Late last week I was able to obtain graded copies of my qualifying exam. (I swear, this will be the last post about the Quals ever.) It turned out that one of the problems on the Modern Physics exam, which I had failed, was very harshly graded -- despite a perfect solution!
It turns out that a vague question wording had me plug in an incorrect number in the beginning. Aside from that, my physics was correct. I was able to contest the grading of that particular problem successfully -- meaning that I eked through the exam!
Yes, that's right -- I passed all the qualifying exams! That means that the largest academic hurdle to getting the degree is now behind me -- and as long as I can pass my classes and be willing to slave away in the lab, I can confidently say that I will graduate with a Ph.D from UW-Madison.
It also means that I can actually be a real scientist for a living! Hooray!
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Saturday, September 17, 2005
The Verdict
Mathematics: PASS
Classical Physics: PASS
Modern Physics: FAIL
Oral: PASS
Well, three out of four isn't too bad. Most of the people I was studying with this time around only got 2/4 last time. I'll be able to see my graded test results later this week, which should be interesting -- I considered Modern to be my greatest strength, physics-wise, so we'll just have to see where I went wrong!
It's good to know the results, even if they aren't entirely what I wanted. I'll have to repeat the Ordeal of the Qualifiers once more, albeit only with a single exam. The stakes will just be a little higher -- if I fail again, I need to consider alternative career paths.
So, that chapter detailing the last few months of my life is now (almost) closed. Now I can focus on my research, which has been on the back burner while I crammed so much physics into my head!
Classical Physics: PASS
Modern Physics: FAIL
Oral: PASS
Well, three out of four isn't too bad. Most of the people I was studying with this time around only got 2/4 last time. I'll be able to see my graded test results later this week, which should be interesting -- I considered Modern to be my greatest strength, physics-wise, so we'll just have to see where I went wrong!
It's good to know the results, even if they aren't entirely what I wanted. I'll have to repeat the Ordeal of the Qualifiers once more, albeit only with a single exam. The stakes will just be a little higher -- if I fail again, I need to consider alternative career paths.
So, that chapter detailing the last few months of my life is now (almost) closed. Now I can focus on my research, which has been on the back burner while I crammed so much physics into my head!
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Qual Update
No, I don't quite know how I did at this point, but suffice to say, the Fall 2005 Qualifying Exams are behind me.
Of the three written exams I took, I feel best about math, less good (but still OK) on modern physics, and it's questionable whether I passed classical physics. After working through one of those exams, you can almost hear your brain popping and sizzling!
For my oral examination, I was grilled on radiation interactions with matter; dependence of atomic number Z and number density on gamma-matter interaction cross-sections; central-field orbital potentials; quantum mechanical tunneling; wave scattering at potential barriers; resonance and absorptive effects; complex contour integration; solving ODE's via variation of parameters, Fourier analysis, and Laplace transformations; the theory of inverting Laplace transforms via use of the residue theorem; and driven harmonic oscillators.
The faculty panel sure kept me on my toes for the whole experience, and except for some glaring algebra mistakes, I thought I knew what I was doing. It was almost fun -- except for the long periods of silence from them when I was trying to find where I missed a minus sign! (And for those of us like myself who can't do messy algebra correctly on the first try on the fly, doing it in front of your adviser and a former math instructor can only be worse!) Hopefully the remaining two oral exams I'll take (for proposing and defending my thesis research) will go as well.
So, at this point I'm in the weird limbo between finishing the exam and waiting to hear how I did. Nominally I'll know on the 16th. In the meantime, I'll get back to working on my research, which is much, much better than doing Qual problems!
Of the three written exams I took, I feel best about math, less good (but still OK) on modern physics, and it's questionable whether I passed classical physics. After working through one of those exams, you can almost hear your brain popping and sizzling!
For my oral examination, I was grilled on radiation interactions with matter; dependence of atomic number Z and number density on gamma-matter interaction cross-sections; central-field orbital potentials; quantum mechanical tunneling; wave scattering at potential barriers; resonance and absorptive effects; complex contour integration; solving ODE's via variation of parameters, Fourier analysis, and Laplace transformations; the theory of inverting Laplace transforms via use of the residue theorem; and driven harmonic oscillators.
The faculty panel sure kept me on my toes for the whole experience, and except for some glaring algebra mistakes, I thought I knew what I was doing. It was almost fun -- except for the long periods of silence from them when I was trying to find where I missed a minus sign! (And for those of us like myself who can't do messy algebra correctly on the first try on the fly, doing it in front of your adviser and a former math instructor can only be worse!) Hopefully the remaining two oral exams I'll take (for proposing and defending my thesis research) will go as well.
So, at this point I'm in the weird limbo between finishing the exam and waiting to hear how I did. Nominally I'll know on the 16th. In the meantime, I'll get back to working on my research, which is much, much better than doing Qual problems!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)