Starting Shankar's Quantum Mechanics

[dydtaylor]

This summer I've been self-studying quantum in Griffith's book to help prepare for a graduate quantum course I'm taking next semester. From what I can tell, the first semester of the course will focus on using Shankar's Principles of Quantum Mechanics.

Right now I've gone through the first 4 chapters of Griffith's book (up through 3 dimensional quantum mechanics and spin), and I was wondering how much more benefit I would get from reading Griffith's book as opposed to starting on Shankar's book before ahead of time.

I have a good background in mathematics (a detailed course in linear algebra, abstract algebra, ordinary differential equations and some work on partial differential equations, Fourier transforms, etc.) so I don't think that will be an issue for me, while my physics background consists of essentially introduction classes (including an introduction to SR, quantum, and thermo that's required at my school) and the first semester of advanced undergraduate E&M.

Would anyone recommend that I pay particularly close attention to any particular section of the book, skip any sections, or make sure I'm familiar with certain areas of quantum or general physics before working on it?

 

[genericusrnme]

None, drop griffiths before it's too late!
Seriously, griffiths isn't a good textbook, if you've got the mathematical background, which it seems you do, pick up shankar and don't let go!
Shankar will give you a better feel for the subject whereas griffiths just gives you a recipe book.