Exam Format

Links to Past Qualifying Exams

Classical exams prior to Fall 2005 faculty.fiu.edu/~baraue/teaching/Classical1.pdf

Classical exams since Fall 2005 faculty.fiu.edu/~baraue/teaching/Classical2.pdf

Modern exams prior to Fall 2005 faculty.fiu.edu/~baraue/teaching/Modern1.pdf

Modern exams since Fall 2005 faculty.fiu.edu/~baraue/teaching/Modern2.pdf

Study Suggestions

• Do lots of practice problems. 
  
• Start with the old qualifiers.
•  Homework problems from the courses listed below.  Focus on the undergrad-level problems and the easier graduate-level problems. Basically, the problems that can be done in 30-40 minutes.
• If you want even more problems, just do a Google search on "qualifying exams physics" and you will get tons of links to exams.  Many are similar to our's.
  
• We DON'T recommend front-to-back reading of textbooks.  Use the suggested references if you have trouble with a certain type of problem.
• Work with your colleagues.
• Do timed practice runs through the old exams.  You need to learn how to pace yourself.  Do the easier problems first before coming back to the harder problems.
• If you need help with a particular topic or problem after using the suggested references, talk to professor who teaches that topic.
  

Suggested References
This list mainly includes the texts currently used in courses taught at FIU.  Other texts at the same levels are perfectly acceptable.

Topic	Level	Texts	Professor	Comments
Classical Mechanics	Undergraduate	Classical Mechanics, Kibble and Berkshire, 5th ed. Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, Thornton and Marion, 5th ed.	Brian Raue Lei Guo	Essentially the entire book is fair game: Newtonian mechanics, oscillations,Lagrangians, Hamiltonians, central-force motion, collisions, dynamics of rigid bodies, vibrations, waves. See the course syllabi: Mechanics I, Mechanics II
	Graduate	Classical Mechanics, Goldstein, Poole, and Safko, 3rd ed.	Xuewen Wang	Course website
Electricity and Magnetism	Undergraduate	Electromagnetism, Pollack & Stump, 2nd ed., Introduction to Electrodynamics, Griffiths, 3rd ed.	Robert Laird	See the course syllabi: E&M I, E&M II
	Graduate	Classical Theory of Fields Vol. 2., Landau & Lifshitz, 4th ed. Electrodynamics of Continuous Media, Landau, 2nd ed. Classical Electrodynamics, Jackson, 3rd ed.	Rajamani Narayanan	E&M 1 Chapters 1-9 from Classical Theory of Fields. E&M 2 Chapters 1-6, 9, 10, 12 from Electrodynamics... While anything covered in the courses may be on the exam, consider that many Jackson-level problems are too hard to be solved in the time allotted.
Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics	Undergraduate	An Introduction to Thermal Physics, Schroeder.	Oren Maxwell	See the course syllabi: Thermodynamnics
	Graduate	Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics, Reif.	Bernhard Gerstman	Generally not much from this course.  Perhaps something on the equipartition theorem (chapter 7).
Special Relativity	Undergraduate	Modern Physics, Serway, Moses, & Moyer, 3rd ed., chapters 1&2. Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems, Thornton & Marion, 5th ed., chapter 14.	Lei Guo, Richard Bone	Time dilation and length contraction, Lorentz transfromations, significant emphasis on four-vectors and relativistic kinematics.  Modern I website.
	Graduate	Classical Mechanics, Goldstein, Poole, and Safko, 3rd ed., chapter 7.
Quantum Mechanics	Undergraduate	Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Griffiths, 2nd ed.	Yifu Zhu	See the course syllabi: QM I, QM II
	Graduate	Quantum Mechanics, Abers.	Misak Sargsian	See the course syllabi: QM
Generic Modern	Undergraduate	Modern Physics, Serway, Moses & Moyer, 3rd ed. Modern Physics, Tipler & Llewellyn, 5th ed.	Lei Guo, Richard Bone, Pete Markowitz	Generally restricted to things like the foundations of QM (Bohr atom, quantization, etc.).  About the first nine chapters of Serway or the first semester of Modern I website.