GRE subject preparation questions

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
Post Reply
congvan
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:44 am

GRE subject preparation questions

Post by congvan » Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:53 am

I am preparing for the subject GRE this April. I have some questions.
1. Is the syllabus in "Cracking the GRE" enough? I mean the content of the questions, not the difficulties of the questions. Like all the definitions and theorems are enough?
2. If "Cracking the GRE" is not enough, could anyone tell specifically which part I should study more?
For example: for multivarialbe calculus part (calculus II), it does not say anything about triple integrals.
3. How close is the real GRE compared to the practice test from ETS website? By "close", I mean the difficulties and the syllabus. For example, same difficulties but real GRE covers more fields, or real GRE has more difficult problems (almost same syllabus)
4. I'll take it on April 10. When should I expect to get the result? by earliest mean (by phone?).

Thank you!

origin415
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:42 pm

Re: GRE subject preparation questions

Post by origin415 » Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:26 pm

I felt Cracking covered all the topics you needed. If you want to study beyond that, it would probably be useful to spend time going through the stuff covered additional topics section in greater detail, like get a textbook on abstract algebra and probability theory and complex analysis and such.

The GRE on the ETS website is a real GRE which was actually administered a couple of years ago, so it should be close (there are actually 4 real GREs in circulation, make sure you collect them all!). However, most people on this forum, myself included, feel that when they actually took it, it was much harder than what they had expected from those GREs. Not that the questions individually are harder, but there are simply more questions of the difficulty of the hardest questions on the old ones. Because of this, timing could be an issue, as if you are expecting a certain time per question from the practice GREs, you will be surprised on the real thing when it takes you longer to answer most questions. I would go so far as to suggest that you give yourself less time on the practice tests than you'll have on the GRE.

They will mail you the results about 6 weeks after you take the test, but you can call them and pay to get your scores like a week before that (which begs the question why they have your scores and aren't sending them, actually from the website debacle last year, we know that the tests are actually scored by about 2 weeks after the test is administered, for a short while if you checked the ETS website at that time, you could see your scores).


Good luck!

congvan
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:44 am

Re: GRE subject preparation questions

Post by congvan » Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:35 pm

Thanks for your reply! it's really helpful! So I think for now I'll stick with content of Cracking The GRE, and find and practice more difficult problems within time limit. When I feel more confident, I will cover more topics. Thanks again!

bobn
Posts: 61
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 2:59 am

Re: GRE subject preparation questions

Post by bobn » Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:10 am

PR book is very good, I got a few similar question from that book.
But if you want to score high, that book alone is not sufficient.
Incase you need book suggestions ping me back here



Post Reply