Collections of physics problems - good idea?

[dicerandom]

I'll be starting grad school next year, and I'm already starting to worry about the qualifier ;) While poking around on Barnes & Noble's site I noticed that there are whole books which are just collections of problems in physics, with and without solutions. I thought that these might be a good way to get started studying for the qualifier, just so that I can expose myself to a wide variety of problems from different concentrations and work my way through them. I found a number of books, most of which were linked to off of other books I was looking at, and I'm wondering what everyone's opinions are.

Are these collections of problems a good way to get started studying for the qualifier? Are there any particularly good books in this area? How good are the ones I've listed?

Here are the books I was looking at:

• Princeton Problems in Physics with Solutions, ISBN 0691024499
• University of Chicago Graduate Problems in Physics, with Solutions, ISBN 0226121097
• 200 Puzzling Physics Problems: With Hints and Solutions, ISBN 0521774802
• Physics with Answers: 500 Problems and Solutions, ISBN 0521483697
• Physics by Example: 200 Problems and Solutions, ISBN 0521449758

 

[Dr Transport]

Both the Princeton and Chicago books are worth the money. I used both for my qualifiers way back when...