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I have read a lot of various threads on both this website and other website claiming that the GRE mathematics exam has become exceedingly difficult over the years. For example, the document available at the link goes as far as to claim that the official practice tests available are next to useless.

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/answer 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. Moreover, I think it would be great if someone could gives examples of various questions that have appeared in the recent past to substantiate the claim. I suppose discussing exam questions from a test administered months ago isn't against any rules.

This way, I suppose, students who wish to take the exam in the near future will be able to better prepare for the exam.

Junaid Aftab
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    I don't know about the increase in difficulty over the last decade or two, but I can tell you that there was definitely a significant increase in sophistication of topics considered between the 1970's and today. In those days, for example, there were questions you could nail just by knowing the technique of implicit differentiation, and differential equation questions that could be tamed by a easily-spotted integration factor. – Mark Fischler Jul 17 '17 at 20:31
  • I took the exam a couple of years ago. I found it to be quite a bit more difficult than the online practice tests from ETS (I ended up doing fine and received admissions offers from a number of graduate programs). However, this increased difficulty could be attributed to anything from a different mix of topics on the real test to the added stress of the testing environment. – Michael L. Jul 17 '17 at 20:42
  • @MichaelLee You're right. In hindsight, could you please elaborate on why you found the exam difficult? Also, any specific comments on comparing the difficulty of the exams available online and the exam you took? – Junaid Aftab Jul 17 '17 at 20:52
  • If you look at some of the older exams that have been released you may notice that if you miss just a few questions, then your percentile drops significantly. I remember in one test if you missed one question your score dropped to the 82% (I think). What happened was that too many people were getting perfect scores, so the testing service that makes the GRE started making the exams a lot harder and stopped releasing practice exams. – Clyde Jul 17 '17 at 21:03

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It seems like they asked a lot of single variable calculus stuff. It was pretty challenging. I was a TA in 1991 when I took it for the third time and my score finally went up from the 64% to the 88%. I was probably teaching alot of first year calculus and, as a friend so winsomely put it, "it gets cherry when you teach it"... I was going for the NSF fellowship. Still not good enough to get it... I didn't really need the fellowship, I had a TAship. I didn't get my phd. Didn't write my thesis... I really don't know about other years. ..

  • "it gets cherry" hmmm don't know that usage. I enjoyed your post. – zhw. Jul 17 '17 at 23:57
  • Actually, the guy who told me that had an nsf fellowship. He finished up his phd at berkeley in 1997... Glad you enjoyed it... –  Jul 18 '17 at 00:09