Physics Qualifying Exams

Recent Updates — Nov 2, 2009 :

Fall 2009 Qual and Solutions now posted.

Features:

• The pdfs of all previous quals and their solutions are linked to on this main page.

• Pdfs of qual problems manually combined by By Subject.

• A separate wiki-page per qual question cross listed By Year and By Subject.

• Study tips from previous qual takers including

• Jonathan's writeup on how to make a useful Qual Problem Binder.

• Anat's study materials are now available.

The plan for this site is to eventually have a page for each question and solution with the following naming convention: Spring 2006 13 EM which would mean Spring 2006, problem 13, E&M question (as an example).

There are 6 categories that the questions most easily fall into: E&M, Quantum Mechanics, Classical Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics, mathematical methods, and miscellaneous questions, with the relevant subjects getting the labels "EM, QM, Mech, SM, Math, Misc" respectively.

This ought to allow people to search the site for questions by specific qual, or by subject area, and to correct the website AND the previous quals.

Spring Quals	Fall Quals
2009 Spring	2009 Fall
2008 Spring	2008 Fall
2007 Spring	2007 Fall
2006 Spring	2006 Fall
2005 Spring	2005 Fall
2004 Spring	2004 Fall
2003 Spring	2003 Fall - and - F2003 Solutions
2002 Spring	2002 Fall
2001 Spring	2001 Fall
2000 Spring	2000 Fall
1999 Spring	1999 Fall
1998 Spring	1998 Fall
1997 Spring	1997 Fall
1996 Spring	1996 Fall
1995 Spring	1995 Fall
1994 Spring	1994 Fall
1993 Spring	1993 Fall
1992 Spring	1992 Fall
1991 Spring	1991 Fall
1990 Spring	1990 Fall
1989 Spring	1989 Fall
1988 Spring	1988 Fall
	1987 Fall

Note: Fall 2003 doesn't have official solutions, so the posted solutions are what Nate wrote up.

Jonathan Whitmore, a physics graduate student at UCSD, created this site to organize the previous qual solutions in a single location and, to provide a place for mistakes in these solutions to be found and shared. Also, this site hopes to be a good resource for study tips from past qual takers for what they found useful in their studying.

The 'qual' is also called the physics departmental exam.

This is a wiki site after all, so please add to and correct things as you see fit — you have to get a wikidot account, but it's straightforward and free.

Thank you, great website

Anonymous (24.14.118.x) 1223652091|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

hi,
I am from Northern Illinois University, a physics grad students.

Great website, really appreciate what you guys have come up with

thank you

thanks

ahmed (guest) 1229114618|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

you have the greatest site of problem solution in classical mechanics

:)

mohammad (guest) 1243292378|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Whitemore, I am so grateful for your efforts. Thanks a lot :)

pascal (guest) 1264160240|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

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