4 ms·

Funny because it recalls an exam that he essentially aced as if it was a great failure.

MRD85 7y ago
He was also only 16-17 years old at the time, completing an exam for university graduates. EDIT: This was his second year, so he was 17-18 years old. Also note this qoute: All in all, I probably only did about two weeks’ worth of preparation for the generals, while my fellow classmates had devoted months. Nevertheless, I felt quite confident going into the exam.
- hpcjoe 7y ago
  I remember doing something like this for my comps. I had left one school with a masters, looking for computational physics stuff I was interested in. Found another and an advisor who was interested in this work. I applied, got in, and started, while working full time. Graduate advisor called me up 2.5 weeks before starting and said "we want you to take the comprehensive exam in 2 weeks." After much swearing and cursing under my breath, I said "sure". I was told I had one of the highest scores in the written part. The oral part was just like this ... people asking me questions with vague definitions of various things. The example that sticks out to me was this one. "Is the atomic radius of an neutral atom a strong function of Z". Prof got annoyed when I asked them what "strong function" meant in this context; monotonically increasing/decreasing? Something else? I do remember being asked a few questions I had no idea how to answer, so I basically started from first principles and hashed out approximations/calculations very quickly. That was 29 years ago for me.
  - enriquto 7y ago
    lol, what is a "strong function"? It is not the first time I hear physicist use this expression and I have no idea what it means.
    - qwhelan 7y ago
      It's asking whether Z dominates in terms of contribution to the result. AKA "Does knowing Z allow you to estimate the radius to first-order?"
lonelappde 7y ago
That's how mathematics and baseball batting works. Far more misses than hits, even for the greats.
- madcaptenor 7y ago
  if you're batting, say, .500 in mathematics, you're not doing things that are hard enough. (Actually this is probably true even for .250, which would be a decent batting average in baseball.)
kaitai 7y ago
What makes you think he aced it? Reading through, he muddled through it -- couldn't say much specific, messed up some Galois theory, failed to define H^1 (Hardy space) correctly and instead confusing it with L^1. Nothing catastrophic, but not great at all.
- selimthegrim 7y ago
  I seem to remember hearing a story how he failed the first time and spent a while cooped up with Stein afterwards going over everything but maybe that was a garbled version of this?Or there was a written part?

He was also only 16-17 years old at the time, completing an exam for university graduates. EDIT: This was his second year, so he was 17-18 years old. Also note this qoute: All in all, I probably only did about two weeks’ worth of preparation for the generals, while my fellow classmates had devoted months. Nevertheless, I felt quite confident going into the exam.

hpcjoe 7y ago
I remember doing something like this for my comps. I had left one school with a masters, looking for computational physics stuff I was interested in. Found another and an advisor who was interested in this work. I applied, got in, and started, while working full time. Graduate advisor called me up 2.5 weeks before starting and said "we want you to take the comprehensive exam in 2 weeks." After much swearing and cursing under my breath, I said "sure". I was told I had one of the highest scores in the written part. The oral part was just like this ... people asking me questions with vague definitions of various things. The example that sticks out to me was this one. "Is the atomic radius of an neutral atom a strong function of Z". Prof got annoyed when I asked them what "strong function" meant in this context; monotonically increasing/decreasing? Something else? I do remember being asked a few questions I had no idea how to answer, so I basically started from first principles and hashed out approximations/calculations very quickly. That was 29 years ago for me.
- enriquto 7y ago
  lol, what is a "strong function"? It is not the first time I hear physicist use this expression and I have no idea what it means.
  - qwhelan 7y ago
    It's asking whether Z dominates in terms of contribution to the result. AKA "Does knowing Z allow you to estimate the radius to first-order?"

lonelappde 7y ago

That's how mathematics and baseball batting works. Far more misses than hits, even for the greats.

madcaptenor 7y ago
if you're batting, say, .500 in mathematics, you're not doing things that are hard enough. (Actually this is probably true even for .250, which would be a decent batting average in baseball.)

kaitai 7y ago

What makes you think he aced it? Reading through, he muddled through it -- couldn't say much specific, messed up some Galois theory, failed to define H^1 (Hardy space) correctly and instead confusing it with L^1. Nothing catastrophic, but not great at all.

selimthegrim 7y ago
I seem to remember hearing a story how he failed the first time and spent a while cooped up with Stein afterwards going over everything but maybe that was a garbled version of this?Or there was a written part?