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Topics covered on this page are:
- What is the GRE?
- The General GRE
- The Physics Subject GRE
- Cunningham's Strategies for the Physics Subject GRE
The GRE, or Graduate Record Exam, is the generic name for a number of
multiple-choice style exams administered by the
Educational Testing Service.
These are the same people who administer the SAT and Achievement exams
you likely encountered in high school. There are two different kinds of GRE
exams that you may have to take: the general GRE, and the subject GRE.
The ETS maintains a GRE home page that has a lot of relevant information.
You can easily get practice materials from them, both free stuff and copies
of former exams. GRE Home Page.
The general GRE consists of three parts: verbal, mathematical, and analytical.
The verbal and mathematical parts are quite similar to the SAT in material
covered, style of questions, and level of difficulty. The analytical part consists
of logic questions and puzzles. Most Grinnell physics majors do not have much
difficulty on the general GRE, although non-native speakers of English may find
the verbal section challenging. In any case, you may find it beneficial to take a
practice exam or two before the big day.
It is possible to take the exam either in written form (by filling out bubble sheets)
or on the computer. The written exam is administered three times a year, in April,
October, and December at 8 am. Typically you need to register by mail at least six
weeks in advance of your exam, and you don't find out your scores until about a
month after the exam. The computer-based exam is available much more frequently,
and you can see your score immediately, but it has some disadvantages you
should know about.
In the written form, the exam has two sections of each kind (verbal, mathematical,
and analytical) plus one extra experimental section of some kind so that ETS can
gather statistical info on new test questions. Each of the seven sections takes half
an hour to complete, so the whole exam takes three and a half hours.
In the computer-administered form, the exam takes only half as much time.
You answer about 27-33 questions in each of three sections. The computer
decides which questions to ask you next based on the correctness of your
previous responses. If you keep answering questions correctly, the computer
will ask you harder and harder questions until you get one wrong. On the other
hand, if you answer hard questions incorrectly, the computer will start pitching
you easier ones. Because of this "customization" of the questions, you cannot
go back and change any of your answers to previous questions. Another caveat
to keep in mind is that, although this exam is offered frequently, you cannot take
the computer-administered exam more than once in a six-month period.
The GRE Subject test is an extremely important factor in determining where Grinnell
students are admitted for graduate study in physics. It is similar to an achievement
test, but it is three times as long and much harder. GRE Subject tests tend to cover
all of the curriculum that is usually taken by an undergraduate majoring in the subject.
These tests are available only in paper form and are administered at 2 pm on the
April, October, and December test dates.
The physics subject test covers all of the material from all of the courses offered
in the physics major, including electronics, quantum mechanics, and statistical/thermal
physics. They also ask questions about typical physics labs and about famous
experiments. You have 170 minutes to solve 100 physics problems with
multiple-choice answers. You may NOT use a calculator on the exams.
You are NOT given any equation sheet. You just have to know all the equations you
might need to solve any problem in physics.
The following list summarizes the topics covered in the exam and their relative
weighting. Also listed are the Grinnell College courses that are most relevant to
each topic.
- 20% Classical Mechanics (PHY 131 and 234).
- 18% Electricity and Magnetism (PHY 132 and 335).
- 9% Optics and Wave Phenomena (PHY 337).
- 10% Thermo and Stat Mech (PHY 232 and 456).
- 12% Quantum Mechanics (PHY 232 and 437).
- 10% Atomic Physics (PHY 232 and 437).
- 6% Special Relativity (PHY 232).
- 6% Laboratory Methods (PHY 131, 132, 232, 337, and 462).
- 9% Specialized Topics, e.g. nuclear, particle, condensed matter, astrophysics, math methods, computational, ... (various courses, esp. PHY232).
Most of the questions on the exam can be answered by somebody who knows
first and second year physics really well. However the rapid pace of the exam
requires some getting used to. There are some strategies you can follow to improve
your chances of getting a good score on the GRE.
Consider taking PHY 456 (Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics) in the spring
of your junior year.
Get the general GRE out of the way by taking it in the spring of your junior year,
or by taking it electronically in the fall of your senior year.
Invest an hour or so in reviewing freshman and sophomore physics each day
during the summer after your junior year. Start out by reviewing Halliday, Resnick,
and Walker, and then go on to your modern physics book. Go through each
chapter--including the ones that weren't covered in class--memorize the important
formulas, and practice solving problems in the back of the chapter until you can
do them in under a minute. You may find flashcards useful for memorization.
In the fall of your senior year, start taking practice exams. Actual copies of the
physics subject GRE are best for practice, but there are only two available.
You can get a book containing the two exams in the physics seminar room, or you
can get your own directly from ETS (but order early because it may take a while
to arrive). Be sure to time yourself while you're taking the practice exam to get
used to the rapid pace.
Take the exam in October. That way you can study some more and repeat the
exam in December in case you have trouble the first time.
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