Difficulty of the recent mathematics GRE exams

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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Junaid456
Posts: 188
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2017 7:55 pm

Difficulty of the recent mathematics GRE exams

Post by Junaid456 » Mon Jul 17, 2017 4:14 pm

Hi,

I have read a lot of various thread on this website claiming that the GRE mathematics exam has become exceedingly difficult over the years. I have read similar comments posted on various other websites as well, for example, the document available at the link, http://www.bc.edu/clubs/bcms/GRE.pdf, goes as far as to claim that the official practice tests available are next to worthless.

However, I have been unable to find any resource that concretely substantiates this claim. Therefore, I'm hoping students who have taken the exam in the recent past could comment on this post to explain their experience with the exam, and how the exam has become difficult in terms of content, difficulty of questions etc. This way, I suppose, students who wish to take the exam in the near future will be able to better prepare for the exam.

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

Re: Difficulty of the recent mathematics GRE exams

Post by Tianma799 » Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:36 pm

You can't say they are worthless, the styles of the problems are still similar. But in terms of difficulties, I do think they become more and more difficult. How much more difficult depends on your preparation. For example the first time I took the exam, I prepared for 3 weeks, with less than an hour each day, and it turned out that the exam was utterly difficult for me. (And the exam room in NYU tandon was so crowded that really killed my mood. Like the guy next to me did a lot faster than me, which made me nervous...) If you worry that the practice exams are not on the same level with the real things, maybe you can try to restrict yourself to finish the exams in, say, 2 and a half hours... that should add some difficulties to the exams.



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