Monday August 29 Meeting Update

NEW SCHEDULE

Mondays 5-7:30 PM

Fridays 10AM-12PM

at ISB 235

Since the school year is starting at Cabrillo College, Paul Graham (pagraham@cabrillo.edu) must change his lectures. Upon voting, the new schedule is above.

Topics discussed tonight:

Classic problems onE&M ranging from 1D to 3D problems and brief overview of Classical Thermodynamics for our new attendee. Also a few problems from the '86 test.

Topic from next Friday:

Statistical Mechanics

First and Future Lectures for PGRE

Yesterday was the first meeting at ISB 235 by Paul Graham. He discussed what he felt are great test taking tips for this test. We went over a few problems from the '86 test and showed us his techniques for problem solving along with some interesting tangents related to each problem.

The next meeting is Tuesday from 5-7 at ISB 235 again.

• 1992 and 1996 exam will be reviewed at Davis Boot Camp.


• We are saving the fourth exam (1984) for a last check.


• Graham believes that the purple book is good for content review, but not representative of GRE problems.


• Actually solving GRE problems is not the best line of action and there are often other, faster techniques recommended for achieving a strong score.


• Particle physics questions on the GRE are often very easy, but often overlooked by students who have not taken particle physics courses (the majority). A one-hour crash course (summary of the standard model) is sufficient to get students up to speed on such questions.

Dine Skype Meeting

Paul Graham will contact Michael Dine to discuss the layout of the course and various logistics. Dine mentioned that it would be a good idea for the faculty members providing PGRE lectures to meet with Graham and David Dorfan to ensure that everyone is on the same page. David Dorfan is in Japan until ~September 1st, so this will be discussed again in the future.

Paul Graham Review Session

We'll be meeting on Thursday, August 18th, in ISB 235 at 7pm. Please bring any copies you have of the public Physics GRE questions (digital or paper copies). See you there!

Update & Quick Review Website

Maria and I did problems on the Daily GRE problems Daily GRE. These questions are better than what the book we tried last week, but they still are written poorly.

Maria and I plan to show up Tuesday at 9 AM at the science library to do problems on our own.

Maria stumbled on this review site that has topic by topic equations for review

Correspondance from Dine

Michael Dine is awaiting feedback from Tesla Jeltema, but he has sent an email out to her. I asked him to send out information to the other professors that we mentioned at the meeting yesterday. 
He had an enthusiastic response from Dave Dorfan and suggests that Dave cover E&M or Classical Mechanics.  
Dr. Dine is happy to do a session, preferably on quantum mechanics and/or atomic and nuclear physics.  
I've added this information to the Google Doc!

Book Review

Maria, Matt S., and I reviewed

GRE Physics - The Best Test Prep for the GRE

In our opinion, this book is an inadequate resource for studying. It has problems that are overly difficult and poorly written in terms of grammar, consistency, and correctness. To be fair, there are some problems that are similar to actual problems. Conceptual questions are most similar to actual problems in comparison. However, questions will force one to calculate numbers that are not possible under a time constraint.

At best, this is a decent source of quick reference over formulae, which has not been verified by us.

Meeting -August 11th, 2011

Today we met to discuss the formation of a Physics GRE prep group at the University of California, Santa Cruz campus. Matt Hogan, Matt Stanton, Melinda Soares-Furtado, Maria Uribe, and Paula Altamirano met on August 11th to discuss ideas regarding the focus of the group and how to best organize the content that will be covered. The content can best be grouped in three categories:

(a) problem drills where we will meet to just work problems in an allotted amount of time 

(b) lecture review where faculty will provide lectures on a variety of topics covered in the Physics GRE 

(c) mock exams where we hope to simulate the Physics GRE test taking experience as closely as possible

We are planning to review all 4 released Physics GRE exams, in entirety, over the course of the next three months. This equates to 400 problems that we need to master in content and test-taking methodology (remember this test is a very specific kind of exam and there are often strategies that reduce the time spent on each question).

The group shall begin by reviewing the ETS Physics GRE review book. Maria and Matt shall determine how similar the questions contained within this book are to the actual exam, since they have taken a physics GRE exam once before. Michael Dine and Sissy Madden shall be contacted to determine what other materials may be supplied by the UCSC Physics Department. 

Michael Dine has permitted us to begin meeting right away, so we are awaiting availability feedback from a group of professors who have been suggested to cover the exam topics. Steven Ritz, Jason Nielson, Bruce Schumm, Gey-Hong Gweon, Michael Dine, Dave Dorfan, and Paul Graham were all mentioned as possible faculty to cover selected material. 

Melinda is also planning to contact Paul Graham to secure a weekly review session that he will host on campus. 

Monday, August 15th, we shall meet for a problem drill at 1pm in the Science Library. Daily problem drill sessions shall be scheduled until the date of the exam. 

All of us have been added to the UC Davis Physics GRE Boot Camp weekend taking place on September 10-11th. Carpooling options are available. 

Matt Hogan, Paula, Maria, and Matt Stanton plan to take the exam in October, while Melinda will take the exam in April. 

If you have not already been added to the Physics GRE Prep Google Document, please email Melinda Soares-Furtado at msoares.physics@gmail.com to be added right away. Once added as an author, feel free to edit the content as you wish. 

Also: General GRE prices are $80 for the months of August and September and rise to $160 thereafter.