I have 10 months till graduate school, whats the best way to prepare?

[alemsalem]

i have 10 months till graduate school, what's the best way to prepare??

I graduated about one & a half years ago(physics), and I'm going to graduate school September next year(HEP/Cosmology), i have holes in my undergraduate knowledge in addition to what's lost in memory.

I don't know what would be better: a thorough review of undergraduate physics and mathematics or studying the five core subjects from graduate texts (I already began with that, but stopped to prepare for the GRE).

Thnx.

Salem Olimat

 

[phyzguy]

I returned to graduate school after a much longer hiatus than you are talking about. I found that doing problems from the graduate level texts was the best way to prepare. Since this gets boring after a while, I would also spend time each day reading current papers from Arxiv (http://arxiv.org/). While many are difficult to follow, they get your brain working along the right lines, and help bring you up to speed on current research areas, vocabulary, etc. Are you already accepted to a program? Do you mean that you start in Sept, 2011? That's a bit more than 10 months...

 

[stevenb]

i have 10 months till graduate school, what's the best way to prepare? ... and I'm going to graduate school September next year(HEP/Cosmology)

I'd say reviewing your math, or maybe studying the latest calenders, should be your first priority. Next September is 12 months away, not 10. Well, no worries, absentmindedness is a hallmark of the stereotypical physicist.

Kidding aside, it sounds like you have good strategies in place. The main thing is to keep your mind actively involved in any physics and math related study. And GRE preparation is a good idea if you think you can significantly improve your scores.

 

[nicksauce]

If you know what your "holes" are, I'd recommend doing your best to fill them. Review the standard undergrad texts, and do the problems.

If you're not quite sure what the holes are, try reading the standard graduate texts for your field (say Dodelson's "Modern Cosmology" and Peskin&Schroeder's QFT book), and identify the difficulties you have getting through those books.

 

[alemsalem]

... I would also spend time each day reading current papers from Arxiv (http://arxiv.org/). While many are difficult to follow, they get your brain working along the right lines, and help bring you up to speed on current research areas, vocabulary, etc. Are you already accepted to a program? Do you mean that you start in Sept, 2011? That's a bit more than 10 months...

yeah I am doing the arxiv thing as well, like you said I can't follow most of them but i guess it's useful,, i didn't get accepted yet that's why i said 10 months I'm applying to 6 schools so i assume i'll be accepted in at least one of them, some of them are top universities and i want to start my graduate studies with a strong background (that i can immediately use not just be familiar with stuff).

I'm absentminded about everything else but when it comes to physics I'm obsessed, we get to understand and investigate the universe and the world around us, what more could a piece of meat ask for

thnx for the comments very helpful :)

 

[arunma]

You know, before I started grad school, they gave me a CD with all of the previous years' qualifier problems. I studied using those problems, and managed to (barely) pass the classical portion of my department's qual the summer before I started. Maybe you should see if you can get your department's qual resources.