What is the realistic chance of doing well on the GRE Physics subject exam with Liberal Arts as my undergrad.?

Question

I majored in Soc & Econ under the social scinces in my school's liberal arts department. I know calculus fairly well and have taken Astronomy so I touch on classical physcis somewhat (I took AP Physics in HS). Discussion wise I am familiar with what is happening in the quantum world and cosmology, but the finer details-the math and formulas need work. I have a book and have began studying rigorously. My only concern is the "laboratory" section and the math on the GRE subject exam. Realistically, will my lack of the first three years of undergrad in physcis truly inhibit me from learning those sections and topics on my own? Is it naive of me to think I can do it? I would like to go into grad school for this seeing that i find it fascinating. Someone who knows would be of great advice! Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

There are two separate issues:

- The GREs: On the one hand, the actual questions in the GREs are not that tough. They are, after all, multiple-choice questions. On the other hand, the calculations you need to do need to be very quick, so it makes a lot of difference if you've done them a bunch of times before. The questions aren't at all deep, but there are a heck of a lot of topics that should be more-or-less second nature to you: a lot of mechanics, quite a bit of electromagnetism, some simple but quantitative grasp of quantum effects, a little bit of relativity. And you should be fast and comfortable with it. If you're going to try to cram it down in three months, it's going to be tough.

- Beyond the GREs: The real problem is that if you go to graduate school, you have to take graduate courses. The first killer will be electromagnetic theory, almost certainly based on Jackson's book. This book and that course assume that you've been through the physics in your upper-division years; and that in turn assumes that you've seen all those ideas developed gently into intuitive notions in your first two years. Physics is not like advanced mathematics, where you try to get it the first time around: Typically, people are exposed to the whole range of ideas three times, with increasing mathematical sophistication. It isn't just that you need to develop more sophistication, it is also because you have to let the ideas grow on you. There are a lot of sharp mathematics students who don't "grok" physics at all - just at all (just as there are some physics students who don't get very far with pure math). The issue is intuition.

The second killer will be quantum mechanics. It will be a lot of work even for people who have had the full two courses previously. And you will not have a lot of time to do a lot of concept-cleaning. "Familiarity with the quantum world" alone won't cut it. You need to be able to do the calculations.

By the way, have you heard of Prelims? These are the written and oral exams they give you, usually at the end of your 2nd year. They're not multiple-choice. You need to be able to set up and complete calculations, on classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, thermal physics, and sometimes a few other things.

I don't want to say that it's too late to start studying physics. Actually, people have done that after years of a gap. But you will not succeed if you just try to learn enough to pass through the GREs. What you're really going to have to do is to study the material from the beginning. If you want to take the courses, that would be pretty safe: at least you know that you're covering the standard stuff. If not, make sure you have contact with someone who knows what's going on in physics (not in "the quantum world") and can help you solve problems. It's going to be much tougher that way, but I'm not saying it's impossible. You might have more fun - but your chance of ultimately succeeding will be less, if only because you might not have been able to put enough stress on yourself to work out all the problems to the final correct and detailed conclusions, under time pressure.

Finally, it matters whether you want to work in experimental physics, in a laboratory, or in theoretical physics, or if you are just doing this to complete your education. If you ultimately want to work in a lab, you need to develop lab skills. That means you'll have to convince someone to take you on as an assistant. If you want to be a theorist, you're probably going to have to show some signs of being a self-starter, wrt mathematics and concepts. If you just want to finish your education with a graduate degree in physics, and just go on to do programming or systems engineering or law after that, then you can relax a little on that front; but then you'll have other concerns as well.
Good luck!

Answer 2

I have always been an advocate for letting the punishment fit the crime. Maybe instead of the death penalty, this scumbag should have his spinal cord severed and forced to live as a quadriplegic. Of course that still leaves the matter of being shot in the face four times by a .40 caliber at close range and enduring all the surgeries that Officer Gonzalez has had to face. Maybe the death penalty is the best option, but none of that quick relatively painless (by comparison to Officer Gonzalez pain and suffering) lethal injection, or electric chair. The ancient Chinese had a punishment that every day the prisoner had a body part removed, starting with the feet and working upward. The body part was then boiled and fed to the prisoner, so that he slowly ate himself to death. No cost for food to the taxpayers. Cruel and unusual punishment? Not in my opinion.

Answer 3

It's been awhile since I took it, but I suspect that if you knew the introductory physics series very very well (like AP physics with calculus) then you would do acceptably well on the GRE. You would be missing out on the modern physics and classical mechanics, but you might get enough of the concepts from the introductory series. Honestly I think your problems might arise in grad school if you do well on the GRE and are not prepared for the level of physics you see in grad classes.

Answer 4

Two excellent answers so far. To more directly answer your question . . . there are practice physics GRE tests. Get a hold of as many as you can. How well you do on these tests will reflect on how well you can perform on the GRE.

Answer 5

The GRE does not have a physics section. There is a Analytic section and a Verbal. Myself, an engineer, I got a 750 on the that section, but a 500 on the verbal section.