Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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FreddieBiddleBooty
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Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 5:38 pm

Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by FreddieBiddleBooty » Sat Oct 28, 2017 6:21 pm

I really wasn't expecting the test to be that hard. I have taken every practice test available, even the Princeton one, and made decent scores on all, even with time remaining on some of them. But the test today I had to guess on at least 20 problems just due to time constraint. I didn't see myself solving most of the last half of the test questions in under 3 minutes.

Anyone else take the exam today? How did you feel? I am afraid to get my score... sent it automatically to 4 of my schools I'm applying to since I felt confident beforehand :shock:

DDswife
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Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 5:29 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by DDswife » Sat Oct 28, 2017 6:40 pm

You can stop your scores, I think. And there is anither thread on that. People are commenting on it

FreddieBiddleBooty
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Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by FreddieBiddleBooty » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:08 pm

Hmm I thought you could not stop it! Do you have a reference for the thread? Thanks!

Tianma799
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 1:29 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by Tianma799 » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:22 pm

FreddieBiddleBooty wrote:Hmm I thought you could not stop it! Do you have a reference for the thread? Thanks!
http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3876

Surprised that somebody actually thinks that this one is easier. I guess the Oct one and the Sept one have totally different tastes so somebody else might prefer the Oct one :?

Tianma799
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Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 1:29 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by Tianma799 » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:24 pm

By the way I saw your post in the applicant profile thread, how would you compare the one from 2015 with the current one?

FreddieBiddleBooty
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Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 5:38 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by FreddieBiddleBooty » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:30 pm

I wish I remembered more about the 2015 test. I will say that I thought I'd done better than I actually did on that one. And I was an undergraduate. I'm a master's student now and am doing quite well in grad school. So I felt even better prepared. I even teach calculus I and II at my school. But boy that test surprised me. I would bet the 2015 one was a lot easier, and if it were the same test I'd feel a lot better. But i can't remember...

lambert
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Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by lambert » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:36 pm

Tianma799 wrote:
FreddieBiddleBooty wrote:Hmm I thought you could not stop it! Do you have a reference for the thread? Thanks!
http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3876

Surprised that somebody actually thinks that this one is easier. I guess the Oct one and the Sept one have totally different tastes so somebody else might prefer the Oct one :?
Two people thought the test was easier ... one of them got 31% on the September one and the other one 13% on a *practice* exam.

Yeah I'd rather wait for the receipts (i.e. posted scores) on that one.

Tianma799
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 1:29 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by Tianma799 » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:56 pm

FreddieBiddleBooty wrote:I wish I remembered more about the 2015 test. I will say that I thought I'd done better than I actually did on that one. And I was an undergraduate. I'm a master's student now and am doing quite well in grad school. So I felt even better prepared. I even teach calculus I and II at my school. But boy that test surprised me. I would bet the 2015 one was a lot easier, and if it were the same test I'd feel a lot better. But i can't remember...
Well if you do well on your grad classes then it should be better than my situation. I am taking grad classes now and am not doing well(skipped some prerequisites to take more advanced classes) :(

Tianma799
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Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by Tianma799 » Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:04 pm

lambert wrote:
Tianma799 wrote:
FreddieBiddleBooty wrote:Hmm I thought you could not stop it! Do you have a reference for the thread? Thanks!
http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3876

Surprised that somebody actually thinks that this one is easier. I guess the Oct one and the Sept one have totally different tastes so somebody else might prefer the Oct one :?
Two people thought the test was easier ... one of them got 31% on the September one and the other one 13% on a *practice* exam.

Yeah I'd rather wait for the receipts (i.e. posted scores) on that one.
Well yeah since you can guess the answers now, it's hard to say :D

DDswife
Posts: 161
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 5:29 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by DDswife » Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:33 pm

I makes sens to think that, since you can guess without penalty, the test should be hard.

Not sure if you can stop the results. But call them on Momday, and find out.

FreddieBiddleBooty
Posts: 120
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Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by FreddieBiddleBooty » Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:40 pm

DDswife wrote:I makes sens to think that, since you can guess without penalty, the test should be hard.

Not sure if you can stop the results. But call them on Momday, and find out.
Yes this is what I was thinking too. Since there is no penalty for guessing, I'm thinking the test is made harder.

spijuank
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Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by spijuank » Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:16 am

The exam was definitely harder than the practice ones, at least in the sense that it was a LOT stricter on time. It sucks because time pressure can cause silly mistakes and make you seem weaker than you actually are.

stevemath
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Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2017 10:51 am

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by stevemath » Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:05 am

I left a few MCs blank as I was not sure about the correct answers, and moreover, I did not know there is now the new grading system (no penalty applied to incorrect answers) BEFORE the test. :cry:
I am now pretty worried about whether there would be an inflation in the raw score and hence an inflation in the scaled score after the new system implemented. Does anyone, especially for those who took the September test and received their results, know how is the effect of that after the new system implemented? For example, what raw score does one need to get a 800 or 850? Thanks!

DDswife
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Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by DDswife » Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:28 am

What is MC?

stevemath
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Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by stevemath » Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:36 am

DDswife wrote:What is MC?
MC= multiple choice. I just meant I left a few answers blank just because I did not know there is no penalty applied to incorrect answers.

DDswife
Posts: 161
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 5:29 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by DDswife » Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:47 am

I understood the rest. Now you can’t change that.

About time pressure, it’s the same for everybody, and this exam compares people. So, don’t worry about that. Probably everybody made more mistakes than in a normal situation.

Tianma799
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 1:29 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by Tianma799 » Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:40 pm

stevemath wrote:I left a few MCs blank as I was not sure about the correct answers, and moreover, I did not know there is now the new grading system (no penalty applied to incorrect answers) BEFORE the test. :cry:
I am now pretty worried about whether there would be an inflation in the raw score and hence an inflation in the scaled score after the new system implemented. Does anyone, especially for those who took the September test and received their results, know how is the effect of that after the new system implemented? For example, what raw score does one need to get a 800 or 850? Thanks!
I still don't know how ETS scales the scores actually…But if guessing without penalty, naturally the scores will be higher then how you actually did. But as people commented above, the test was made harder(I even felt the supposed to be easy questions took lots of time to compute), so it's a mystery…

FreddieBiddleBooty
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 5:38 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by FreddieBiddleBooty » Sun Oct 29, 2017 2:38 pm

Tianma799 wrote:
FreddieBiddleBooty wrote:I wish I remembered more about the 2015 test. I will say that I thought I'd done better than I actually did on that one. And I was an undergraduate. I'm a master's student now and am doing quite well in grad school. So I felt even better prepared. I even teach calculus I and II at my school. But boy that test surprised me. I would bet the 2015 one was a lot easier, and if it were the same test I'd feel a lot better. But i can't remember...
Well if you do well on your grad classes then it should be better than my situation. I am taking grad classes now and am not doing well(skipped some prerequisites to take more advanced classes) :(
If your rec letters and research are good you may be just fine!

math_hopeful
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Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2017 1:21 am

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by math_hopeful » Tue Oct 31, 2017 3:55 pm

I took the October test and I definitely agree that it was very difficult... I got a 790 in September and I think that may be my highest score, since I definitely did not do as well on the October test (too busy with school to study for it). I'm a little worried, since another post on this forum says that the vast majority of people accepted to a top 5 program have scores over 800. Will a 790 affect me negatively for the top programs? I have a 3.8 Math GPA at a non-HYP Ivy, and the dream is to be accepted to a top 5 program. Am I still competitive?

kishady
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Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:26 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by kishady » Wed Nov 01, 2017 12:45 pm

I took the September test while I was sick, the exam itself was much harder and I felt like there was no way for me to do it in time. Retaking it in October I still felt like it was about the same level of difficulty, but as I was feeling much better and was expecting it, it went much more smoothly. However, to those who are worried about their scores because they were surprised this time, I can tell that the percentages shift accordingly. You can still mess up quite a bit and get a score above 750.

Junaid456
Posts: 188
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: Today's Math GRE was unexpectedly difficult. Anyone feel the same?

Post by Junaid456 » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:57 pm

kishady wrote:I took the September test while I was sick, the exam itself was much harder and I felt like there was no way for me to do it in time. Retaking it in October I still felt like it was about the same level of difficulty, but as I was feeling much better and was expecting it, it went much more smoothly. However, to those who are worried about their scores because they were surprised this time, I can tell that the percentages shift accordingly. You can still mess up quite a bit and get a score above 750.
Hi kishady,

I assume you know a bit about the recent percentiles that are being dished out. I didn't perform well under time pressure, and I got questions wrong in each subject area that is tested. I know I have about 21-22 wrong, and I am hope I have not a lot of other questions wrong as well. At best, I'll get between 40 and 46. What can I expect? Any ideas?



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