The exam is taken at the start of the second year after taking the six core courses in year one. Its purpose is to evaluate whether a student’s understanding of fundamental general physics is adequate for success in independent physics research.
Physics
Comprehensive Exam
Suggested Texts by Topic
To prepare for the comprehensive examination:
Graduate Level
- Fetter and Walecka, Theoretical Mechanics of Particles and Continua
- Goldstein, Poole and Safko, Classical Mechanics
- Landau and Lifshitz, Mechanics
- Symon, Mechanics
Undergraduate Level
- Fowles and Cassiday, Analytical Mechanics
- Marion and Thornton, Classical Dynamics
Graduate Level
- Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics
- Landau, Lifshitz, and Pitaevskii, Electrodynamics of Continuous Media
Undergraduate Level
- Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics
- Purcell, Electricity and Magnetism
Graduate Level
- Huang, Statistical Mechanics
- Kardar, Statistical Physics of Particles
- Landau and Lifshitz, Statistical Physics, Part 1
- Pathria and Beale, Statistical Mechanics
Undergraduate Level
- Kittel and Kroemer, Thermal Physics
- Reif, Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics
- Schroeder, An Introduction to Thermal Physics
Graduate Level
- Baym, Lectures on Quantum Mechanics
- Cohen-Tannoudji, Diu and Laloe, Quantum Mechanics
- Landau and Lifshitz, Quantum Mechanics
- Sakurai and Napolitano, Modern Quantum Mechanics
- Shankar, Principles of Quantum Mechanics
Undergraduate Level
- Gasiorowicz, Quantum Physics
- Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
Graduate Level
- Newbury, Ruhl, Staggs, Thorsett, and Newman, Princeton Problems in Physics with Solutions
- Cronin, Greenberg and Telegdi, University of Chicago Problems in Physics with Solutions