Good luck

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Hausdorff
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2010 3:40 am

Good luck

Post by Hausdorff » Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:43 pm

Good luck to everyone who is going to take the test tomorrow.

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Skullgrid
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2010 6:50 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by Skullgrid » Sat Oct 15, 2011 3:59 pm

Anyone else find that their test form was significantly harder than the practice tests?

lenivix
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2011 4:09 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by lenivix » Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:55 pm

I found it to be ... relatively okay. I hadn't been doing amazingly on the practice tests so I wasn't expecting any miracles, but it wasn't much worse than I expected. Got really frazzled on a couple of the calculations which was annoying, because I knew I could work them out but I was just taking too long so I had to leave them. Agh.

Bozostein
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:06 am

Re: Good luck

Post by Bozostein » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:12 am

yeah... hard for me to say how difficult it was... I kind of got frazzled on the mechanics problems... I answered 80 questions I'm praying to be over 75th percentile which is possible but really depends how many I got wrong which could be anywhere from like 5-20 I mean I think it should be less than 15 since I tried not to guess, but we'll see. I definitely should not have answered the 100th question (I am 99% sure i got that wrong) and also I think I got at least 1 other 1 wrong probably, though i can't remember that clearly.

it's pretty much a no go to discuss any of the problems right? that sucks...

If i get over 80% I'm throwing a frkn party.

Bozostein
Posts: 32
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:06 am

Re: Good luck

Post by Bozostein » Sun Oct 16, 2011 2:03 am

looks like I got about 3 more problems wrong for sure, so I know I got at least 5-6 wrong at this point out of 80, let's pray I got lucky and not too many more than that ---

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

Re: Good luck

Post by physicsworks » Sun Oct 16, 2011 7:33 am

What did you find difficult in this test, guys? Was it like GR0877 or not?

Hellas
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:55 am

Re: Good luck

Post by Hellas » Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:58 am

i also found it difficult. mostly because there were less conceptual questions than usual and the questions that needed work to solve took a lot of time. i think i answered around 72-75 questions and had to use educated guesses for the last couple since time ran out. was it just me or where the quantum questions harder than usual?

Hausdorff
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2010 3:40 am

Re: Good luck

Post by Hausdorff » Sun Oct 16, 2011 3:04 pm

I couldn't even read the last 4 questions, so I did not have time to go back and work on the ones I skipped. I have 14 unanswered questions in total. I think this is because some of the questions were really time consuming and I got really tired at the end of the exam and I unconsciously slowed down.

fayez0
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:58 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by fayez0 » Sun Oct 16, 2011 4:58 pm

I totally agree with what is said, the problems were long, a lot of solving and less conceptual problems. I think that that degree of difficulty is comparable to 08 exam. I don't think that the exam as a whole was super hard, but it was super long, so I couldn't answer some problems I knew how to solve because I couldn't have time, what worries me is that I had to work fast and I am afraid that I made some stupid mistakes due to hastiness (I found one error like that after the exam).

At any rate, what matters is the percentile, so if it was long then it was long for everyone, so maybe a lower raw score might get a decent scaled score. Best of luck everyone

Bonhomme219
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 5:52 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by Bonhomme219 » Sun Oct 16, 2011 5:54 pm

Just to clarify, did everyone who took the test on october 15th take the same test?

newbinator
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:33 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by newbinator » Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:40 pm

Yeah, everyone who takes it on the same day has the same test.

It was definitely long, but I didn't find it too difficult in any subject. I actually found it closer to the tests on physicsgreprep.com than to the old ones from ETS, probably because they based it off the test they took last year, and I think ETS reused a few questions.
I skipped like 18 questions, sometimes the calculations just wouldn't work out right and I wasted like 3 min on one problem. :x I got to skim the last four, but didn't have a chance to do them, they all seemed lengthy.

So now we play the waiting game...

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quizivex
Posts: 1031
Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:13 am

Re: Good luck

Post by quizivex » Sun Oct 16, 2011 10:08 pm

newbinator wrote:Yeah, everyone who takes it on the same day has the same test.
Wrong. Past discussions have confirmed that there are multiple versions of the test given each test day.

Otherwise, welcome to the forum :D

fayez0
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:58 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by fayez0 » Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:17 pm

newbinator wrote:
Yeah, everyone who takes it on the same day has the same test.
Wrong. Past discussions have confirmed that there are multiple versions of the test given each test day.

Otherwise, welcome to the forum :D

I think that it was the same form, I verified that with one friend, just to make sure, there was commutator problem of Jx, Jy and Jz, has everyone got that?

ferrarml
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:42 am

Re: Good luck

Post by ferrarml » Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:49 am

I wrote the test at 9am in Paris on Saturday morning, which is approximately 6-9 hours ahead of Canada and the U.S. so I will second that there MUST be different tests given out the same day.

I think content-wise the level of difficulty was well represented in the practice tests. Time constraints were my biggest issue... Some questions were really long

newbinator
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:33 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by newbinator » Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:46 pm

Ahhh very true. I didn't really think about it... Has anyone established exactly how different the tests are?

Also, thinking about the possibility of cheating via timezone, there was a kid in my room who finished his test in less than an hour...I was on question 40 and he handed his test in and left. I thought he was either a speed reading genius or he had no clue... anybody else see that? Or any other interesting happenings?
fayez0 wrote:Otherwise, welcome to the forum
Thanks!

lsaldana
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2010 6:08 am

Re: Good luck

Post by lsaldana » Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:42 pm

It was definitely easier than what I expected it to be. I had to do lots of approximations for the numerical problems however but most of the time my answers were exact and they were there as one of the choices :D. I've decided not to retake it and probably will cancel the November one, although I'll probably hold off on this until I've talked to some more classmates. I feel that taking the 0877 test the night before helped me a lot in preparation. I did not answer all the questions but felt pretty comfortable with the ones I did answer....but who knows, I might just be tricking myself mentally after all....

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Skullgrid
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2010 6:50 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by Skullgrid » Thu Oct 20, 2011 1:27 am

I thought that it was much harder than the 08 test, which didn't give me any trouble. In the practice tests I had no problem getting through the entire thing with time left over while only omitting 3 or 4 questions, but last week I was only to question 80 when they announced 20 minutes remaining, and I ended up omitting 20 questions in all.

AriAstronomer
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 4:53 pm

Re: Good luck

Post by AriAstronomer » Sun Oct 23, 2011 12:02 pm

I really have no idea how to feel about it. Overall I felt the distribution of tough problems and easier problems were about the same as 08, I would expect that 85 correct answers = 990 or around there. I did feel very rushed for time, I think I was on question 80 also when they announced 20 minutes remaining. I find though always with these tests is the number of stupid mistakes you make due to being rushed for time. Some people are good with things like that, but for me personally I find in all the practice tests I always get around 7-10 wrong that I would have gotten right if I had more time per question.

Any idea why they said 6 weeks to get scores back??? It's all MC.... I thought there would be some sort of turnover time, but like...couldn't they technically give you your raw score as soon as you walk out the door?

Ari

lsaldana
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2010 6:08 am

Re: Good luck

Post by lsaldana » Sun Oct 23, 2011 2:20 pm

I think I was on question 75 when they called 20 min. Had to rush through the remaining ones and see which ones I could answer quickly. For that reason I skipped a lot towards the end. About the scores, they were done on scantron so unless the proctors went and got them scanned and returned to the room to tell you your score I don't see why they would give your raw score right away.



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