Our day of reckoning...

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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

Our day of reckoning...

Post by grae313 » Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:57 am

... has arrived! (Well, at least for some of us, the rest of you already had yours :wink: )

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Bosh
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 7:49 am

Post by Bosh » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:10 am

Is the test the same worldwide? I took it in South Africa this morning and was wondering about a couple of the questions...

Bosh
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 7:49 am

Post by Bosh » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:34 am

Was the first question a graph w/ constant acceleration and asking which velocity graphs could fit the situation?

bookworm
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:34 pm

Post by bookworm » Sat Nov 03, 2007 12:06 pm

Yes! So it was probably the same... I took it in Greece this morning... How did you do? I think I did ok but when I came home I remembered that I did a foolish mistake in a couple of questions and now I worry...

User avatar
twistor
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:47 pm

<sigh>

Post by twistor » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:18 pm

I took it today. I know I made a few stupid mistakes, but overall I think I did pretty well. I was able to narrow down many of the questions to one plausible answer through deduction alone, and some of the questions I even knew without doing any work at all. Overall, I thought it was easier than the practice tests. The real day of reckoning comes in 6 weeks....

User avatar
twistor
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:47 pm

Post by twistor » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:21 pm

I took it in the US and I don't recall any velocity graphs.

selfadjoint
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 3:15 pm

Post by selfadjoint » Sat Nov 03, 2007 7:00 pm

I thing its difficulty is somehow around the 9277 test. So a raw score of 65 will get a grade around 900 ı think.


Yes the beginning part of the test is easy but the last questions (espcially 80 - 100) are difficult

But certainly these are all guesses and as twistor says

"The real day of reckoning comes in 6 weeks...."

User avatar
twistor
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:47 pm

Post by twistor » Sat Nov 03, 2007 7:22 pm

Honestly I can say I gave up my hopes of a 990 a long time ago. Now I'm just going for "sufficient", i.e. whatever gets me in (about 700, fingers crossed...)

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

Post by grae313 » Sat Nov 03, 2007 8:05 pm

A couple of my classmates and I all took it in the same room, and we each had different tests numbers (1-4, the last digit of the serial number), so it seems there are definitely a few version of the tests being given, or perhaps they just have the same questions mixed up in different orders. I thought it was similar to 0177, if not a bit easier. Anyways, I'm glad it's over!

dunecastle
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:50 am

i took the test in Aisa

Post by dunecastle » Sun Nov 04, 2007 12:43 am

12 hours earlier than people in North America,
the first problem, i recalled, is to ask if a object is in eqiulibiruim of outer force,
what property does it have?

Overall, I think the test is similar to 0177, maybe it requires to correctly response over 70 questions to get higher than 90%

seba240698
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:04 am

One of the test questions

Post by seba240698 » Sun Nov 04, 2007 3:03 am

There is a question on electrodynamics which seemed so easy yet so difficult, the question went something like this:

2 parallel wires with current flowing in the same direction. What can you say about the wires?

a) the wire attract each other,
b) the wires repel each other
c) the magnetic filed produced by the two wires are equal at the midway between the wres
d) there is no magnetic field midway between the 2 wores
e)

It looks like options b, c and d are all correct?

Anyone has attempted this question and can share with me the answer?

dunecastle
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:50 am

Post by dunecastle » Sun Nov 04, 2007 3:17 am

@seba240698
i could not agree with you, b,c,d are all wrong answer, and a is correct
the two wire with parallel currents attract each other, and since the magnetic field they generate is symmetric, the midway field has an opposite direction, but since you do not know whether the currents are equal, there may exist a magnetic field in the midway

selfadjoint
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 3:15 pm

Post by selfadjoint » Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:57 am

There was a question like there are 12 particles in one part of a divedided into two equal parts

Will the answer be something like 12*k*ln 2 or 24*k*ln 2 Confused

Edit :

Yes the question is about the entropy, the problem is that I and my girllfrend understand the question in different ways (This is because we only have 1.7 minutes to read understand and answer the questions it seems like at least one of us understand the question in the wrong way).

I understand that there is a box separated into two parts by a wall one part is empty and there are 12 particles in the other side. Then the middle wall is removed. And the question is that “what is the change in the entropy?”

My girlfriend understood that; there are 12 particles in both sides of the wall so there are 24 particles (12 at one side 12 at other side). Then the wall separating them is removed and the question is that “what is the change in the entropy?”

I found 12 ln 2 as the answer and my girlfriend found 24 ln 2. And we wonder which one is correct?
Last edited by selfadjoint on Sun Nov 04, 2007 10:27 am, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
twistor
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:47 pm

Post by twistor » Sun Nov 04, 2007 9:32 am

The answer to that depends on what the question was asking. If it's something about the entropy, then yes it will most likely involve a ln 2.

User avatar
twistor
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:47 pm

Post by twistor » Sun Nov 04, 2007 9:37 am

If I could do it again, there would definately be questions I would choose not to answer. I realized soon after what my mistakes were :\

GRE testing goes against everything we learn. If you cannot give a thoughtful answer to a problem then what is the point? I don't feel this test has in any way measured my ability to do physics, but rather my ability to scribble formulas in margins or even my ability to judge gambling scenerios!

Statement of the obvious: real physics cannot be done in 1.7 minutes.



Post Reply