't paying attention to the details of the question.

One thing I did notice was there was plenty of content from the various study sheets you all either have or downloaded from the internet that I saw on 9277/8677 and 0177 that was missing on the test yesterday. And quite a bit of knowledge content that were not on those previous tests.

When I take it again in October, because I doubt I scored higher than 700, I will be trying to knock out more easy problems on a once through, instead of answering all the conceptual questions (answers with words vs. symbols and numbers) first and then working backwards. What I discovered is you end up wasting way too much time on the more difficult questions 3/4 to 4/5 the way through the test instead of knocking out 20 or 30 easy ones.

shockwave121
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:43 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by shockwave121 » Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:26 pm

Does anyone know how many days until I can call ETS and spend the 12 dollars to find out I'm taking the test again in October?

badphysicist
Posts: 84
Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2010 11:20 pm

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by badphysicist » Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:37 pm

shockwave121 wrote:Does anyone know how many days until I can call ETS and spend the 12 dollars to find out I'm taking the test again in October?
For the november test it was about a month, but why would you want to do it for the april test? You should save your money.

User avatar
sphy
Posts: 209
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:23 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by sphy » Mon Apr 11, 2011 12:18 am

HappyQuark wrote:
1675 wasn't an option. The choices were

(A) 0 N
(B) 9.1 N
(C) 1500 N
(D) 1850 N
(E) Infinite

I know it can't be 0 and I also remembered that the ultimate conclusion of lattice guido theory was to do away with the classical notion that these hair constructions could ever reach infinite tensile strength. 9.1 N is, of course, the classical result for the strength of a single hair (akin to the ground state energy of hydrogen) so the entire head of hair must be greater. This leaves (C) and (D) but I couldn't decide between the two.
I think this is an experimental question. So we need Pauly D and the other thing you can do is apply Leucippus's Classical theory of μαλλιά and Lattice guido theory doesn't belong here and that rules the lattice gauge theory also.

User avatar
WhoaNonstop
Posts: 853
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:31 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:17 am

HappyQuark wrote:
Atah wrote:Hi everyone!I took the pgre yesterday.i guess it was very easy test but i left 10 questions unanswered and a few questions i think are wrong..how do you think is there any chances to have high scores?
I don't remember that question but I do recall the one that asked about the tensile strength of Pauly D's hair. Did you say it was 1500N or 1850N?

Image
This is the true reason I chose W&M over Brown. Proximity to THIS guy. =D

-Riley

User avatar
HappyQuark
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:08 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by HappyQuark » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:58 am

WhoaNonstop wrote:
HappyQuark wrote:
Atah wrote:Hi everyone!I took the pgre yesterday.i guess it was very easy test but i left 10 questions unanswered and a few questions i think are wrong..how do you think is there any chances to have high scores?
I don't remember that question but I do recall the one that asked about the tensile strength of Pauly D's hair. Did you say it was 1500N or 1850N?

Image
This is the true reason I chose W&M over Brown. Proximity to THIS guy. =D

-Riley
I suspected as much.

User avatar
sphy
Posts: 209
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:23 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by sphy » Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:20 am

WhoaNonstop wrote:
HappyQuark wrote:
Atah wrote:Hi everyone!I took the pgre yesterday.i guess it was very easy test but i left 10 questions unanswered and a few questions i think are wrong..how do you think is there any chances to have high scores?
I don't remember that question but I do recall the one that asked about the tensile strength of Pauly D's hair. Did you say it was 1500N or 1850N?

Image
This is the true reason I chose W&M over Brown. Proximity to THIS guy. =D

-Riley
You should post this post in your 8 reasons ....post and also make necessary corrections there.
Thank you.

physicsworks
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 8:00 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by physicsworks » Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:33 am

The test was pretty easy, a lot of questions were the same (or nearly the same) as in the practice tests. [edited]. Also, ETS seems to got rid of "positronium" questions :lol:

User avatar
HappyQuark
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:08 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by HappyQuark » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:23 am

physicsworks wrote:The test was pretty easy, a lot of questions were the same (or nearly the same) as in the practice tests. [edited]. Also, ETS seems to got rid of "positronium" questions :lol:
Again, discussing details about the test is not allowed by the forum rules and this includes providing specific test questions that appeared on the test.

shockwave121
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:43 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by shockwave121 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:39 am

@physicsworks: How do you remember the question numbers? Lol! I know I answered the question numbers you listed, but for the life of me I can't remember what the questions were!

The other thing I gathered from actually taking this test was that it seems like memorization is extremely important. There were (at least) two questions were they literally asked you for the equation for "X". The only practice test that I would say was "difficult" was 9677, while 8677 and 9277 had some tricky questions.

I agree this test was not difficult. Me and two other guys from our physics department who have been studying for the PGRE worked out a dozen or so of the problems from the test on the back of napkins at Applebees over some beers afterwards. There was one question, which I won't discuss the details, but you had to calculate a fraction of something and then invert it, because you had (1/something_1)/(1/something_2). I simply forgot to invert it. I think stuff like that is going to kill my score this time.

shockwave121
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:43 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by shockwave121 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:42 am

HappyQuark wrote:
physicsworks wrote:The test was pretty easy, a lot of questions were the same (or nearly the same) as in the practice tests. [edited]. Also, ETS seems to got rid of "positronium" questions :lol:
Again, discussing details about the test is not allowed by the forum rules and this includes providing specific test questions that appeared on the test.
Technically, that would be "providing specific test questions that did not appear on the test". Just saying :-)
I hardly think that quoting numbers counts as "details".

User avatar
HappyQuark
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:08 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by HappyQuark » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:54 am

shockwave121 wrote:
HappyQuark wrote:
physicsworks wrote:The test was pretty easy, a lot of questions were the same (or nearly the same) as in the practice tests. For instance, questions [edited] and so forth. Also, ETS seems to got rid of "positronium" questions :lol:
Again, discussing details about the test is not allowed by the forum rules and this includes providing specific test questions that appeared on the test.
Technically, that would be "providing specific test questions that did not appear on the test". Just saying :-)
I hardly think that quoting numbers counts as "details".
Unless I misunderstood what physicsworks said, and I'm almost positive I didn't, he is saying that problems [edited] appeared more or less verbatim on this most recent test. In other words, he is detailing in no uncertain terms at least 5 problems that DID appear on the April exam.

shockwave121
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:43 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by shockwave121 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:07 am

HappyQuark wrote:
shockwave121 wrote:
HappyQuark wrote: Again, discussing details about the test is not allowed by the forum rules and this includes providing specific test questions that appeared on the test.
Technically, that would be "providing specific test questions that did not appear on the test". Just saying :-)
I hardly think that quoting numbers counts as "details".
Unless I misunderstood what physicsworks said, and I'm almost positive I didn't, he is saying that problems [edited] appeared more or less verbatim on this most recent test. In other words, he is detailing in no uncertain terms at least 5 problems that DID appear on the April exam.
Fair enough. I thought you were refering to the "nium" comment. I can only speak for myself in this context, but I'm not trying to piss off any forum moderators or entice a gag-order from ETS. I'm only venting after what was an otherwise stressful 1.5 months of studying followed by a frusterating exam experience. Maybe some of you can relate, maybe not. Like Riley said in a different thread, I'm on ETS's side until my schools get my scores.

I'm just looking forward to when this test is nothing more than a bad but vague memory :-)

User avatar
grae313
Posts: 2296
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by grae313 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:27 am

At some point it's a judgment call, and I've edited some posts according to my judgment. No one's in trouble and I apologize if you disagree, but revealing anything specific about questions you encountered on the exam is not allowed. Feel free to continue venting and discussing the recent exam, but please don't give any specific information about specific questions you encountered. As happyquark said, if your post allows a reader to know beforehand on or more of the questions on one of the exam forms, it's not OK to post it. Otherwise post away :)

physicsworks
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 8:00 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by physicsworks » Mon Apr 11, 2011 11:35 am

shockwave121 wrote:@physicsworks: How do you remember the question numbers? Lol! I know I answered the question numbers you listed, but for the life of me I can't remember what the questions were!
I do not remember numbers. I've remembered at least 93 questions from this test and then looked at practice tests to see whether they have similar questions.
shockwave121 wrote:The other thing I gathered from actually taking this test was that it seems like memorization is extremely important. There were (at least) two questions were they literally asked you for the equation for "X".
That's true. Also they seems to produce too much test questions by simply inverting order of words in practice test questions :lol:
There was one question, which I won't discuss the details, but you had to calculate a fraction of something and then invert it, because you had (1/something_1)/(1/something_2). I simply forgot to invert it.
I had a similar too but did it right :) There were also "tricky" questions (or rather answers for them) where you should be careful in doing math. For instance, you got the answer $$a(\sqrt{2}-1)$$ but ETS provides you with
A: $$\frac{a}{\sqrt{2}+1}$$
B: $$\frac{a}{\sqrt{2}-1}$$
and so forth.
Last edited by physicsworks on Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

shockwave121
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:43 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by shockwave121 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 1:41 pm

If that had been a question, which I don't remember if it was or not, that is super easy! 0.4a = a/(2.5) = 1/(sqrt(2) + 1).But again, under time/stress constraints, who knowns what I would have picked.

Maybe I'll just try to get into a plasma group via aerospace/nuclear engineering. The general GRE (quantitative) will be a joke compared to this PGRE. Anyone know anyone who did Physics undergrad then engineering grad?

physicsworks
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 8:00 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by physicsworks » Mon Apr 11, 2011 1:58 pm

shockwave121 wrote:If that had been a question, which I don't remember if it was or not, that is super easy! 0.4a = a/(2.5) = 1/(sqrt(2) + 1)
What I meant is when you got the right answer $$a(\sqrt{2}-1)$$ to the problem then in order to pick the right corresponding letter you should convert it to $$\frac{a}{\sqrt{2}+1}$$. That is a waste of time and not a good question. It does't test your physics skills.

Atah
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:54 pm

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by Atah » Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:00 pm

Guys,anyone know what was the RAW scores corresponding to 990 of three last pgres?

physicsworks
Posts: 80
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 8:00 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by physicsworks » Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:29 pm

Atah, ~85

Atah
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:54 pm

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by Atah » Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:41 pm

Thanks:)i know that in one of practice tests there was RAW score around 65 and that was 990!)

shockwave121
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:43 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by shockwave121 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 5:09 pm

None of the practice tests had a 65 RAW -> 990 scaled. 9677 had the easiest curve with 75 RAW -> 990 scaled.

vesperlynd
Posts: 194
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:28 am

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by vesperlynd » Mon Apr 11, 2011 5:11 pm

shockwave121 wrote:If that had been a question, which I don't remember if it was or not, that is super easy! 0.4a = a/(2.5) = 1/(sqrt(2) + 1).But again, under time/stress constraints, who knowns what I would have picked.

Maybe I'll just try to get into a plasma group via aerospace/nuclear engineering. The general GRE (quantitative) will be a joke compared to this PGRE. Anyone know anyone who did Physics undergrad then engineering grad?
My friend majored in physics for undergrad, went into mechanical engineering to work in a plasma group. It can be done.

Atah
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:54 pm

Re: April 2011 PGRE Test ... anyone?

Post by Atah » Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:38 am

shockwave121 wrote:None of the practice tests had a 65 RAW -> 990 scaled. 9677 had the easiest curve with 75 RAW -> 990 scaled.
it was 66 raw score->990 in 9677.and you're talking about 9277



Post Reply