I'm going to be taking the physics GRE this year. I would like to ask what books some of you think would be good to study with, both general physics and, specifically, quantum mechanics, my weak spot and what seems to be the focus of the test. They force this test on you when trying to get into astronomy gradaute programs, doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Anyway, thanks for any responses.

Mongo

My son took this test about 2 years ago, and he felt that the classical physics section was the most difficult. His previous field of study had been chem e and genetics though, so he may not be typical. If I talk to him in the next day or so I'll ask him your question.

Don't buy the big purple book. I don't remember the title or publisher (and
neither can any of the people around me), but we all bought the big purple
practice test book, and we all found it useless.

I found that the practice exam booklet from the ETS was a big help, and I
even had some of the same questions on the GRE (including one tricky
question).

The reason that the physics GRE is required for astro graduate programs is
that basic physics is at the roots of all astronomy research and comes
up all the time (even if you're a lowly observer like me). The GRE, while
far from perfect, shows that the test taker has ability (or lack thereof) in
physics.

My own gripe on the GRE: the ETS claimed that "up to 10%" of the exam
would cover astrophysical topics. The only question with any astrophysical
content was really a special relativity question in disguise -- given quasars
A and B on exact opposite sides of the sky, A is redshifted by 0.9c, B is
redshifted by 0.8c, what is the redshift of A as seen from B? And then to
further insult my desire to see an astrophysics question, only one of the
answers was possible, so I didn't have to do any math. (And what
astronomer uses 0.9c instead of z=3.4?)

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Crimson does not mean to brag, but he got an 800 on the Physics GRE.

First, yes, it is stupid to require astronomy people to take a physics GRE. But as you enter the world of professional astronomy, you will find an enormous amount of what might be called "physics envy." This generally comes from the same people who look down upon those who actually know the constellations. Although physics is hardly irrelevant to astronomy, it's not as important as some people think, and Crimson would gladly have given up some physics knowledge for a little more knowledge of chemistry and geology. (If it makes you feel better, realize that for some insane reason pre-medical students are required to take physics. This shows how far physics envy has penetrated academia.)

Second, and to answer your question: Crimson found the best strategy for studying for the Physics GRE was to study all notes from all physics classes taken during college, and especially to redo all problems from those classes. If you are a physics major, then you already know most of what is on the GRE--it's simply a matter of refreshing your memory of it and your ability to do the problems.

I TA'd the intro physics course that pre-meds took at Illinois about 20 years ago. It left me with a great appreciation for their powers of memorization. My theory was that they develop this as they go through anatomy and biology (name and locate all of the nerves in the arm for instance). They then applied this to physics by memorizing the final formula for all of the possible special cases that could arise for the typical problems that we asked instead of deriving them from the base principals. It wasn't that they were stupid, they just applied their tool-kit to the problem.
As to the need, so much of medicine these days requires some physics knowledge. I'd feel uncomfortable if the radiologist designing the cancer therapy for my father hadn't studied any physics. Likewise, new imaging technologies (MRI, CAT, etc) require some physics knowledge. While the village GP probably doesn't need much, the specialist does.

Of course, the ultimate answer may have been the one another TA (supposedly) gave a student. When asked, "Why is physics part of the premed curriculum" the TA responded "to keep people like you from becoming doctors."

That's the thing, I was close to the top in my astronomy classes, but near the bottom in my physics classes. I just didn't care about physics. Now this test could keep me out of grad school, because I don't know quantum mechanics, which of any physics has the least to do with astronomy. Any specific texts that anyone knows about so I don't have to go hunt for a good text?
Mongo

Ah yes, that would be the book by REA. Yes, it is absolute garbage. One who studies Big Purple can only be hurt by it. The problems in the REA book, which require a ridiculous amount of memorization, are unlike anything on the real test, which required little memorization.
Definitely. The problem is that ETS is no longer pubishing the books with the GRE's in them, so they are becoming scarce (but no less relevant).
Agreed. In astronomy grad school you have to take several graduate level physics classes. In addition, many of the graduate astronomy classes were really advanced physics classes wth a little astronomy phenomonology thrown in. Thus, when I was in grad school, Radiative Processes was 1/2 quantum and 1/2 E&M, ISM (Interstellar Medium) was mostly atomic physics, Instrumentation was 1/2 optics and 1/2 electronics, Galactic Dynamics had a heavy stat mech component, and so on. The funny thing is, unless you are doing theory, the research almost never requires any physics. The classes, however, definitely do.

As far as what books are best, there are the out-of-print ETS books mentioned previously. However, you should know that 75-80% of the test does not come from upper level physics courses, but instead from the 1st two years of physics. Of course, you have to understand the material from freshman and sophomore physics very thoroughly in order to get anywhere with it. Therefore, your physics texts from these years are going to be the most important.

In terms of working through the practice problems, the most important thing is not to work through them. By this I mean that you have to be able to approach most of the problems qualitatively rather than quantitatively. If the answer is some type of function, take the limits to see if the functions behave as they should (e.g. in a stat mech problem, if they give you a function for a number in a ground state as a function of temperature, you should know that as T goes to 0 they should all be in the ground state, and as T goes to infinity they should be evenly distributed between possible states). See if they have the right units. These skills are extremely important for the test.

Don't want to take the physics GRE? Sheesh, who does? Well, in astronomy as well as life itself, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you change the rules in the middle of the game. So, try the University of Florida astro program, http://www.astro.ufl.edu/. The prospective student letter is at http://www.astro.ufl.edu/graduatepro...uidelines.html and it says the physics GRE is not required.

Here at North Carolina State University, where I'm a postbac (already have a BS in another subject) in physics at about the sophomore level, the department requirements at http://www.physics.ncsu.edu/graduate...ate/index.html say: "Candidates with complete test scores (including the Physics subject test) generally have an increased likelihood of acceptance into the graduate program." So you might not absolutely have to take the physics GRE at NCSU. We have a very respectable astrophysics group here, in fact, Dr. Borkowski told me he remembered the BA from when they were at UVa. However, since we don't have an optical observatory, we do mostly theoretical and high-energy stuff--you can get data from Chandra and other spacecraft from the Web. Our esteemed counterparts at UNC (whom we beat twice in basketball and once in football last season) have a nice observatory on-campus and a share in SOAR, and many other assets, but do require the physics GRE. Oh well.

Talk about physics envy--even in aviation mechanic school you have to take physics, and it's on the FAA test.

See you around the science world.

__________________
"You're only young once, but you can always be immature." -- Dave Barry

Oh god this really worries me, because I do have one big purple book sitting on my desk , and I'd already worked out a few chapters...a little more detail concerning the book (author? publisher?) would be appreciated.

This is the book in question:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846
The physics reviews in the book are not per se bad, but they emphasize the wrong things for the GRE. It is the practice exams in the book which are truly atrocious. And I haven't even mentioned the sea of typos in the book. The reviews for this book on amazon look to me to be pretty much on point.

Just to warn you, that's not true at all. My Spectroscopy graduate course in astronomy was packed with quantum. If you are interested in spectroscopy in astronomy, which is a huge part of the field, you need to know some quantum.

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I've resigned myself to learning quantum. My undergraduate astronomy program didn't require the quantum class or even recommend it, so I must teach it to myself now. Again, any specific texts recommendations?
Mongo

Thank you Zathras , luckily this is not the one I'm using.