2009年度湖北省高等职业教育实训基地

,The physics GRE,Mark Messier Indiana University,Resources on the web,General information and Physics Test Practice Book: http:/www.ets.org http:/www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/Physics.pdf OSU Prep. course: http:/www.physics.ohio-state.edu/undergrad/ugs_gre.php GRE Physics Subject Test Wikipedia page: http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRE_Physics_Test Physics GRE discussion forum: http:/www.physicsgre.com/,Dates,Content of the exam Format,100 questions in 170 minutes. Multiple choice A-E. Pencil + brain. No calculators. Most numerical constants provided. No equations provided.,Content of the exam Topics covered on the exam,20% Classical Mechanics 18% Electricity & magnetism 12% Quantum mechanics 10% Thermo+stat. mech.10% Atomic physics 9% Optics and waves 9% Special topics 6% Special relativity 6% Laboratory methods,Questions test mastery of material from a typical undergraduate curriculum. For the most part the exam draws from “Halliday and Resnick” level classical, E&M, Thermo, optics, and waves. Quantum and atomic physics typical of a 3rd semester modern physics course.,Scoring the exam,The exam is scored in a two step process A raw score is computed as: C - 1/4 I where C is the number of correct answers and I is the number of incorrect answers. Un-answered (U) questions earn 0 points. There are many combinations which earn the same raw score. For example: C = 52, I=8, U=40 : R= 50 C = 60, I=40, U=0: R= 50 The raw score is then converted to a scaled score. The scaling procedure is complicated and tries to account for “bad” questions and the relative difficulty of this years exam compared to previous years.,Test taking strategy To guess or not to guess?,on average helps your score,individual question more likely to hurt than help,Test taking strategy Have a game plan,A good pace to work the exam might be: t=30 min, n=25 questions t=60 min, n=50 questions t=90 min, n=75 questions t=120 min, n=100 questions This leaves 50 minutes to work problems you skipped, check work A “game plan” like this will prevent you from dwelling on difficult problems and not having time to answer “easy” problems later in the exam. Remember: the easy problems and the difficult problems earn you the same number of points! Work out a “book keeping” system before hand to mark problems you want to come back to. No time to invent this during the exam.,Test taking strategy Get a good nights sleep,Test taking strategy Get a good nights sleep,BAC,22 hours w/o sleep,0.08 BAC = legally drunk,Problem solving Sample classical mechanics problem,54% answered correctly,Problem solving Practice calculating for speed and accuracy, required accuracy x2,30% answered correctly,Problem solving Sample electricity and magnetism problem,Dont need to solve to get to the correct answer. Check boundary conditions.,56% answered correctly,Problem solving Two answers make no sense. Guess among remaining three?, correct,55% answered correctly,Problem solving Sample optics problem,40% answered correctly,Sample problem Thermodynamics and statistical physics,Since BC is isothermal:,36% answered correctly,Sample problem Quantum mechanics,29% answered correctly,Sample problem Atomic physics,60% answered correctly,Remaining topics,Preparation will improve your GRE score,Know what material to study Practice working numerical problems efficiently Practice your test taking strategy Good Luck!,