Physics schols

knopfey

Hello there,

I know its a little early in the year to start posting about exams so forgive my enthusiasm. I'm entering sf science this year and wish to sit schols in both physics and maths. I've started going through some of the material for this year, SR mainly which is much easier than I expected and revising our maths material from JF. I was wondering if anyone here had sat these subjects in schols and if so do they have any advice? Is it true that you are examined on areas of the course which have not yet been covered in lectures?
Thanking you all in advance

ApeXaviour

I sat schols in those subjects in 2006 and somehow managed to get them (skin. of. teeth.) It's never too early to start. Even if it is just your mindset. Though your real coffee-induced, panic driven, antisocial hermitation won't begin until January. It really needs to be the beginning of January too.

The maths is the one you're relying on to get you your overall first. Everyone who gets it in maths and physics through science or advanced materials almost always does a good bit better in maths.

It's unfortunate Dr. Sara McMurry retired this year. Her maths course, 2S2 was what got it for me (though others didn't find that course so kind, so maybe you'll be better off). Brenno is still doing 2S5. I actually only got a II-1 in his very easy course for one reason: I didn't go up to him with my sample answers I'd tried, merely because I assumed them to be right. And they were, I'd just skipped lines in the proofs. In physics it's fine to do that, you get so used to doing calculus and algebra, they become second nature, you only write down what you need to write down to stop yourself making mistakes. I went through the paper with him after and he'd say things like "though that's correct, I couldn't give you the marks for it, it looks like you just pulled it out of the air which to me means you may have memorised it". So anyway, just a (drawn out) warning from experience, in maths you need to show all your steps, even if you can do them in your head. In physics, not so much.

I found the exams were both more difficult, and marked harder than the annuals (I actually sat the schols in JS, so I've seen them both). As a result, past schol papers will in general be more useful to you than past annual papers. Though if you're serious about trying for them, you'll inevitably use both for more practice. This also means that they don't really include any JF material (though most courses will be built on JF material anyway). They also generally don't examine things that weren't covered, though sometimes it may not seem that way. Since (usually it's the) astrophysics course that's covered in trinity term. There's space for questions on paper 2, they fill with random tricky physics questions. Here's an example of part of one from the year I sat them:

"There are two identical sealed containers, one contains dry air and the other contains moist air. Which is heavier? Why?"

See what I mean? Very few people got it apparently.

I'd only answer one if these if I were you, they take quite a bit of time to muddle over and you can get obsessed with them and screw up your exam technique. I'd only try to know the basic mechanics/energy/gas laws/electronics etc for these questions. They'll usually throw you quite a few marks for good attempts. You can find many many of these types of questions if you look at the final year physics (dreaded) paper 5. But I wouldn't try to focus on this too much at all. There only two of these questions.

Lecture Notes... they're very very important (I scavenged some off my mate, shit I really owe her something). Some of the information needed can be very time consuming to find in books. "University Physics" is no longer your be all and end all.

Another thing I found out after looking through my physics papers, was that I really should have written more. Oh yeah you have to be concise and not waffly; what I mean is, you really need to show them you know what you're talking about. Show off with some tangentally relevant points. This is especially true if you're not sure what they're asking about, this or that equation you knew but didn't put down might have been enough for those extra marks.

I think Eithne McCabe is still doing current electricity. That's a great course for the 10/10 in questions. Mostly because she's one of the only ones that will give them and also because it's not too difficult a course. You really do need this book though: Electronics Fundamentals by Floyd (S-LEN 621.381 P44;1). She pulls the whole course out of there and neglects to tell people. It's an engineering book I believe, so it's written in "the ladybird guide to" fashion unlike most hieroglyphic-esque physics books on electronics. It'll save you a lot of time.

Oscillations isn't easy. McGilp will help you out though, and once it's clicked you're all good. There's only so many kinds of things he can ask in it, so for this as well as everything it's all about the past questions past questions past questions. Yeah SR seems well handy, just be careful, it can get tricky sometimes, and your whole idea of the universe, time and causality etc. gets all muddled, then you can't do the question. Keep it simple and stick to the rules.

Also join the physoc this year. If the library gets too noisy, or you want to study after hours you might get to use the physoc room (depending on if we get a new one or not).

low

Round of applause for Apexaviour for that post.

Newb

ApeXaviour wrote:

...Electronics Fundamentals by Floyd (S-LEN 621.381 P44;1)...

Floyd's book is aimed at Electronic Technicians and is an excellent introduction to electronics. Floyd wrote many electronic engineering books and I have found that if he explained one concept very lightly in one book, there is a good chance he devoted an entire chapter to the same concept in another book.

I found oscillations explained very simply in Microelectronic Circuits by Sedra & Smith.

Fallen Seraph

Is there not an online resource for solutions to the past schols? I could have sworn there was, but don't seem to be able to find them... Or is that just the end of year exams?


I'm also very curious as to the answer to the riddle posed in ape's post... Does "moist" mean "droplets suspended" or "contains water molecules"? I scratch my head.

ApeXaviour

Fallen Seraph wrote:

Is there not an online resource for solutions to the past schols? I could have sworn there was, but don't seem to be able to find them... Or is that just the end of year exams?

In the case of physics, individual lectures would set and correct the questions, most of whom are more interested in research. So any complete set of solutions I imagine would be student created.

Fallen Seraph wrote:

I'm also very curious as to the answer to the riddle posed in ape's post... Does "moist" mean "droplets suspended" or "contains water molecules"? I scratch my head.

I've attached the question in its original form.

CrunchyMask

Hey,

Kinda in the same boat but I'm doing Theoretical physics instead & I was wondering if I could scrounge some advice on prepping for schols to with that ?

Specifically, presuming that the courses haven't changed this year (maths have already updated their pages but physics are still on last year's schedule), I was wondering if somebody could sketch out what I need to worry about from the following courses & what books/online resources they found good/indispensable (aside from Landau for 241 which everyone swears by).

# 214 Complex Variable - Lecturer: Dr. David Wilkins
# 216 Ordinary Differential Equations - Lecturer: Dr. John Stalker
# 224 Geometry - Lecturer: Prof. David Simms
# 231 Equations of Mathematical Physics - Lecturer: Dr. Conor Houghton
# 241 Mechanics 2 - Sergi Frolov

* 2002 Chaos and Complexity(for TP only)
* 2003 Oscillations
* 2004 Physical Optics
* 2005 Thermodynamics
* 2006 Quantum Physics
* 2007 Nuclear Physics
* 2008 Observing the Universe
* 2009 Current Electricity

* 2050 Laboratory Classes
* 2060 Group Study Projects

Also, rumour has it that labs don't count if you get schols? Is this true? (not thinking about abstaining but I might be inclined to weight my time towards study more if this were the case probably).

Sorry for little essay there but if you have any info, I'd appreciate it greatly.

Also thanks for reccomendation of 'Electronics Fundamentals by Floyd (S-LEN 621.381 P44;1)' ApeXaviour. Will check that out.

(Gosh, I feel like a dweeb now for such enthusiasm).:(

ApeXaviour

CrunchyMask wrote:

Hey,

Kinda in the same boat but I'm doing Theoretical physics instead & I was wondering if I could scrounge some advice on prepping for schols to with that ?

Hey, good luck. Everything I said on the physics aspect (apart from the special rel) applies to you as you'll get the same questions marked by the same people.

* 2002 Chaos and Complexity(for TP only)
* 2003 Oscillations
* 2004 Physical Optics
* 2005 Thermodynamics
* 2006 Quantum Physics
* 2007 Nuclear Physics
* 2008 Observing the Universe
* 2009 Current Electricity

Unless they've changed the layout, you will be examined on all of these apart from 2008 - Observing the Universe. Including physical intuition questions.

Also, rumour has it that labs don't count if you get schols? Is this true?

Yes. Unless the school of physics decided to change it.

Also thanks for reccomendation of 'Electronics Fundamentals by Floyd (S-LEN 621.381 P44;1)' ApeXaviour. Will check that out.

Glad I could help.

(Gosh, I feel like a dweeb now for such enthusiasm).:(

Just hope it lasts. I remember reading an article about schols in trinity news a few years back. They interviewed this (arts) student who got it. He said: "people think you need to be a genius. You don't. You just need to be really really determined". I couldn't agree more.

I of course can't speak for your maths courses from personal experience. All I can advise is to keep doing exam papers, tutorial sheets etc. I can't really stress that enough. If you have a new lecturer/course, you may need to bug them for extra tutorial sheets or sample papers etc. Eat/sleep well, take fish oil, vits and minerals and drink green tea.

If you get close but don't get it this year, I'd advise you to do it in 3rd year. I know someone who got 68% when they sat it in SF TP, sat it again in JS, got that few % extra and got it, then went on to do really well in his JS exams (85%) 7 weeks later.

I didn't think this was really possible, because the JS material is a lot more difficult (especially in physics) than the SF. So when I sat the schols in JS, I was really quite worried about my annual exams, as I hadn't done a tap of study for them. But the good study habits I'd gained crossed over into trinity term and I ended up doing much better than I expected (nowhere near 85% like yer man, but still...)

fitzgese

For the maths side of TP Schols, I'd stick to the online notes for 214. If last year's exam was anything to go by, I'd get to know the important proofs really well (Path Lifting Theorem, Taylor's Theorem, Cauchy's Theorem, Laurent's theorem, Morera's Theorem). TP's didn't do 216 last year (well we did it for a month and then were told we didn't have to do it anymore). For 224, use the online notes on David Simm's website and the old 211 and 221 exams that he set. He normally sets very similiar questions every year, if not the same ones, so know how to do all the questions in the past papers. Also, the 224 exam is tough, since he doesn't specify how many questions you should answer, it's very difficult to get all 10 questions done to a high standard in the 3 hrs. so practising old questions really helps with this. Just make sure you do the problem sheets he gives out (every week), since he only actually corrects the Christmas one. For 231, I'd recommend Erwin Kreyszig, Advanced Engineering Mathematics (you can find others on Conor Houghton's 231 page) and to do the problem sheets and questions from the relevant sections in this book. As you've already heard, definitely use Landau for 241. It's not a book to be skimmed through, I'd take plenty of time to read it carefully and go through almost all of the problems and solutions in it, as well as the problem sets you get. Dr. Frolov tends to ask things which he's covered recently more than older topics in his exams, so spend a good bit of time on what he does after Christmas.

For Chaos and Complexity in Physics, make sure you can do all the old questions from the Schols and Annual exam papers. Also, the Hilborn book (see Dr. Hutzler's online notes for the full title and SLEN code) can
be helpful in clearing up some stuff. Last year in current electricity, Prof. McCabe only aksed stuff from the last week of the course (which she went through fairly quickly in class) so read up on this in Floyd in case something like this happens again. Also, I found Thermal Physics by Finn, Chapman and Hall good, especially since Prof. Weaire only gives summary lecture notes. He also has a tendency to ask things in Schols that he didn't cover/skimmed over in class; the book is good for going over these. For optics, the lecture notes Dr. Coleman gives are good but you might want to consult Optics by Hecht occasionly though. As ApeXaviour already said, you really do want to have all the relevant lecture notes and keep doing old exam questions.

Good luck , try and get started as early as you can and keep at it.