From: mike@... <mikewofsey@...>
Subject: Re: [physicsgre] Re: ETS book
To: physicsgre@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2008, 5:54 PM

There is nothing new in the book, in fact it only has four tests, while you can get those three tests plus the latest one on the Internet.   ETS used to publish that book back in the 1990s, but when the Internet became more available they just released the digital files and stopped publishing the book, since there weren't really enough Physics GRE takers to make that book very profitable for them at around $12 each.   Flash-forward to 2004-2008 and suddenly a few people don't know the book's contents are available for free on various servers with the full blessing of ETS, and the remaining copies of the original ETS book are going for $100-$300. Before I knew about all of this, I nearly purchased a copy of the book from some guy in Germany for $160, but then I found our department had a few copies on reserve. When I finally found out the files were available on the Internet I felt like a heel. (Part of the reason for the book's scarcity is that it is a throw-away, soft-bound workbook type thing, and presumably, most of the copies were thrown away.)   But there is no doubt that reviewing the four released test are the best medicine for GRE Physics test prep. But there is actually one thing better than reviewing the four tests ... reviewing the four tests several times in succession until you know at least 380 of the 400 problems cold. (There is also a 33 problem mini-test that ETS released, to bring the total problem count up to 433.)   In order of priority there are three things to do, to best prepare for that test.   1) Work, rework and rework the 400 ETS problems 2) Study up Griffith's E&M, Quantum and (to a lesser degree) his Particle Physics books. Griffiths is on the Physics GRE board, and many of the E&M and especially Quantum problems are remarkably similar to the problems on the test. Once you're in grad school, you might find that Griffith's E&M book is a valuable co-reference for Jackson's E&M book, so hold onto them. 3) Work loads of fairly simple problems to hone your chops and speed your problem-solving. Michael Browne suggested (on this forum) that he had very good luck with the Schuam's 3000 Solved Problems in Physics. I found his advice to be excellent, and I worked about 1500 of the 3000 problems in that book. 4) Add a bit of seasoning -- Lab technique books, stat mech, errror analysis, etc.. Don't spend too much time on this, because all together the problems you won't know in these combined areas will probably come to less than 5%.   Finally, speed is the issue, it's the key. After you know the ETS tests, rework them in 1/2 or 3/4 time, just to get you used to working quickly. All of the time-saving things you can do, like order-of-magnitude stuff in your head, estimations, unit and dimension analysis are good.   Enjoy, there are few pleasures like the Physics GRE, preparing for and taking the tests have been one of the most enjoyable things I've done so far in physics.   ____________ _________ _________ _____ Mike Wofsey Galaxy Gauge Graphic Design Tools 1815 Third Street Tuscaloosa, AL 35401 tel (205) 246-6492 fax (413) 803-2713 --- On Thu, 10/9/08, marykatemccrary <marykatemccrary@ yahoo.com> wrote: From: marykatemccrary <marykatemccrary@ yahoo.com> Subject: [physicsgre] Re: ETS book To: physicsgre@yahoogro ups.com Date: Thursday, October 9, 2008, 8:10 PM I'm confused... Aren't these the tests that are widely available here and on several university websites? Is there anything new in this book? --- In physicsgre@yahoogro ups.com, Kay Aleksic <kaleksic@.. .> wrote: > > There is a copy of the ETS book on sale on half.com > > Price: 147 USD !!!!!! > > http://half. ebay.com/ cat/buy/prod. cgi? > cpidEQ5248225AMPdom ain_idEQ1856AMPm eta_idEQ1& ad=15421 > > Kay >