Difficulty of question asked in PGRE exam

Post Reply
FranCliP
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2015 11:19 pm

Difficulty of question asked in PGRE exam

Post by FranCliP » Wed Oct 14, 2015 9:37 am

Hi friends ,
I am an electrical engineering student , interested in applying M.S in physics program in Europe . So i have started preparing for this , when i searched the web how to study for PGRE , most effective and common suggestion is go through the recommended books( recommended by Yoni kahn in their website ) for each subject and solve the problems in it . When i did for classical dynamics of systems and particles by marion for the second chapter , the problems are conceptually easy but mathematically rigorous which means it take 10-15 steps to get to the answer , whether this kind of problems will appear in the PGRE exam or not ? and whether i have to read all chapters in these books.

cwr
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2015 3:41 am

Re: Difficulty of question asked in PGRE exam

Post by cwr » Wed Oct 14, 2015 10:13 am

the problems are conceptually easy but mathematically rigorous which means it take 10-15 steps to get to the answer , whether this kind of problems will appear in the PGRE exam or not ?
The problems in Kahn and Anderson's book definitely do overestimate the level of calculations you will have to do on the actual exam. With that being said, I think it's pretty dead-on in terms of content. Studying from the text will likely give you the best understanding of concepts (at least, I think it's worth looking over the latter sections on nuclear physics, special topics, etc. because these are great) and taking old released GRE's will give you an idea of the question type you'll see on the exam.

With that being said, the single best preparation (as in, the one thing you must do before you take the actual exam) is to take the most recent released GRE exam. This should be the last thing you do before you take the exam, so if you're planning to study for a long time, save this one for the end, but this is a great representation of what you'll see on exam day.

Personally, I went through pretty much every chapter. You don't necessarily need to, but I think you would benefit if you have the patience. Don't let the problem difficulty discourage you, though; even the exams at the end of that book are much more computationally intensive (by K&A's own admission) than what you'll see on the real GRE.

Best of luck!

FranCliP
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2015 11:19 pm

Re: Difficulty of question asked in PGRE exam

Post by FranCliP » Wed Oct 14, 2015 1:04 pm

cwr wrote:
the problems are conceptually easy but mathematically rigorous which means it take 10-15 steps to get to the answer , whether this kind of problems will appear in the PGRE exam or not ?
The problems in Kahn and Anderson's book definitely do overestimate the level of calculations you will have to do on the actual exam. With that being said, I think it's pretty dead-on in terms of content. Studying from the text will likely give you the best understanding of concepts (at least, I think it's worth looking over the latter sections on nuclear physics, special topics, etc. because these are great) and taking old released GRE's will give you an idea of the question type you'll see on the exam.

With that being said, the single best preparation (as in, the one thing you must do before you take the actual exam) is to take the most recent released GRE exam. This should be the last thing you do before you take the exam, so if you're planning to study for a long time, save this one for the end, but this is a great representation of what you'll see on exam day.

Personally, I went through pretty much every chapter. You don't necessarily need to, but I think you would benefit if you have the patience. Don't let the problem difficulty discourage you, though; even the exams at the end of that book are much more computationally intensive (by K&A's own admission) than what you'll see on the real GRE.

Best of luck!
Thanks for replying ,
I am not using Kahn and Anderson's book instead I am using Marion for Classical mechanics, and from what you said, i should study concepts from the books and instead solving the books problem i should solve old released GRE problems and skim the problems and solutions at the back of the book . Is this enough .
And another question ,how much mathematical formula should i memorize for solving the problems ?



Post Reply