Go to the U of M home page
School of Physics & Astronomy
School of Physics and Astronomy Wiki

User Tools

Trace:
dgs_advice:preparation_for_the_graduate_written_exam

Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revisionPrevious revision
Next revision		Previous revision
dgs_advice:preparation_for_the_graduate_written_exam [2017/10/25 12:33] – vinalsdgs_advice:preparation_for_the_graduate_written_exam [2022/01/26 14:53] (current) – vinals
Line 8: Line 8:
 === Basic Physics curriculum === === Basic Physics curriculum ===
  
-The exam is broken up in two, three hour long, sessions. One is devoted to short questions (10 questions for 10 points each), and one to longer questions (5 questions, 20 points each). By topic, the short questions are on Classical Mechanics (3), Quantum Mechanics (2), Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics (2), Electromagnetism, Nuclear Physics, and Special Relativity. The long questions are on Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, and Special Relativity. Therefore the maximum score is 200. The passing line fluctuates from year to year, but it just a bit over 100 (50%).+The exam is broken up in two, four hour long, sessions on successive Thursday and Friday mornings. One is devoted to short questions (10 questions for 10 points each), and one to longer questions (5 questions, 20 points each). By topic, the short questions are on Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, Nuclear Physics, and Special Relativity. The long questions are typically on Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, and Special Relativity. Therefore the maximum score is 200 including both parts. The passing line is set every year by a vote of the full faculty of the School of Physics and Astronomy once the exam has been completed, and the (still anonymous) results are known.
  
 The exam is prepared by a committee of Faculty which changes from year to year. There are no firm or set boundaries on what the scope of the questions is, and they are largely determined by those that comprise the committee on any given year. Just as a suggestion, you may want to make sure that you are familiar with the following material: The exam is prepared by a committee of Faculty which changes from year to year. There are no firm or set boundaries on what the scope of the questions is, and they are largely determined by those that comprise the committee on any given year. Just as a suggestion, you may want to make sure that you are familiar with the following material:
-  * Classical Mechanics at an intermediate level, plus the special theory of relativity. Typical texts are Marion, Symon, Becker, and Fowles. +  * Classical Mechanics at an intermediate level, plus the special theory of relativity. Typical texts for classical mechanics are Taylor, Marion, and Fowles. For special relativity the book by French or the coverage found in the later chapters of Griffiths on electrodynamics.  
-  * Electricity and magnetism at the intermediate level, including boundary value problems. Typical texts are Lorrain, Corson and Lorrain, Reitz, Milford and Christy, and Nayfeh and Brussel, with mathematical competence expected at the level of Chapters 1 through 7 of Jackson, and the electromagnetism parts of Wyld. +  * Electricity and magnetism at the intermediate level. A typical text would be Griffiths. 
-  * Statistical physics at the intermediate level, including the use of the Boltzmann, Gibbs, Fermi-Dirac, and Bose-Einstein distributions, classical and ideal gases, and black-body radiation. Typical texts are Chapters 1 through 14 of Kittel and Kroemer and Chapters 1 through 13 of Reif. +  * Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics at the intermediate level as covered in Chapters 1 through 14 of Kittel and Kroemer, and Chapters 1 through 13 of Reif. 
-  * Quantum mechanics at the intermediate level and the beginning graduate level. Typical graduate texts are Dicke and Witte, Gasiorowicz, Park, Merzbacher, Baym, Landau and Lifshitz, Sakurai, and Schiff. Typical undergraduate texts are Eisberg, Park, and Cassels.+  * Quantum mechanics at the intermediate level. Typical texts would be Griffiths, and Shankar. 
 +  * Topics in modern physics such as covered in any introductory, undergraduate text of the same title. For example the book by Gasiorowicz, Bernstein, and Fishbane, or indeed often the later chapters of introductory physics textbooks.
  
 === Previous GWE === === Previous GWE ===
-You can find past exams [[http://zzz.physics.umn.edu/dgs_advice/past_gwe|here]].+The time honored process to learn Physics is to solve problems yourself. In addition to looking at problems in the textbooks above, we have made available past GWE's in the department. You can find them [[http://zzz.physics.umn.edu/dgs_advice/past_gwe|here]].
  
 === Preparatory study sessions === === Preparatory study sessions ===
 +There are weekly sessions after the graduate research seminar to go over problems from past years. Please contact the graduate coordinator in the front office for further information.
dgs_advice/preparation_for_the_graduate_written_exam.1508952814.txt.gz · Last modified: 2017/10/25 12:33 by vinals

Page Tools