I only ever flipped through Thinking Physics for fun, but what I remember is that I tended to miss easier problems more often. If I spent time thinking about one, really making sure I got it right, I’d probably get it. Outside those, there were some that really were elementary, but I’d often find myself thinking I’d looked at the author’s answer too soon—a self-serving “well, I would have gotten this, if I were really trying.” I might say the problem was that I couldn’t tell when I needed to really try.
This does remind me a bit of how I studied for the physics GRE (do people still take that?), particularly getting calibrated on multiple-choice confidence and on how long to spend on problems. Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, very little of that study transferred to my PhD experience.
For context if anyone needs it, the Physics GRE is (was?) a multiple-choice exam where you get penalized for wrong answers but not for blanks. It works out so that if you eliminate one answer there’s no harm in guessing, in expectation. There’s also considerable time pressure—something like 90 seconds per question on average.
how much deliberate effort you put into calibrating yourself on “how much effort to put into multiple choice questions”
Enough to get through all questions with some time left over, even if that meant guessing on some I could fully solve. I’d mark the questions I’d guessed on with different symbols that let me go back at the end and prioritize solving them. For three or so practice tests, I systematically went over every problem that I missed, guessed, or spent a long time on and did the metacognitive thing including questions like “how long did I think this would take? when was I 50% confident? when should I have decided to move on? how could I have decided faster?” (Using purely retrospective judgment—I wasn’t actually timing individual questions or anything more complicated.)
whether you put any deliberate effort into transferring that into the PhD experience
Not really. I think I had some notion that being able to solve small problems quickly could lead to a sort of qualitatively better fluency, but in the end there just wasn’t enough in common between test content/conditions and research (or even coursework) to prioritize that. I definitely didn’t learn the lesson that I was generally underconfident.
what did you actually do in your PhD experience?
Pretty normal experimentalist route, maybe heavier on math and programming than typical. Coursework for 1-2 years shading into helping with senior students’ experiments, then designing and running my own.
what do you think would have better prepared you for PhD experience?
In the end I was reasonably well prepared in terms of technical knowledge, problem solving, [meta]cognitive skills, and so on (irrespective of the GRE). I think I mostly lacked perspective, particularly in terms of choosing problems and working with a supervisor. I’d guess, starting with most helpful, one or more of these:
Industry experience with a good manager
More research experience in other subjects
Research in the same subject
Other industry experience
As far as things I could have done instead with the time I used to study, I don’t know. Make friends with grad students?
I only ever flipped through Thinking Physics for fun, but what I remember is that I tended to miss easier problems more often. If I spent time thinking about one, really making sure I got it right, I’d probably get it. Outside those, there were some that really were elementary, but I’d often find myself thinking I’d looked at the author’s answer too soon—a self-serving “well, I would have gotten this, if I were really trying.” I might say the problem was that I couldn’t tell when I needed to really try.
This does remind me a bit of how I studied for the physics GRE (do people still take that?), particularly getting calibrated on multiple-choice confidence and on how long to spend on problems. Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, very little of that study transferred to my PhD experience.
I am interested in
how much deliberate effort you put into calibrating yourself on “how much effort to put into multiple choice questions”
whether you put any deliberate effort into transferring that into the PhD experience
what did you actually do in your PhD experience?
what do you think would have better prepared you for PhD experience?
For context if anyone needs it, the Physics GRE is (was?) a multiple-choice exam where you get penalized for wrong answers but not for blanks. It works out so that if you eliminate one answer there’s no harm in guessing, in expectation. There’s also considerable time pressure—something like 90 seconds per question on average.
Enough to get through all questions with some time left over, even if that meant guessing on some I could fully solve. I’d mark the questions I’d guessed on with different symbols that let me go back at the end and prioritize solving them. For three or so practice tests, I systematically went over every problem that I missed, guessed, or spent a long time on and did the metacognitive thing including questions like “how long did I think this would take? when was I 50% confident? when should I have decided to move on? how could I have decided faster?” (Using purely retrospective judgment—I wasn’t actually timing individual questions or anything more complicated.)
Not really. I think I had some notion that being able to solve small problems quickly could lead to a sort of qualitatively better fluency, but in the end there just wasn’t enough in common between test content/conditions and research (or even coursework) to prioritize that. I definitely didn’t learn the lesson that I was generally underconfident.
Pretty normal experimentalist route, maybe heavier on math and programming than typical. Coursework for 1-2 years shading into helping with senior students’ experiments, then designing and running my own.
In the end I was reasonably well prepared in terms of technical knowledge, problem solving, [meta]cognitive skills, and so on (irrespective of the GRE). I think I mostly lacked perspective, particularly in terms of choosing problems and working with a supervisor. I’d guess, starting with most helpful, one or more of these:
Industry experience with a good manager
More research experience in other subjects
Research in the same subject
Other industry experience
As far as things I could have done instead with the time I used to study, I don’t know. Make friends with grad students?