mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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MMDE
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mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by MMDE » Fri Sep 14, 2018 11:41 am

Who else is taking the exam tomorrow? Good luck to everyone that is!

Aramark
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by Aramark » Fri Sep 14, 2018 5:27 pm

I am. Thank you for the well wishes, and good luck to you and everyone else taking the exam! :)

DDswife
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by DDswife » Fri Sep 14, 2018 8:43 pm

I am not, but good luck. Come back and tell us how it went

superballzach
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by superballzach » Sat Sep 15, 2018 12:45 pm

Just finished, the second half of the test was rough. Feel decent about the first half though.

oleander314
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Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2018 1:01 pm

Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by oleander314 » Sat Sep 15, 2018 1:03 pm

I thought it was a lot easier than the online practice tests. The second half had many questions I was unsure about, but I thought the first was all right! I felt as though I had a handle on half of the questions.

MMDE
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by MMDE » Sat Sep 15, 2018 1:13 pm

I thought it was pretty difficult. Without going into detail, it was lot more obscure (in terms of topics and problems) than I expected, and didn't have many of the concepts which have appeared on every practice exam I've taken.

Aramark
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Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:36 pm

Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by Aramark » Sat Sep 15, 2018 2:22 pm

I feel very shaky about it. Could've gone well but my studying was not optimized toward it at all and certain types of questions just kinda boned me.

djysyed
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by djysyed » Sat Sep 15, 2018 2:29 pm

It's sad how the issue is just not knowing the topic and not that the problem was too hard. That said, some of the calculus problems were pretty tough.
On a side note, there were some questions i've seen before because I took it a couple years ago.

MMDE
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by MMDE » Sat Sep 15, 2018 3:31 pm

djysyed wrote:It's sad how the issue is just not knowing the topic and not that the problem was too hard. That said, some of the calculus problems were pretty tough.
On a side note, there were some questions i've seen before because I took it a couple years ago.
I agree with this completely. I think the exam certainly didn't follow the 50-25-25 breakdown that is often cited. Oh well, time to spend the next month intensely studying for the October exam. I hope this doesn't kill my chance for a top 20 school.

oopsie
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by oopsie » Sat Sep 15, 2018 5:35 pm

I think I did poorly... How well do people normally do the first time they take it? I probably guessed on at least a third of the questions.

blahquaker
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by blahquaker » Sat Sep 15, 2018 8:54 pm

second time for me. I managed my time much better, but that also means that I just abandoned some questions because I knew they would take me more than 3 minutes to properly derive. quick estimation and move on.

I don't know if it was harder than last time, but it was a completely different test that what I had prepared for - the types of questions (and number thereof) just felt completely different.

FtYoU
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by FtYoU » Sat Sep 15, 2018 9:03 pm

I took it today as well as in april. Here are my thoughts :

- Multiple questions were really computationally time consuming unless there was a trick ( which I didn't see )
- One question was the exact same as the test in april.
- Last few questions were downright not possible unless we had solid knowledge on the topic ( guessing is impossible here )
- Lot of convoluted questions, the problem was posed in a weird manner which render it unnecessary hard ( I mean it's done on purpose )

After taking all practices test available online, going through texbooks and online courses I feel like all subjects are not foreign but definitely didn't have time.
20 min before the end I was on the question 55 ( wild guessing appeared afterwards ).

On the other hand the test in april was much much easier in my opinion.

yaskhn3
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by yaskhn3 » Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:40 am

Is there a way to access the April'18 or earlier question papers? I have my mGRE on Oct 27

ponchan
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by ponchan » Sun Sep 16, 2018 11:11 am

FtYoU wrote:I took it today as well as in april. Here are my thoughts :

- Multiple questions were really computationally time consuming unless there was a trick ( which I didn't see )
- One question was the exact same as the test in april.
- Last few questions were downright not possible unless we had solid knowledge on the topic ( guessing is impossible here )
- Lot of convoluted questions, the problem was posed in a weird manner which render it unnecessary hard ( I mean it's done on purpose )

After taking all practices test available online, going through texbooks and online courses I feel like all subjects are not foreign but definitely didn't have time.
20 min before the end I was on the question 55 ( wild guessing appeared afterwards ).

On the other hand the test in april was much much easier in my opinion.
What would you have done differently to prepare for this one?

djysyed
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by djysyed » Sun Sep 16, 2018 12:29 pm

yaskhn3 wrote:Is there a way to access the April'18 or earlier question papers? I have my mGRE on Oct 27
Considering how many questions were repeated from previous GREs, I doubt they put up any tests after 2015.

FtYoU
Posts: 24
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by FtYoU » Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:49 pm

ponchan wrote:
FtYoU wrote:I took it today as well as in april. Here are my thoughts :

- Multiple questions were really computationally time consuming unless there was a trick ( which I didn't see )
- One question was the exact same as the test in april.
- Last few questions were downright not possible unless we had solid knowledge on the topic ( guessing is impossible here )
- Lot of convoluted questions, the problem was posed in a weird manner which render it unnecessary hard ( I mean it's done on purpose )

After taking all practices test available online, going through texbooks and online courses I feel like all subjects are not foreign but definitely didn't have time.
20 min before the end I was on the question 55 ( wild guessing appeared afterwards ).

On the other hand the test in april was much much easier in my opinion.
What would you have done differently to prepare for this one?
I will be taking the test in October as well. I remember a few question for this tests that I am working out at home now. Some of them were easy, some I'm still struggling.

- First thing is to work out the remaining problems I remember and understand why I didn't manage them during the test.
- Most important thing I will do is probably abandon a question that I don't know how to tackle right away, I lost valuable time on some question to finish with no answer ….
- I will train with time constraint from now on.
- Manage stress better ? 2:50 min is a long time, but under the GRE math umbrella, it flies so fast.
- Maybe it's important to have some time anchor ( maybe looking at the clock and if after 30 min elapsed you didn't reach a specific number of questions you'll know to go faster or take more time ) I will certainly have 30 min anchor points to memorize if that makes sense.

Last test in October certainly put additional anxiety ( I need an excellent score because I'm not a native English speaker ).

ponchan
Posts: 126
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by ponchan » Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:01 pm

I am also planning on taking it in October. Did you feel like there were certain topics you didn't expect to be on it?

FtYoU
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by FtYoU » Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:18 pm

ponchan wrote:I am also planning on taking it in October. Did you feel like there were certain topics you didn't expect to be on it?
Yes.
- Normal subgroups ( last question ) I will be reading much more on this for sure.
- I didn't know what a certain word meant ( turned out to be a very easy geometric shape that I just didn't know the English name …. )

Anectode : I was pretty happy 3/4 questions were combinatorics/probability as I have a Machine learning / probability backgroud

ponchan
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by ponchan » Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:37 pm

Are you saying that 3 out of 4 questions were on probability/combinatorics? Probability and combinatorics fall in the "other" category of the test, and there are usually no more that 7 or so.

FtYoU
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by FtYoU » Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:51 pm

ponchan wrote:Are you saying that 3 out of 4 questions were on probability/combinatorics? Probability and combinatorics fall in the "other" category of the test, and there are usually no more that 7 or so.
yes usually I see only one question on proba and maybe one on combinatorics, but this test contained more.

ponchan
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by ponchan » Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:54 pm

yes, but are you saying the test contained 3 or four such questions, or that 75% of the questions on the test were prob/combinatorics?

djysyed
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by djysyed » Sun Sep 16, 2018 5:58 pm

It was like 3 or 4 I think

ponchan
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by ponchan » Sun Sep 16, 2018 6:05 pm

Oh ok. If 75% of the test conisted of an "other" topic, that would be insane and worthy of a protest.

FtYoU
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by FtYoU » Sun Sep 16, 2018 6:19 pm

Sorry for the confusion, yes I meant 3 or 4 questions were on proba/combi ( I was expecting 0 to 1 )

Spatulaman
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by Spatulaman » Sun Sep 16, 2018 6:24 pm

Anyone get the sin(100x)/sin(x) one? Can’t even work this out at home

blahquaker
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by blahquaker » Sun Sep 16, 2018 6:38 pm

We're not supposed to discuss individual questions.

djysyed
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by djysyed » Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:17 pm

Spatulaman wrote:Anyone get the sin(100x)/sin(x) one? Can’t even work this out at home
Did we all get the same exam? I don't remember this question. Either way, we're not supposed to discuss any specific questions.

Spatulaman
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by Spatulaman » Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:19 pm

djysyed wrote:
Spatulaman wrote:Anyone get the sin(100x)/sin(x) one? Can’t even work this out at home
Did we all get the same exam? I don't remember this question. Either way, we're not supposed to discuss any specific questions.
Interesting, I would’ve thought we all got same exam. You’d definitely recognize it based on above. I didn’t know they varied exams.

FtYoU
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by FtYoU » Sun Sep 16, 2018 11:28 pm

Spatulaman wrote:
djysyed wrote:
Spatulaman wrote:Anyone get the sin(100x)/sin(x) one? Can’t even work this out at home
Did we all get the same exam? I don't remember this question. Either way, we're not supposed to discuss any specific questions.
Interesting, I would’ve thought we all got same exam. You’d definitely recognize it based on above. I didn’t know they varied exams.
I definitely don't recognize this question.

nicorobin22
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by nicorobin22 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:42 am

I definitely don't recognize this question.
I also don't recognize this question.
By the way, I also took the GRE math test on Sep 2018 and plan to take the October test as well. Anyone wanna form a small group to prepare for the October test?

yaskhn3
Posts: 149
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by yaskhn3 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:06 am

nicorobin22 wrote:
I definitely don't recognize this question.
I also don't recognize this question.
By the way, I also took the GRE math test on Sep 2018 and plan to take the October test as well. Anyone wanna form a small group to prepare for the October test?
I have already formed one such WhatsApp group. The group has about 10 members as of now. If anyone's interested, they can join by following this link

https://chat.whatsapp.com/3DKr5d9fDxUKuCQx7iwxh3

BCLC
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by BCLC » Mon Sep 17, 2018 5:04 am

What's the topology coverage of your exam? I mean, is there anything there past compactness and connectedness eg metrisation (I'm referring to Munkres Topology)? http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4552

rlightec
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by rlightec » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:06 am

Spatulaman wrote:Anyone get the sin(100x)/sin(x) one? Can’t even work this out at home
I had this question when I took the exam 2 years ago. They like to use same questions. And yes, even the people who are taking the exam in the same room may not get the same exam.

FtYoU
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by FtYoU » Mon Sep 17, 2018 5:16 pm

BCLC wrote:What's the topology coverage of your exam? I mean, is there anything there past compactness and connectedness eg metrisation (I'm referring to Munkres Topology)? http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4552
My exam was quite poor in topology. I don't even remember having one question dealing with it.

BCLC
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by BCLC » Sat Sep 22, 2018 5:19 pm

FtYoU wrote:
BCLC wrote:What's the topology coverage of your exam? I mean, is there anything there past compactness and connectedness eg metrisation (I'm referring to Munkres Topology)? http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4552
My exam was quite poor in topology. I don't even remember having one question dealing with it.
Thanks! But it did have basic topology that you take in elementary real analysis namely the ones involving supremum, infimum, open/closed (in standard/order topology in R of course), etc?

djysyed
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by djysyed » Sat Sep 22, 2018 5:59 pm

BCLC wrote:
FtYoU wrote:
BCLC wrote:What's the topology coverage of your exam? I mean, is there anything there past compactness and connectedness eg metrisation (I'm referring to Munkres Topology)? http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4552
My exam was quite poor in topology. I don't even remember having one question dealing with it.
Thanks! But it did have basic topology that you take in elementary real analysis namely the ones involving supremum, infimum, open/closed (in standard/order topology in R of course), etc?
Baby Rudin's chapter on Metric Space Topology honestly covers most of the topology questions that come up on the MGRE

Edit: Our whatsapp group chat is fairly active and we have about 17 people so far. People of all areas of interest (Stats, Algebra/Algebraic Geometry, Topology, Number Theory) are on there.

FtYoU
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by FtYoU » Mon Sep 24, 2018 6:43 pm

BCLC wrote:
FtYoU wrote:
BCLC wrote:What's the topology coverage of your exam? I mean, is there anything there past compactness and connectedness eg metrisation (I'm referring to Munkres Topology)? http://www.mathematicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4552
My exam was quite poor in topology. I don't even remember having one question dealing with it.
Thanks! But it did have basic topology that you take in elementary real analysis namely the ones involving supremum, infimum, open/closed (in standard/order topology in R of course), etc?
No it didn't have any of that. it was really heavy on calculus. I have the feeling the topology question got replaced by proba/combinatorics.

BCLC
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Re: mGRE - September 2018 Exam

Post by BCLC » Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:37 am

Thanks!



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