Physics after Engineering

Around 110 students were shortlisted for the interview round of department of Physical Sciences at IISER Kolkata, based on the all-India ranks of the candidates in JAM and JEST exams for a total of 5 seats in their Integrated PhD program. In addition to that, every candidate had to send two letters of recommendation to the department. My interview was conducted on 29th June. There were five professors in my panel. They first asked me my favourite topics to which I replied, 'Quantum Mechanics' and 'Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics'. They directly started asking the questions. Following questions were asked by the panel.  Prof-1: Topic: Graphs 1-i) Plot sin(x^2). 1-ii) What will be the asymptotic behaviour of the nodal distance i.e. the distance between two consecutive nodes? Prof-2: Topic: Lagrangian Mechanics 2-i) Write the Lagrangian of a charged particle in an EM field. 2-ii) Apply a Gauge transformation and re-write the Lagrangian. 2-iii) Are the equations of mo...

I got shortlisted for the interview at CESSI, IISER Kolkata for the MS Program in Space Physics. I attended my interview and got selected for the program. Now I'm currently studying here at CESSI. Requirements: Eligibility criteria is to qualify national level entrance exams like GATE (any field not necessarily physics), JEST. There is no such thing as cut off. You need to pass in any one of them with a valid score. Good aggregate in respective Btech curriculum and a good SOP that's submitted during the application. Basic knowledge of physics in Electromagnetic Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Mathematical Physics, Classical Mechanics and others. My Interview experience: This was the first ever interview that I gave. So the first question they asked me was the reason for my transition from Aerospace Engineering to Physics. Then they asked me which subject I was comfortable with, to which I answered EMT. My first question was on Maxwell's equations. One of them asked me t...

I was asked to write about my interview experiences but I didn't want to make 7 different posts so I have decided to write one essay summarizing all those experiences. I have been to interviews at the following institutes: TIFR-Mumbai(I-PhD and Ph.D.), ICTS(I-PhD and Ph.D.), IISc(I-PhD), IISER-Pune(I-PhD), IUCAA/NCRA(Ph.D. preselection) Amongst these, I cleared TIFR Mumbai (IPhD in 2016 and Ph.D. in 2019), ICTS(Ph.D. in 2019), and IUCAA/NCRA(December 2015). So, instead of telling you stories of those experiences, I have decided to write about what I learned from those interviews. 1. Soft skills play a role albeit a really small one. They aren't as important as the case is in a corporate job interview, but the way you speak and dress always, even if subconscious, has some effect on the interviewer's mind. This does not mean that you have to dress up in all formals. A well-ironed shirt with jeans works well for me. Although I did clear the IUCAA interview wearing a t...

Hi I'm Yash. I was called for the interview at TIFR-H via my JEST score on 13th June for Int-PhD. The institute seemed to be located in a remote area. But heck, it's the same with almost every institute I've been to (except tifr-m :)). I take a quick a look around and head straight to the Auditorium. The staff and the professors were welcoming and friendly. After verification I was sent to the interview room. I had to wait for an hour outside the room before they called me in. I had four professors on my Panel. Prof Surajit Sengupta, Prof Kabir Ramola, Prof Karthik V Raman and Prof Pranav Shirhatti. Interview started with them asking about my background in Physics and how much Physics have I studied since I'm a Computer Science student. I honestly told them that I've done a year of Physics during undergrad and 6 months coaching in Delhi. They were very warm and comforting, occasionally exchanging jokes. So they started with asking easy questions in topics of...

I appeared for the I-PhD interview at IMSc,  Chennai in 2018 and got selected in the same. I had qualified for the interview through CSIR-NET exam with a rank of 122. About the interview: I was questioned in quantum mechanics, electrodynamics and mathematical physics(out of these 3 only mathematical physics was the subject proposed by me when they asked for another subject I can answer after the first 2 were done; the first two subjects they didn't give me an explicit choice on- I knew the answers to the quantum and electro questions they asked  so I just went with it- I explained in relatively more detail so I guess that took all the allotted time for these subjects anyway). First part of the interview is the panel members going over your educational background and your activity in any gap there might be since your last degree. They did this for me as well.  In this part of the interview,  I had it a little easier as I had attended a summer school at IMSc ...

    S o  let me share with you my Institute of Mathematical Science, Chennai interview experience. I didn’t have a particularly good interview, so I’m not expecting getting selected in this. There were 3 professors let’s call them A, B and C. Prof A gave me a choice between Electrodynamics and Differential Equations . I chose Electrodynamics. A: Write Maxwell’s Equation. I wrote them on the board. A: now please remove the Maxwell correction term. And tell me if the equations are consistent. Me: I tried to explain to them using the capacitor description that we were taught in Class 11-12. He listened to it and said to me that it is correct but asked me to show it through the four equations. I was struggling, so Prof. C gave me some hint: take divergence on the equations and I did so. After struggling a bit, at last, I arrived to the conclusion that the charge flow is not being conserved, so we need Maxwell’s correction.     Prof A n...

TIFR Mumbai Experience                  TIFR Mumbai took the written test on 11th March 2019. Luckily I do have the question paper of this test. You can go through the images below. As with ICTS, we were supposed to attempt any 4 questions.                          I attempted the questions 1,2,3,5 and 6. I attempted an extra question since I was not getting the value of force as given in the 3rd question. I don't know whether they evaluated the last question or not. After lunch, we were taken to various labs on the campus. This was the most beautiful experience in my life. The orientation process completed at around 6 p.m. When I came out of the campus, the list of candidates shortlisted for the interview was attached on the notice board. I was glad to know that my name was on the list. 43 students were shortlisted for the interviews. Next day I arrived...

Greetings to fellow Physics Aspirants ,              I am Chintan Patel from Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University and I would like to share my experience of interviews at one of the best research institutes in India i.e. ICTS-TIFR and TIFR Mumbai. This is my first blog post, so forgive me for any formatting errors.      So, I was aware of this institutes from the 2nd year of my B.Tech(yes, I am a Mechanical Engineering student). I came to know that there is an exam called TIFR GS, which is conducted by TIFR all over India to shortlist candidates for Integrated Ph.D. (IPhd) and Ph.D. programme at TIFR and its sister institutes like ICTS, NCRA, and TIFR Hyderabad. Preparation               So, I started preparing for this exam when I was in 3rd year of my B.Tech. The only difficulty in preparation was that the syllabus of the exam is completely unknown. So I started solving previous year pape...