Test Preparation / Content

[m0pilot]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm taking the Subject Test in April and I was wondering if I could ask those of you who recently took it a few quick questions?

 

I am somewhat concerned about the test contents as I'm not a CS undergrad major and I'm finding it difficult to prepare for the test above a certain level.

Now there is obviously a certain pool of "standard" topics that seem to be asked frequently and are covered extensively on this forum, the Titanium Bits guide and other places online. Things like caches & memory, algorithmic complexity, RISC pipeline etc. I'm not particularly worried about these as they are well-documented and with a bit of reading (Cormen et al for algorithms, Pattterson & Hennesy for hardware, Tanenbaum for OS) it's fairly straightforward to get a grasp on these topics even without a CS background, and it seems fairly obvious what the "important" points are.

 

However, there is also a lot of stuff in the syllabus that is less clearly defined, and I have little to no idea where to start for these things. Case in point: Everything under "Software Engineering" in the ETS booklet - I have no idea where to even start there, beyond reading the handful of obvious Wikipedia pages on the subject. Similarly, a few people have said that the exam covered some algorithms they did not expect to encounter there - Beyond the handful of algorithms covered in Cormen et al (i.e. the most important sorting and graph algorithms), I have no clue as to what to even look at for the exam. "Other topics" is, of course, similarly difficult to judge for me. Other than a question on RSA in the ETS booklet, I have no idea what that might cover. Besides, the ETS booklet seems to be a bit dated by now too, and I have no idea how current the selection of topics is.

 

So I was wondering if those of you who have recently taken would care to share their experience? I know that specific questions are off-limits, but even some vague pointers in the right directions would be very much appreciated. I have been studying for the test for a while now, and I am finding it increasingly frustrating as at this point, I have little trouble understanding any of the material I've looked at, but rather, I have no idea what else to look at.

 

In any case good luck for all of you currently waiting for your scores, as well as with your applications of course!

 

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give me,

m0