Everything about October 29, 2016 Physics GRE Exam

mhrazeghi58 · Post by **mhrazeghi58** » Mon Oct 24, 2016 10:06 am

Hello All,
Please write all your October 29 exam materials, including your plan and exam date experience in this topic. I hope all of you have a successful PGRE exam. Good luck!

xkcd0803 · Post by **xkcd0803** » Thu Oct 27, 2016 12:56 am

Feeling really nervous. Taking it for the first time. I also feel like I'm not fully prepared.

I'm doing those sample tests from Conquering PGRE! Those tests are difficult, man.
All the best to everyone.

ndrach · Post by **ndrach** » Fri Oct 28, 2016 5:43 pm

I've been out of school for 2 and a half years so I've spent pretty much the last year slowly reviewing all the basic material. Then spent about 2 months reading through Conquering the Physics GRE and doing all of the chapter problems. In the last 2 months before the exam I've focused on practice tests, taking the 3 from CtPGRE and 4 of the official exams (all except 1986). On the official exams I've scored 65% (1996), 71% (2001), 73% (2008), & 77% (1992). Im hoping to continue the trend and get >80% on the real thing but I'd be very happy with anything >75% and okay with anything >70%.

Good luck tomorrow everybody!

moon · Post by **moon** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 2:53 am

Good luck all!

mhrazeghi58 · Post by **mhrazeghi58** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 1:05 pm

Just came back from the exam. I guess question were a bit more difficult than the September test. I hope the 990 raw score is somewhere like 82+- 2 .

bharat1234 · Post by **bharat1234** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 1:47 pm

I think the questions were difficult and time taking too. I did around 70-76 questions ( can not even remember due to stress) but not sure, how many of them are correct. I left 8- 10 questions which I think I knew. They need more time to do calculation so I did not want to waste time to do those and keep doing other easier. I came back to do those questions but I did not have time. I prepared lot but

. Anything above 700

will be good as per my exam.

Frod · Post by **Frod** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 2:14 pm

It was a weird test...

With practice test I could tell after I finished if I did well or not, but with this one I can't. A decent percentage of questions where the only thing you could do is guess. Fortunately there were a lot of easy ones. I don't think I can get a score as high as I hoped, but, with a bit of luck, if the 990 cutoff is low enough and I didn't make many distraction error I can maybe hope for a decent score.

I don't know to be honest. I'm unsatisfied.

opelton · Post by **opelton** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 3:42 pm

Don't feel as good about this one as I did for Sept. one. Hmm.... we'll see ^^. I felt there were like 3 questions (involving Δλ) that were really similar and I felt all 3 would take too much time to calculate ... so I skipped them.

Congrats to everyone for finishing!!!

mmmquarks · Post by **mmmquarks** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 4:03 pm

Normally after the practice exams I have a decent sense of how I did. not so after this one. I thought this test was a very hard read - a lot of questions where it was straight facts where either I knew it or I didn't. I counted ~12 of those. Also a large number of questions that were very calculationally intense. I hate straightforward [deleted] problems and the one with the [deleted] was no different. Ugh.

Not really any great idea how I did, but here's to hoping we've all been successful!

prajita · Post by **prajita** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 4:09 pm

Well it was my first physics GRE and I feel like an idiot. I don't know if the test was hard or I am was not ready. Just hoping everyone did bad on this one LOL

Examined · Post by **Examined** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 5:17 pm

Definitely much harder than the September test. In particular, the [deleted]. The optics section was pretty brutal as well -- mainly the [deleted] questions; for some reason, I have the hardest time skipping these.

moon · Post by **moon** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 5:36 pm

Yeah, anyone remember that [deleted] question?

Seems like this one was pretty hard. I missed 28 questions, but I was very confident on the 72 that I answered, I estimate I got a 90% correct rate

HenryB · Post by **HenryB** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 6:45 pm

don't know what to say about the test.

The worst thing for me was i made stupid mistakes on few easier problems just because I got nervous from those trivia problems

mhrazeghi58 · Post by **mhrazeghi58** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:22 pm

Cut off for 990 for September i guess was around 88-89. For this one I hope it drops somewhere like 78-79. Hopefully!!!

opelton · Post by **opelton** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:56 pm

HenryB wrote:don't know what to say about the test.

The worst thing for me was i made stupid mistakes on few easier problems just because I got nervous from those trivia problems

exact same with me bud. Made some really, really dumb mistakes. Right after I got out and I wasn't under pressure, I could think of the answer no problem

Sounds like most of us are in the same boat though. My score could be within a range of +100 or -100 than what I expect... and I wouldn't be surprised. Thinking about it more and comparing it to other tests, it was indeed a very strange one.

opelton · Post by **opelton** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 7:56 pm

opelton wrote:
HenryB wrote:don't know what to say about the test.

The worst thing for me was i made stupid mistakes on few easier problems just because I got nervous from those trivia problems
exact same with me bud. Made some really, really dumb mistakes. Right after I got out and I wasn't under pressure, I could think of the answer no problem Sounds like most of us are in the same boat though. My score could be within a range of +100 or -100 from what I expect... and I wouldn't be surprised. Thinking about it more and comparing it to other tests, it was indeed a very strange one.

temporaryAccount · Post by **temporaryAccount** » Sat Oct 29, 2016 9:44 pm

I could do 88 questions but have serious doubts about how many are correct. I hope that I haven't made more than 20 mistakes.

The exam was difficult, I guess. I was just clueless about the questions I left unanswered.

xkcd0803 · Post by **xkcd0803** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 12:00 am

xkcd0803 wrote:Feeling really nervous. Taking it for the first time. I also feel like I'm not fully prepared.

I'm doing those sample tests from Conquering PGRE! Those tests are difficult, man.
All the best to everyone.

The real test was nothing like the tests I practiced, not difficult like Conquering sample tests but I was very confused by some seemingly simple questions. Some repeated questions from the released tests too.

Hoping for 65/70 raw score.

theladybug · Post by **theladybug** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 1:27 am

I felt like it was harder than September. I just didn't start out very strong, and that kind of threw me off, and then by about question ~90 I was strongly contemplating giving up, cancelling the score, and keeping my previous score, because I did pretty alright last month. But I powered through it, went back and answered a bunch of the ones I thought I couldn't, and ended up answering more than last time (about 94 as opposed to 89, though I know at least 3 I got wrong).

I feel like I felt less confident about many of them this time, though, so while I'm hoping I didn't manage to do *worse*, it's possible. But I've been obsessively googling the ones I can remember being unsure about and talking them over with my friends (who all think I'm crazy now, so...). Turns out I got a lot of the ones I was worried about right. So I guess my physics intuition has improved.

So between that and everyone else thinking it was harder, I'm glad I didn't give up and kept going up until time was called. Even though the guy next to me kept twirling his pencil and I could see it out of the corner of my eye and wanted to throw it out the window to make him stop.

Aikya1 · Post by **Aikya1** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 6:53 am

Had a chance to look at 82 odd, however I attempted only 68

Calculation-wise was a bit simple. Especially the mechanics section. Optics was a bit difficult.
With better preparation I could have proceeded much faster.
Easy questions, just disappointed with my personal efforts. (I am a computer science graduate, should have worked harder)

Being an international applicant, a likely score around 700+/-20 will do me no favors, I hope the Unis I applied to, are a bit lenient in reading from Physics GRE as I am applying to astrophysics specifically and not Physics.

Not my best day

bunnysid · Post by **bunnysid** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:37 am

Answered around 91. Made some silly errors. At the moment after trying to remember what I have done, I got 7 incorrect till now.

HenryB · Post by **HenryB** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 4:58 pm

mhrazeghi58 wrote:Cut off for 990 for September i guess was around 88-89. For this one I hope it drops somewhere like 78-79. Hopefully!!!

I hope so but I doubt it. Raw score 70s cut off -> ETS brings us back to 1980s/1990s

mmmquarks · Post by **mmmquarks** » Sun Oct 30, 2016 10:13 pm

HenryB wrote:
mhrazeghi58 wrote:Cut off for 990 for September i guess was around 88-89. For this one I hope it drops somewhere like 78-79. Hopefully!!!
I hope so but I doubt it. Raw score 70s cut off -> ETS brings us back to 1980s/1990s

Not quite. The most recent practice test released by ETS has a cutoff of raw 80 for 990 scaled score.

FisicaLatina · Post by **FisicaLatina** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 1:26 am

xkcd0803 wrote:
xkcd0803 wrote:Feeling really nervous. Taking it for the first time. I also feel like I'm not fully prepared.

I'm doing those sample tests from Conquering PGRE! Those tests are difficult, man.
All the best to everyone.

The real test was nothing like the tests I practiced, not difficult like Conquering sample tests but I was very confused by some seemingly simple questions. Some repeated questions from the released tests too.

Hoping for 65/70 raw score.

xkcd0803 which released tests did you use for practice?

xkcd0803 · Post by **xkcd0803** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 5:12 am

FisicaLatina wrote:
xkcd0803 wrote:
xkcd0803 wrote:Feeling really nervous. Taking it for the first time. I also feel like I'm not fully prepared.

I'm doing those sample tests from Conquering PGRE! Those tests are difficult, man.
All the best to everyone.

The real test was nothing like the tests I practiced, not difficult like Conquering sample tests but I was very confused by some seemingly simple questions. Some repeated questions from the released tests too.

Hoping for 65/70 raw score.

xkcd0803 which released tests did you use for practice?

I did timed practice using 01 and 08 test.

chsh · Post by **chsh** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 9:24 pm

I solved I think 90 or 91. I didn't feel particularly good about the test though, so I'll probably under-perform my practice testing by 300. Using the 2008 scale, I was getting 920-990 on the tests in Conquering the Physics GRE and the released practice tests in 01 and 08 under timed mock tests at 9:00, but taking a 9:00 test under high pressure that's heavy on high-speed calculation doesn't go over well for me. Overall, I'd say the previously released tests and the tests from Conquering the Physics GRE seem a bit tonally different from the current incarnation of the test.

I think Conquering the Physics GRE would really benefit from an expanded Lab Methods section that gets into a lot more detail with circuits (which really seem to be a point of emphasis on the test but are mostly glossed over in the book), error analysis, famous experiments, and the like. I think it's also a bit lacking in trivia, but trivia is hard to prepare for.

xkcd0803 · Post by **xkcd0803** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 11:34 pm

chsh wrote:I solved I think 90 or 91. I didn't feel particularly good about the test though, so I'll probably under-perform my practice testing by 300. Using the 2008 scale, I was getting 920-990 on the tests in Conquering the Physics GRE and the released practice tests in 01 and 08 under timed mock tests at 9:00, but taking a 9:00 test under high pressure that's heavy on high-speed calculation doesn't go over well for me. Overall, I'd say the previously released tests and the tests from Conquering the Physics GRE seem a bit tonally different from the current incarnation of the test.

I think Conquering the Physics GRE would really benefit from an expanded Lab Methods section that gets into a lot more detail with circuits (which really seem to be a point of emphasis on the test but are mostly glossed over in the book), error analysis, famous experiments, and the like. I think it's also a bit lacking in trivia, but trivia is hard to prepare for.

The test has changed in content and difficulty compared to released tests. I think its time for ETS to release another test.

Qwaps · Post by **Qwaps** » Tue Nov 01, 2016 11:23 am

xkcd0803 wrote:
chsh wrote:I solved I think 90 or 91. I didn't feel particularly good about the test though, so I'll probably under-perform my practice testing by 300. Using the 2008 scale, I was getting 920-990 on the tests in Conquering the Physics GRE and the released practice tests in 01 and 08 under timed mock tests at 9:00, but taking a 9:00 test under high pressure that's heavy on high-speed calculation doesn't go over well for me. Overall, I'd say the previously released tests and the tests from Conquering the Physics GRE seem a bit tonally different from the current incarnation of the test.

I think Conquering the Physics GRE would really benefit from an expanded Lab Methods section that gets into a lot more detail with circuits (which really seem to be a point of emphasis on the test but are mostly glossed over in the book), error analysis, famous experiments, and the like. I think it's also a bit lacking in trivia, but trivia is hard to prepare for.
The test has changed in content and difficulty compared to released tests. I think its time for ETS to release another test.

April 2016 test was quite doable and similar in contents to the practice tests. Although I haven't seen the 2008 practice test...

linh119 · Post by **linh119** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 1:24 am

Guys, the score is up!!!!

opelton · Post by **opelton** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 4:16 am

Thanks^^ Saw this post and checked my score. Not what I was hoping for, but oh well! Congratulations to everyone for finishing, GL submitting your applications in next couple of weeks!

stronglycoupled · Post by **stronglycoupled** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 6:14 am

lol I managed to get the same score as in September. That's so dumb.

bunnysid · Post by **bunnysid** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 7:46 am

940 International Student..... My interests are in Cosmology and HET..... Thought I would get more. Really disappointed. As an international student I feel my chances are pretty low in getting into Universities ranked within 30-60 with this score.

AlexisPrel · Post by **AlexisPrel** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 8:37 am

810 (72%). I took the test from France, and managed to answer 82 questions, so I was expecting a bit better?
Also, can we all agree that not being able to know your raw score is incredibly frustrating?

Good luck to everyone in your applications, please don't let your scores deter you from your goals

temporaryAccount · Post by **temporaryAccount** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 8:55 am

Scored 930 (89 percentile) for 88/100 questions attempted.

xkcd0803 · Post by **xkcd0803** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 9:06 am

770! Disappointed.
Being international student, it's time to look for low ranked programs.

peanutbutterpuffin · Post by **peanutbutterpuffin** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:46 am

730 (56th percentile), with 80/100 questions attempted.

Really disappointed since my practice test scores were much higher!
Oh well. Good luck to everyone on grad school apps!!

Aikya1 · Post by **Aikya1** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:59 am

650 (40%)

. Too low, very disappointed. Will retake it next year and work much harder. Hope the others performed better.

theladybug · Post by **theladybug** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 1:54 pm

I somehow managed a 990, not bad for a domestic female. I left like 5-7 questions blank and got at least a few others wrong. I studied out of the released exams, Conquering the Physics GRE, Case Western's flash cards, Schaum's 3000 Solved Problems in Physics, and Irodov's Problems in General Physics.
Anyway, we all made it through the exam and should be proud in any case.

mmmquarks · Post by **mmmquarks** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 2:33 pm

Congrats to everyone for finishing! I pulled off a 990!! I am incredibly fortunate that I had the resources to quit my job, take a part time one, move back in with my parents, and study like crazy for months. The conquering the physics GRE book and about 300 flashcards are so well worth the time. Happy to talk tips with anyone who is going to be taking it again.

** I should mention that I started from 28th percentile so no one should be discouraged by their first score.

throwawayhehexD · Post by **throwawayhehexD** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 3:15 pm

I got a 980. I'm happy with that score, considering I only spent about a week studying for it (did a ton of practice problems and made sure I understood the solutions to all of them). I go to a really good university (University of Pennsylvania), so most of the stuff was covered in my classes and it was just a matter of reminding myself of the concepts and doing a bunch of problems in a short period of time. Good luck to everyone on the next step!

I think if you had a good undergraduate education and did very well in your classes, then the PGRE should be fairly straightforward. None of the problems I saw on the PGRE were harder than the homework sets I was assigned at my university, and I'm assuming also at most decent universities. So I feel like studying for the PGRE shouldn't be like "OMG there is all this material I need to learn!" but more of "well, I saw most of this at one point...now I just need to refresh my mind of this stuff." That said, there are some stuff that you won't know. Like I never saw anything on particle physics, so I had to teach myself some basics on that and still didn't answer ~4-5 questions on the PGRE because I just had never seen the material before.

***TLDR: Make sure you do well in your classes so that studying for the PGRE is mostly a review, and not you actually trying to learn stuff you had never seen before. The questions they put are easy-intermediate problems that test core concepts in the topics you should have seen in your classes.

AlexisPrel · Post by **AlexisPrel** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 3:48 pm

I don't agree with you: the PGRE is not quite about having encountered the material already or not.

If people have the same difficulties as I, being able to solve a problem fast without making a stupid error is what this test is about.

Please don't make us feel bad

ROHAN2104 · Post by **ROHAN2104** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 4:25 pm

Hello,
Congratulations all.

I'm a mechanical engineer from India. But now I want to pursue physics major.
This year I appeared for physics gre and scored 940 with 90th percentile.
But I don't have any research experience in physics.
So can anyone suggest me regarding the universities that I should apply to? I'm not able to guess where I can get admitted with this score but without research experience and hence unable to decide.

Thanks & Regards,
Sachin Vaidya.

throwawayhehexD · Post by **throwawayhehexD** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 4:42 pm

Not sure how it works for internationals, but with a 940 I think a domestic student could apply to all the top schools and be a competitive applicant. That's what the professors here at Penn tell me. For example, the average PGRE at Columbia is usually around 880-920....

I think the biggest problem is your lack of research. Not necessarily publishing papers, but just having a solid recommendation from the group you do your work with where they can talk about your work and potential. My professors tell me that the top places really want good recommendations that talk about your research experience. I emailed the professors about my score and they were like oh, cool. I even asked my top recommender if he cared what I got. He said that as long as I got above 900, that shouldn't keep me from getting accepted to top programs. He personally doesn't see much of a difference between 950 or 980 or whatever. I mentioned how I read on this forum of people getting 990 and good GPA and getting rejected. He was like, "His letters of recommendations and research were probably not up to the same level."

P.S. the professors I'm talking about are Charles Kane, Eugene Mele, Jay Kikkawa, and Paul Heiney so I trust their advice.

Long story short, I'm not sure why the above person disagrees with me, but I'm fortunate enough to be at a top undergraduate with professors from MIT and Princeton and etc and they have been a huge help in my application process (we'll see how the acceptance results look though...), and they really don't care about a 990 as people seem to think they do. They see it as just a simple exam to see if you were paying attention in undergraduate.

But I still think that a 940 should get you into some good graduate schools. Maybe it might be harder since you're an international, but it's a good score. Research would've been a huge boost and made you a lot more competitive.

ROHAN2104 · Post by **ROHAN2104** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 4:46 pm

Thanks

AlexisPrel · Post by **AlexisPrel** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 5:39 pm

throwawayhehexD wrote:Long story short, I'm not sure why the above person disagrees with me.

I disagree on the straightforwardness of the PGRE. A very large share of the material covered is indeed straightforward, but that doesn't mean it is easy to obtain a high score, because the format of the test brings its own difficulties.

throwawayhehexD · Post by **throwawayhehexD** » Fri Nov 25, 2016 6:16 pm

Oh, I see what you mean. I guess the ideas on the PGRE are something that you should learn in class, with some topics to self-learn if your institute doesn't cover. But then spend a lot of time getting used to the phrasing in the PGRE and the test format.

I think the struggles should be with time and maybe test format, not the actual material. The actual material itself isn't harder than stuff you would see in a homework set at good university.

mhrazeghi58 · Post by **mhrazeghi58** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:08 am

Ended with a 700!! Dissapointed!

Jamesofey · Post by **Jamesofey** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:49 am

I managed to get a 990. But still, being an international with average recommendation letters and no publications, I don't think I can get into top PhD programs. Is it possible for me to get into top MSc program in Physical science with this PGRE (Chicago etc..)? Does anyone on this forum have MS experience?

Thanks!

SalrCagan93 · Post by **SalrCagan93** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 3:25 am

Ended up getting 950 (91st %), first time taking the pgre

Really happy with that considering I didn't study as much as other people I know, but as someone higher up said a lot of the stuff was just review, I had a really good undergrad education which definitely helped. Answered about 90 questions pretty confidently. Not sure what else to say, coming from Canada with a master's and first author publication, so gonna spread some applications around and see what happens...

hari · Post by **hari** » Sat Nov 26, 2016 6:09 am

Hello friends, I am from india, I was badly ended up with 600(28 percentile) in oct 29th 2016 pgre, I really very sad with this. So I want to retake pgrexam on feb 2017 in supplementery in india. In fact, there is no test center available in india for supplementery exam, but I do not want to waste one more year to write the exam again. Could you please tell me guys, is it possible to get a supplementery exam on feb2017 ? if yes how we have to proceed for that? and where we can find necessary info. I have seen in ets they provide supplementery center if its 125 miles away from the test center but no info for india.

If anyone planning or have info about pgre from india for supplementery pgrexam 2017 please contact me: hari.kdvt@gmail.com.

your help will be much appreciated. Thank you