Oct 2012 PGRE test takers

[johnhero2010]

can anyone who took the test tell me which exam does it resemble so much?....and are the questions more trickier than the 5 official exams or in the same level?......thx in advance

[Izaac]

The questions looked about the same than the last (2008, is it?) exam available.
There was some hell of useless questions, though, like the one that require to know which law is Newton's third (I mean, WHAT SCIENTIST ON EARTH bothers remembering if F=ma is the first or the third???).
No tricky question to my opinion, but I don't exclude the idea of getting a ~400 score because I missed the point in half of the questions.

[Tom Joad]

Those of us that took the April 2012 test all agreed that the one on Saturday was more difficult, which I believe was due to the fact that the problems were more tricky and less straight forward, and also requiring more random knowledge. I would say it was most similar to 2008 of course, but possibly harder.

[randomnick7]

What? I don't remember the question about the name of Newton's law...did we all take the same test?

[blighter]

What? I don't remember the question about the name of Newton's law...did we all take the same test? I found it really similar to 0877, do you think 990 is around ~80 raw?

I reckon it's a different test at different places. Otherwise how would they account for the time difference?

[Tom Joad]

What? I don't remember the question about the name of Newton's law...did we all take the same test? I found it really similar to 0877, do you think 990 is around ~80 raw?

I'd say probably closer to 85, judging by recent (though self-reported) raw sores, though if we had different tests that may vary. For instance on the 2008 test a 990 was an 82, but that was the hardest of the three different forms administered in that year.

[Skullgrid]

I thought it was a bit harder than the 2008 test. I expect (hope) that 990 will be between 80 and 82 raw points.

[mahima]

please shed some light on how was the oct 2012 exam? I am taking the test in NOV. IS nov test will come similar to the oct one?

[Tom Joad]

please shed some light on how was the oct 2012 exam? I am taking the test in NOV. IS nov test will come similar to the oct one?

We have no way of knowing how similar the November test will be, but considering the large number of people who register for both I'd think that the ETS would try to make them as different as possible.

[fizzax]

I took the 2012 Oct test and the 2012 April test and I think the October test was easier. I also think it was much easier than any of the practice tests. It did have some random topics including some that definitely seemed more like a chemistry question, but most of them seemed to be short simple questions. If I had to take a guess at the raw score for a 990 it would probably be in the high 80s.

[Izaac]

There was indeed a question on the chemical bond of salt (in my test), but as you said that was simple, by POE you could easily reduce it to a two-ish choice.

IS nov test will come similar to the oct one?

Ask Marie Simpson: http://www.mariesimpson.com/

By the way, even though the test's difficulty looks to depend on the test center, I still maintain that what I saw this Saturday was FAR EASIER than the mock test proposed by the MIT guys.

[johnhero2010]

Ask Marie Simpson: http://www.mariesimpson.com/

LOL

[Tom Joad]

By the way, even though the test's difficulty looks to depend on the test center, I still maintain that what I saw this Saturday was FAR EASIER than the mock test proposed by the MIT guys.

The best preparation material other than the released ETS sample tests for me turned out to be the Physics Olympiad FNET=MA exams. Some questions directly helped me on the real thing and others just helped to show me that I wasn't as great at the fundamentals as I thought. It would have been even better if they had an E&M counterpart to that test.

[Thedarksoul]

i think the test was hard. i got 900 on a previous test and i repeated the test to get 990. but i did alot of stupid mistakes and i think alot of questions are so generic. i think i will get raw score of 60 and i dont know if there is a chance that i will get above 900 for raw score of 60. this is not possible right?

[randomnick7]

Ionic bond...now I am sure we took different tests. Does anyone have an idea how they distribute exams according to time zones?

[Skullgrid]

i think the test was hard. i got 900 on a previous test and i repeated the test to get 990. but i did alot of stupid mistakes and i think alot of questions are so generic. i think i will get raw score of 60 and i dont know if there is a chance that i will get above 900 for raw score of 60. this is not possible right?

I seriously doubt that a raw 60 would scale to anything above an 800 (and even that seems generous).

[janisper116]

Waiting for my score is driving me crazy. They better come early.

[Tom Joad]

Waiting for my score is driving me crazy. They better come early.

Seriously. Though we may be lucky in that ETS claims that the online scores and phone scores will be available on the same day this year. I wonder if we can trust them.....

[janisper116]

Waiting for my score is driving me crazy. They better come early.

Seriously. Though we may be lucky in that ETS claims that the online scores and phone scores will be available on the same day this year. I wonder if we can trust them.....

Eh it's probably true if they said it. I'm sure people calling in for scores is pretty profitable for them (or was if what you say is true). They wouldn't want to endanger their profits.

[janisper116]

So anyone get their October score yet? What is with the online score thing still being down? I tried calling for my score but it didn't work.

[dau]

So anyone get their October score yet? What is with the online score thing still being down? I tried calling for my score but it didn't work.

Today I was able to see my October score online.

[janisper116]

So anyone get their October score yet? What is with the online score thing still being down? I tried calling for my score but it didn't work.

Today I was able to see my October score online.

Thanks, there was a problem with my account.

Well I got an 800. I was shooting for mid 800s but I guess this will do.