tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post1936534033108140543..comments2024-03-27T20:43:05.862-07:00Comments on The Eternal Universe: Thoughts on the Qualifying ExamJoseph Smidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-24717251101551261322010-05-27T02:18:03.842-07:002010-05-27T02:18:03.842-07:00Well done !Well done !Serge Le Coz L'Eternelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07223106494481146426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-79728064650573280142010-05-24T15:30:20.934-07:002010-05-24T15:30:20.934-07:00Jared,
Good to know. I enjoyed doing physics ...Jared,<br /><br /> Good to know. I enjoyed doing physics with Ryan at BYU a lot so you must have good genes.Joseph Smidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-83167349612273112612010-05-24T15:23:33.375-07:002010-05-24T15:23:33.375-07:00I'm quantumleap42's brother by the way, ju...I'm quantumleap42's brother by the way, just in case anyone was wondering...Jaredhttp://brainybehavior.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-20163219255565833982010-05-24T13:19:01.973-07:002010-05-24T13:19:01.973-07:00Jared,
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing q...Jared,<br /><br /> Very interesting. Thanks for sharing qual from a non-physics perspective.<br /><br />Stan,<br /><br /> You're right about NC's beauty (Lived there myself for a time) but the humidity is what killed me.Joseph Smidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-72180910284158662162010-05-24T13:14:08.707-07:002010-05-24T13:14:08.707-07:00btw, I served my mission in the N.C. Charlotte mis...btw, I served my mission in the N.C. Charlotte mission. Go UNC-CH! I hope you get some time out of the lab to visit those beautiful mountains.Stannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-80822237381889423082010-05-24T11:47:10.528-07:002010-05-24T11:47:10.528-07:00We had both written and oral quals (in neuropsycho...We had both written and oral quals (in neuropsychology). I picked the 3 broad topics to study, created my own reading list (with suggestions from my committee), and went from there. I found that a few good review articles in each area really contained the bulk of information my committee would probably ask me about. My committee submitted questions that were then put together. I had to answer 6 of 9 questions (2 of 3 in each of my 3 topics). We had 9 hours in a room to write out our answers (there is only one of us doing this at a time) using nothing but our memory and a list of the references of our reading list. In those 9 hours, I ended up typing about 22 pages (double-spaced). Then, about 10 days later I had my oral exam where I defended my written answers. My oral exam was little more than a discussion though because I had done well on my written portion so my committee wasn't grilling me as much as just asking me what I thought about certain things.<br /><br />I preferred this method of quals because I got to pick topics I liked (mostly) and then just spend time studying them. Granted, I didn't have any equations to solve or things like that but I at least could study thing relevant to me and not "waste" time studying things I probably would never use again.Jaredhttp://brainybehavior.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-27641999693858731142010-05-24T09:31:37.408-07:002010-05-24T09:31:37.408-07:00Nick,
Good points, I'm sure the more inter...Nick,<br /><br /> Good points, I'm sure the more interdisciplinary nature helps as well as the types of problems Astro people solve.<br /><br />Nick and jmb275,<br /><br /> Yes, I agree that orals can really be more helpful in many respects than written. I have a professor here who said while at Berkeley their finals (Not Quals) were oral and in his experienece the exams were much better at sifting through who knows what and how well.Joseph Smidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-10674530006789094262010-05-24T09:24:52.757-07:002010-05-24T09:24:52.757-07:00jmb275,
I like the idea of oral exams. I think w...jmb275,<br /><br />I like the idea of oral exams. I think when you talk to someone it becomes quite clear very quickly if they know what they are talking about or if they are simply making things up. Good luck!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17367937708444729356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-79739856426450002332010-05-24T09:23:26.299-07:002010-05-24T09:23:26.299-07:00Joe,
"So for a basic physics qual, after you...Joe,<br /><br />"So for a basic physics qual, after you do enough problems I actually find it hard to think that problems you encounter would be completely foreign to what you have solved already."<br /><br />I suppose some of the change in predictability from your comps to mine could be the difference between astro and pure physics, but I think it also has more to do with the way astronomers solve problems. Often in astronomy we have to approximate to a degree that many physicists find hard to digest because it simply is not possible to rigorously solve the full problem. So it becomes more a game of physical reasoning than simply a math problem.<br /><br />The second thing that makes our questions harder to predict is that they are "interdisciplinary", meaning that a single question may incorporate material from several classes. For example, we could be asked to solve for the spectra of some element in some ionization state and then create a statistical test to see if one of our predicted lines is present in a data set at a statistically significant level. This means that the number of permutations of questions increases extremely rapidly, making it very hard to predict.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17367937708444729356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-59655780790347132672010-05-24T06:30:31.248-07:002010-05-24T06:30:31.248-07:00Congratulations! I will take my quals next spring...Congratulations! I will take my quals next spring. Here at U of Michigan (in Aerospace Engineering) our quals recently had an overhaul! Now the exam is entirely oral consisting of 5 30 min oral exams with 5 different professors covering material from 5 different courses (3 required, 2 elected). I must confess I am very anxious/nervous for it!jmb275http://www.mormonmatters.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-11630941730971748192010-05-23T23:34:20.239-07:002010-05-23T23:34:20.239-07:00Nick,
I'm actually surprised yours w...Nick, <br /><br /> I'm actually surprised yours were not very predictable. First, you did Astro, so things may be a little different. <br /><br />But think about it, lets take classical mechanics. After you've solved ~50 classical problems where you take some Lagrangian, work out the equations of motion and apply necessary constraints you pretty much have seen everything. Soon, though the qual problems are technically different, it is the same bag of tricks needed to solve the problem.<br /><br />Or take Quantum Mechanics. Once you've solved a few dozen problems involving some wired potential you quickly realize pretty much everything solvable no matter how weird boils down to something simple like a hydrogen atom where the potential is perturbed and then you just use the same perturbation techniques you used on every other type of problem.<br /><br />So for a basic physics qual, after you do enough problems I actually find it hard to think that problems you encounter would be completely foreign to what you have solved already.Joseph Smidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-21477283010660390102010-05-23T23:08:44.111-07:002010-05-23T23:08:44.111-07:00Congratulations! I know I breathed a huge sigh of...Congratulations! I know I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I passed mine, so take a minute to breath deeply and slowly - then remember you still have to come up with a thesis and get a job somehow. :)<br /><br />I am amazed that for both Quantum and Joe the problems were predictable. For our comprehensive exam the problems are generated fresh each year by a committee of faculty members and post-comps grad students. This is a lot of work but it means that students can't just memorize problems. Of course it also means that sometimes the problems aren't as well-studied (and thus prone to issues like misinterpretation, poor-wording, being too easy or hard, etc.). However, I think that essentially faculty have these things so that they have a somewhat quantifiable way to separate the grad students who are progressing towards a PhD-level of mastery and those who aren't. As long as faculty can put a number on people, everyone feels better about it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17367937708444729356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-1518928923665979622010-05-23T20:54:12.580-07:002010-05-23T20:54:12.580-07:00Congratulations! It's nice when the academic e...Congratulations! It's nice when the academic establishment allows you to torture yourself and live like a peasant for several more years. =:) When I took Physics 122 (E&M) at BYU I spent 7 hours in the testing center on one advanced exam. 3 questions, open book, 7 hours. I got like a 45% and I was happy with that. It was a cool class but I never want to see a big glob of resistors or a charged wire of infinite length ever again! =:)Stannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-32603644042878858042010-05-23T19:41:15.874-07:002010-05-23T19:41:15.874-07:00Quantumleap42,
This is such good news! Congra...Quantumleap42,<br /><br /> This is such good news! Congratulations.<br /><br /> I also found your write up interesting as there are some similar elements to here at UC Irvine. <br /><br />"So in reality for some of the subjects it doesn't turn into a test of our ability to work problems in physics, but it turns into a test of our ability to work out, memorize and regurgitate problems from the standard set of problems. "<br /><br />I noticed the same thing. Sure professors gave problems I had technically never solve before, but after you've worked through like 100 past qual problems, you seemed to have covered the general idea for just about all the types of questions to see on the qual.<br /><br />I've said this before, but just for comparison for those interested how these exams go from school to school: we had three 3 hour tests on Quantum, E&M and the third test on Classical and Statistical Mechanics. The pass rate is ~50% and you get up to three attempts with the test being administered every 6 months. (After the 3 attempts the pass rate is about 85-90%.)Joseph Smidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.com