Graduate Problem Solving 2016F
Fall Semester 2016 PHY6938
Prof. Alexander Volya
phone: 644-1804, e-mail volya at phy.fsu.edu
Time:
To be determined
Office hours: I have an open door policy (if my door is open and I am not busy talking to somebody else you are invited to come in and ask your questions) Official office hours reserved for this class are on Mondays 8-10 am.
Location: Keen 209 (second floor conference room) (Note not HTL building!)
The primary objective of this course is to help students prepare for the written PhD Qualifying Examination. Additional benefits include: reviewing a broad range of physics topics, improving problem-solving skills, opportunities to participate in team work and practice physics communications.
Links:
- Qualifying Exam Rules and Regulations access via blackboard.fsu.edu
- FSU blackboard.fsu.edu
Problem Bank:
- FSU Physics Problem Bank (see blackboard.fsu.edu)
- University of Florida
- Duke University
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- University of Cincinnati
Schedule:
Due to Qual's exam schedule there is usually some delay in enrollment. We expect to complete drop/add process by September 23. We will work more intensly and do some practice exams toward the end of the semester.
Sep 2-Sep 23: FSU Fall 2016 exam (review)
Expectations and strategy:
This course is designed to help, thus there is no formal grading. It is however expected that students regularly participate in the course and work on problems.
- We will discuss one problem set from previous exams each week; we will start from the most recent exam. Prior to each meeting you should solve and review published solutions to these problems. No written submission is required for this work but you should have your list of questions ready before class.
- For additional exercise a set of test problems will be given each week.
- We will have several midterm-test exams and the fianl exma during the semester; all grades will be for your information only.
- Except for exams, group work, help from other students, faculty is encouraged.
- The course is graded pass/fail; students that do not come to class and do not work on assignments will fail this course.
Latex problem template (template has a figure so you need both tex and png files): template.tex figurefile.png
