Other books..

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satyad18
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Other books..

Post by satyad18 » Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:09 am

Apart frm the standard books like HRW, Griffiths..which we use for prep 4 PGRE, could u plz help me with the books worth buyin just for practicing problems (apart frm tos 4-sample tests).?

physics_auth
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Re: Other books..

Post by physics_auth » Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:50 pm

satyad18 wrote:Apart frm the standard books like HRW, Griffiths..which we use for prep 4 PGRE, could u plz help me with the books worth buyin just for practicing problems (apart frm tos 4-sample tests).?
P.S.: AS I SAW THERE ARE SEVERAL CANDIDATES THAT TARGET TO SPECIALIZED TOPICS. HOWEVER, SPECIALIZED TOPICS ENCOMPASS A LOT OF STUFF. MY OPINION IS THAT IT IS MEANINGLESS, FOR INSTANCE, TO READ A WHOLE BOOK ON MATHEMATICAL METHODS ONLY TO ANSWER 1 QUESTION ABOUT THIS TOPIC. I ADVISE THAT YOU SHOULD ABSORB ONLY WHAT IS NECESSSARY AND ACT ACCORDING TO YOUR CAPABILITIES, DO NOT OVERDO IT! ALSO, HAVE IN MIND SCHAUM'S BOOKS. THEY ARE VERY HELPFUL SINCE THE CONDENSE WHOLE TOPICS IN ONLY FEW PAGES. I WOULD RECOMMEND SCHAUM'S "ASTRONOMY" FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO ATTACK ASTROPHYSICS QUESTIONS OF PGRE TEST. SEARCH FURTHER ON YOUR OWN INITIATIVE.
Last edited by physics_auth on Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:13 am, edited 2 times in total.

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grae313
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Re: Other books..

Post by grae313 » Tue Aug 11, 2009 4:40 pm

OMG WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?!

physics_auth
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Re: Other books..

Post by physics_auth » Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:30 pm

grae313 wrote:OMG WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?!
If you refer to me, see my topic on Friday (Aug.) 14. It is some kind of misapprehension about the rules of the game!

pamel
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Re: Other books..

Post by pamel » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:02 pm

What physics_auth says is absolutely right....his primary concern is not to worry about the specialization involved in the topics rather focus only on your problem solving skills.

As PGRE bothers more about the basics than the depth of your knowledge. It is only at one's disadvantage to go for things in great detail.

Regarding Books :

For Classical Mechanics & Special Relativity :

Introductory Classical Mechanics with problems and Solutions by David Morrin
Wonderful book replete with problems that tantalize you and keep you engaged for a long duration.

I can't point out if the problems will be of any help, because they are of elementary level yet they necessitate a lot of experience. They really annoy you for sure.

It can be of great help for those who wish to clarify their concepts, the theory is presented concisely.

For only Special Relativity :

Introduction to Special Relativity by Robert Resnick.
Small book a little more than 200 pages.

The exposition is explanatory and hence verbose, if you are done with Relativity from elsewhere I can recommend this for you to brush up your concepts and solve problems quickly during the last hour preparation.
--

physics_auth
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Re: Other books..

Post by physics_auth » Sat Oct 03, 2009 7:56 pm

Proposition for future PGRE candidates: From all general physics textbooks I have searched till now, Halliday-Resnick-Krane or Serway's books are very good and sufficient (for the purpose of the test) as far as sharpening of one's problem-solving skills is concerned. However, if somebody of you want to cover as much theory stuff for PGRE test as possible using only one very comprehensive book, I propose to use the following textbook for your theoretical preparation

Igor V. Savelyev -> "PHYSICS, A General Course", Volume I, II and III
MIR PUBLISHERS, Moscow

This book contains only theory, not exercises. The first two volumes are around 450 pages and the third around 350 pages. The great advantage of this book is that it covers many topics that other modern general physics textbooks do NOT mention at all (for instance phase transitions, theory of rigid bodies -at an upper level-, basics of crystal structure and so on). This way, people do not need for example to read both Halliday-Resnick and Beiser and ... to cover PGRE stuff since all these topics are covered sufficiently (for the purpose of the PGRE test only, not for your qualifyings!) in this series I mentioned above.

For electricity, magnetism, electromagnetism and circuit theory instead of Griffiths' book one can read the more comprehensive book
-> "Electricity and magnetism", 4th edition, W.J.Duffin - it does a very good job especially for the theoretical preparation that is necessary for the test (for example, Griffiths' book does not touch topics about circuits that carry time-independent or time-dependent currents). This book places great emphasis on both the physical grounds that underlie concepts that are introduced in electromagnetic theory and various experiments that took place at the various stages of the develoment of electromagnetic theory.

pamel
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Re: Other books..

Post by pamel » Sun Oct 04, 2009 1:10 am

Its true what physics_auth has said, MIR publishers are one of the best when it comes to putting thing concisely as well as preserving the scope and extent of the subject.



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