Can You Find Yale's Past Physics Exam Papers Online?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the possibility of accessing past physics exam papers from Yale, specifically related to a graduate Quantum Field Theory (QFT) course. Participants explore the feasibility of finding these papers online and express their preferences regarding obtaining them.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses interest in viewing past exam papers from Yale's QFT course, citing their professor's claim of similarity between current and past exams.
  • Another participant suggests directly asking the professor for the exam papers instead of searching online.
  • A different participant expresses a preference for finding the papers online, indicating reluctance to approach the professor.
  • Concerns are raised about the ethics of obtaining past exam papers without the professor's knowledge, with one participant suggesting it could be considered cheating.
  • Another participant counters that the professor's current exams are based on a limited set of questions, implying that looking at past exams may not provide an unfair advantage.
  • One participant concludes that past exam papers appear to be non-existent and plans to continue studying from a textbook instead.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on whether it is appropriate to seek past exam papers without the professor's knowledge, and the discussion reflects differing opinions on the ethics and practicality of the request.

Contextual Notes

There is uncertainty regarding the availability of past exam papers and the approachability of the professor, which may influence participants' decisions on how to proceed.

Maybe_Memorie
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My QFT professor said he taught graduate QFT at Yale in the Fall of '96 and that the course he is currently teaching us is almost identical to it. If possible, I would be interested in seeing the exam papers. I've googled but that yielded nothing.

Is it possible to view past exam papers from Yale?
 
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Maybe_Memorie said:
My QFT professor said he taught graduate QFT at Yale in the Fall of '96 and that the course he is currently teaching us is almost identical to it. If possible, I would be interested in seeing the exam papers. I've googled but that yielded nothing.

Is it possible to view past exam papers from Yale?

Why don't you just ask your professor?
 
I'd honestly rather just either find them online if it was possible.
 
Maybe_Memorie said:
I'd honestly rather just either find them online if it was possible.

Hmm, sounds like cheating to me. Get his old exam papers without his knowledge, so you can maybe luck out and get the same/similar problem on an exam now...
 
With all due respect, no. His current exams, which he has taught for 12 years, are all extremely similar in the sense that he has a repertoire of about 8 questions and will put four of them on a paper in any given year. By your logic I'm cheating just by looking at those, because he WILL do the same this year.

The reason I don't want to ask him is because I don't find him very approachable.
 
Anyway, it doesn't matter because they seem to be non-existent. I will just continue doing problems from Peskin and ask him next term.
 

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