<p>Supposedly they got it from a non-freshmen Caltech physics course. Why does AE in general stray so much from the actual test formats in their practice tests? I would certainly hope that the real test tomorrow is no where near this difficulty. What real help are practice tests like this when most students can't even begin most of the problems?</p>
<p>To future students/prospective students:
Mudd physics is extremely difficult. I came into Mudd fairly confident in my abilities and basically got smacked in the face with Physics 23 (special relativity and quantum mechanics) and then once again in the second half of Physics 24 (rotation and waves part). Just be aware that when you come here you will be met with very hard courses. Freshman physics at Mudd is a step above AP Physics C. I really can't imagine a course being harder than this at many other schools in the country. I checked out the MIT final for their version of freshman physics and it was the same level of difficulty, if not a little lower, than our tests. However, it seemed to cover less material.</p>
<p>i remember that test. it was pretty hard but it was pretty fun. i think i got a 78% on it or something. ended up with a C+ in the class though...</p>
<p>i have 3 hours of a 4 hour chemical takehome to finish by 5pm tomorrow. the prof said in an email, "now you get to see how hard chemical is." i'm looking forward to being done. sigh.</p>
<p>wait til e&m...that is a fun set of tests...oh yeah!</p>
<p>The second problem looks a lot like one</a> of the quiz problems we did in Ph 1a at Caltech this year. I distinctly remember it as being one of the ones that gave me a lot of conceptual trouble. It's a pretty cool problem.</p>
<p>Yeah, I really like that problem. The one with the speaker is pretty interesting too. The last one was kind of confusing, but Ill look over it more to understand it better. (only had time to skim, I have stuff of my own to study)</p>
<p>So out of curiosity, how did the final go? Was it as "easy" as the practice one? I wanna know what I am missing while I am solving for 'g' given the Period and k of a spring >_>.</p>
<p>It was alright. I should have reviewed this one topic that I've known all along I sucked at. Lucky me it was 15% of the exam. It was easier than the practice exam but it just got to me because of it's length (3 hours long).</p>
<p>Haha that picture is funny. There have been some homeworks I've had before that are similar to that level of ridiculousness. A lot of times though if it gets that crazy on tests you know you did something wrong. I didn't pick up my calculator once today. Crazy isn't it? Mudd physics is basically just deriving expressions. There usually aren't numbers involved.</p>
<p>Any good class doesnt require a calculator. Ive been jetting through chem that way and it makes it so much more fun, especially when you have to do pH conversions and equilibrium constants. ^^</p>
<p>I think having looked at the test that the concepts it examines are not anything out of the ordinary for Physics 24. But the problems are unfamiliar, and require applying knowledge to new situations. This requires much more physical intuition than usual, and I think that's why a lot of students would find them hard.</p>
<p>LoL. One of my best friends is an AE Physics tutor. I was just chatting with him - he told me he screwed up in writing the last problem, effectively making it impossible to do, or so he said. So don't feel too bad. The rest of the problems though, I still stand by my last comment.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, since money/parents might force me to shift around: how do you guys think the HMC physics program compares to Cornell and U-Chicago?</p>
<p>I personally do not know enough about those two to compare them to HMC physics. I do know that if I were to choose one of the two myself I would choose Chicago, because I have heard that it gives more attention to its undergrads than Cornell (just a rumor though, decide for yourself). Both schools impress me very much, but I think Chicago physics would have a slight edge. But I do not know how it compares to HMC.</p>
