<p>And guys, any strategies you use? Do you skim through, and then do each problem? Do you just start at 1 and chug through?</p>
<p>I agree with SirEdge. But let’s not go any further than that in detail. I did not like this test.</p>
<p>I second SirEdge about this test’s relative difficulty, but I do not second him about this test’s cutoff being significantly lower than average (11 is significant lower). It wasn’t that hard compared to 2013, although it definitely wasn’t as easy as I’d like it to be. Also, don’t forget that more and more students take this test every year.</p>
<p>And personally, I start at #1 and chug through. Not really any better option, and the timing shouldn’t be too much of a problem (although more time would definitely have been helpful). It’s sort of like the AMC, I’d say, which going through starting at #1 is probably the best strategy.</p>
<p>How does everybody find the difficulty compared to last year? I do feel it is hard but I don’t think the cut-off is going to be as low as 11(which I of course hope). I’m so anxious, cuz I feel like I will get a score that is around the cut-off.</p>
<p>Hmm yeah I agree, 11 is far too low, so I’d expect it to be around 12 or 13, somewhat similar to 2013, which I had also found incredibly hard first time looking at it, but it may just be that I did not focus much on the main topics that were on this exam while I was studying</p>
<p>It was harder than 2013… I think I got borderline…
if the cutoff is like an 11.5, I think I’ll be fine. And in my USAPhO class, my teacher did say that AAPT was making the test harder every year.</p>
<p>Also if more people are taking it every year, and they take the top 10%, the cutoff should be lower. I just don’t get why the cutoff would be higher than last years if this years was harder than 2013</p>
<p>I just took it and I would say that the cutoff would probably be around 12-13
I don’t think that it was much harder than last year, maybe just a little
If you’ve taken the exam and want to discuss, send me a pm</p>
<p>FINALLY TOOK IT!!!</p>
<p>Was it really harder than 2013? I had to omit 13 questions in 2013, but only 10 this time. </p>
<p>The 15 I answered in 2014 I was relatively sure of. </p>
<p>This year’s F=ma was easier than last year’s, however I observed that many of the questions were tricky I will not go into discussion of any depth regarding this until the 1st of February.</p>
<p>I predict that the curve will be 13.5-ish, this year. Any thoughts on what the curve may be?</p>
<p>I think the cutoff is going to be lower than last years.</p>
<p>Agreed with gig9876.
Not sure they take the top 10%. Either it’s like the AIME and they take the top 2.5%/5%, or it’s like the USAMO and they take the top 280 or so.</p>
<p>In either case, you guys should thank me, because I got like 15 people from my school to sign up who probs aren’t going to do too well on it, but did it just for the experience (school paid). ;)</p>
<p>when can we discuss?</p>
<p>Hell yeah @ifailedusamo, way to help lower the cutoff. I did the same with 2 classmates. They didn’t care about the test but took it anyway.</p>
<p>And I don’t see why we can’t discuss it after today. Today’s the last day of testing. </p>
<p>The cutoff is not based upon the # of people that take it, it is a flat 400. </p>
<p>400? Exactly 400?</p>
<p>Yeah, I was wrong. No Holocaust, on the website it says approx 400. </p>
<p>@ringwraith10
We’re not technically supposed to discuss until Feb. 20…</p>
<p>And we won’t ;)</p>
<p>Ya pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down? Eh? Eh? </p>
<p>Can we agree that the test was harder this year or no?</p>