Books and videos for JAM - Sayan Mondal, HRI | PAE blog


Hello friends.

I’m Sayan, a BTech(EE) final year student from a private college in Kolkata. So this year I appeared for 3 exams : 
  • TIFR-GS ( Not selected) 
  • IIT-JAM (Rank-157)
  • JEST (Rank 58).

I started my preparations from 3rd year, though at that time I wasn’t sure if I would be getting into physics. After my 5th semester, I decided to appear for Physics PG entrance exams. So here are the resources I used:

  • Mathematical Physics: 

                 Books: Kreyszig, Boas. Videos: Gilbert Strang(have watched only a few videos on Linear Algebra and ODE.), one can follow 3B1B to appreciate Linear Algebra. From here basically, they ask about Matrices, ODEs, some integrals, etc. In interviews, they may ask about Bessel, Legendre, Hermite as well.

  • Classical Mechanics: 

                      I just did the basics mainly from HC Verma. And read the Analytical Mechanics and Central force problem from Marion Thornton. Taylor is another book I liked. There are other books like Goldstein and Rana Joag, but I didn’t read them. In JAM Lagrangians and Hamiltonians are not asked generally, so Class 11-12 must be done thoroughly( but I didn’t, so my JAM counseling is uncertain, more on that later). Videos: 801 Walter Lewin. Also, a video lecture of NPTEL is also there.

  • Electrodynamics: 
                  Books: Griffiths. Griffiths is what everyone, everywhere uses, Purcell is another choice. One advice about Griffiths: Do all the problems which are in between sections as they contain some insights or important theory. (Again I didn’t …..so….. you get the idea.)Videos: 802 Walter Lewin

  • Quantum Mechanics: 
               Book: Griffiths. I didn’t use any other book. I think video lectures in Quantum Mechanics are very important. I used to (and still) watch MITOCW 804, Allan Adams. I believe lectures in Quantum Mechanics are of utmost importance as Griffiths might not cover a few things also it is a good idea to do the assignments.

  • Thermal Physics:  

                       PK Nag(for thermodynamics), Blundell, Schroeder. 

  • Waves and Oscillation: 

                       I followed MIT OCW 803 Walter Lewin and used French, so I did French only relevant portions like Normal modes. I’m not very comfortable with Optics, so whatever I say about optics is as useful as whatever a random person on the street says about Optics.

  • Electronics: 

                         From my course in BTech. We used Floyd and Boylestad -Nashley.

  • Others 

                    For other topics like Atomic, Nuclear, Solid State, Optics I didn’t study  them much, I read some handwritten notes shared in the Whatsapp community of Physics After Engineering blog a few days before JAM.

Previous year papers

  • I also bought previous year question book for JAM and downloaded the JEST papers of previous years. I think one must start solving these 1-2 months before the exam. I think one must read a couple of books first and see which one works for him/her. 

          Coming to my JAM counseling, what I learned after mailing a few departments and from similar aspirants, there can be some difficulty for BTech students in JAM admission as we do not meet their minimum Elliglity Qualifications of “At least Physics in 4 sem/2 years and Mathematics in 2 sem/1 year”. IITB and IITK(probably) are lenient in these. Other IITs may take students but it solely depends on the faculty who is responsible for that year’s admission department (Read about it completely here 'What's with the eligibility criteria of IITs through JAM?'). So it is best to be within AIR 50 for admission in IITB and K. But higher rank than this doesn’t mean one will not get into any IIT, it just makes the admission a little uncertain. So also appear for JNU, Pune, Hyderabad, etc. The blog has some information about other opportunities in this post 'How to become a Physicist after Engineering?'

Also, do visit all other useful content of our blog 
Physics after Engineering.

Below is the link for our Whatsapp group with 500+ members all of whom are engineers who actively discuss and help each other out in entering physics stream after engineering. 
https://physicsafterengineering.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

You can find the FAQs and important conversations happened earlier in the groups in this SubRedditr/Physicsaftrengineerin/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Physicsaftrengineerin/

Comments

Below is the link for our Whatsapp group with 400+ members all of whom are engineers who actively discuss and help each other out in entering physics stream after engineering.

blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html


You can find the FAQs and important conversations happened earlier in the groups in this SubRedditr/Physicsaftrengineerin/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Physicsaftrengineerin/


Mail me on Dushyanth.edadasula@gmail.com for further queries.

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