Hatrack River Forum: Qualifying Exam tomorrow

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Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

And also on Tuesday. Fear and trembling! Wish me luck.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Good luck. You'll do great!

Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :

*good vibes coming your way [Smile]

Posted by Bonny Mad Jenny (Member # 5609) on :

Ye'll do well...

or else!

[Smile]

Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :

Good luck!

Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :

Good Luck..qualifying for what?

Kwea

Posted by the master (Member # 6788) on :

eegad.

good luck!

where are you a student at?

Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :

"Bring them the light"! [Wink]

You'll do fine. [Smile]

Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :

Go bravely forth young hero and smite yon foes with righteous fury!

Sorry, cross-post from the d&d thread.

Good luck on the exam and may your pencil never break.

-Trevor

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

I am a genius, why would I need to keep repeating it? And it's qualifying for the graduate course in physics at the University of Cincinnati. I think I'll pass tomorrow, that's the short questions, I'm more worried about Tuesday.

Posted by sarahdipity (Member # 3254) on :

Ooo good luck. This is my semester for our qualification process so I feel your pain.

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Wooo. Well, I believe I passed. Just. 15 questions, 60% is a pass, I answered 11 questions that I'm sure I'm right on, one where I may have made an approximation that they didn't want me to make, and two kinda-halfway. So even just counting the eleven I pass. But it's a small margin of error. And I'm very glad we're not being graded.

Which leaves the tough, graduate-level questions tomorrow. But I do believe I am better prepared for them. I mean, who remembers the method of images, for God's sake? But I do know how to set up a Lagrangian.

Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :

*Doesn't have the slightest idea of what KoM is talking about.

Posted by the master (Member # 6788) on :

our quals were 3 subject tests. after the first exam (math for me), i spent an hour wandering around the parking garage looking for my car before i realized that i no longer owned an '84 accord and should have been looking for my saturn. sounds like you did better.

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

See you, that is the advantage of not owning a car. But it's just as well the traffic was not heavy as I walked home.

Posted by Vera (Member # 2094) on :

At least your first day wasn't as bad as the Nameless Guy's.

Good luck on your second day! Sounds like you did well on your first day. Any passing score on quals is good. And remember, in the immortal words of Mike Slackenerny "Everything in grad school is binary...you don't have to be good, just good enough"

I'm doing my quals this semester too, and I'm scared to death.

[ September 20, 2004, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: Vera ]

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Hey, that's a great comic! Thanks!

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Oh dear, oh my boots and whiskers, oh dear me. Were I a believing man, I'd set the prayer wheels to running full-time about now. I think it's just possible that I'll pass by the smallest possible margin; but it requires a bit of luck and lenient grading.

Four questions, two I answered quite well. The nasty quantum-spin addition (without a table of CG coefficients!) I waved my hands on considerably, but I think I got it approximately right. And the thermo? Nine equations in nine unknowns? There must be a simpler way to do it.

Fortunately everybody else seemed to think it was a very tough exam too, so there may be hope yet. If you call it 90% for the mechanics and electrodynamics, 50% for QM, and 10% for thermo, you get exactly 60%, the passing number. Margin for error? Not at all.

[Wall Bash]

At least I can re-sit it in the Spring... [Cry]

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

[Hat]

Here's to hoping you made it.

FG

Posted by Vera (Member # 2094) on :

You probably got more partial credit than you think you did. That seems to be the way it usually works out. [Smile]

I'll be sending some good vibrations your way.

While you're waiting for your results, perhaps you should be aware of the dangers of PQS and how to live with it, and other factors affecting motivation. [Wink]

[ September 21, 2004, 07:10 PM: Message edited by: Vera ]

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Thank you.

Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :

[Smile]

*fingers crossed for you