SM358 exam debrief

As promised here is my summary (off the top of my head) of the questions and my responses to them
I think I'm on target for the top end of Grade 3 or if I'm lucky Grade 2 but it will only just get there.

The first part was 10 out of 12 questions of which I answered 9 but some were only sketches

Question 1 was about the degeneracies of energy levels in an infinite square well and the calculation of the wave length of light emitted when the electron fell from the higher level to the other.
Got most of this out 4  marks say

Question 2 Concerned the normalisation of of a given wave function and a calculation of the energy levels  again got most of this out 4 marks say

Question 3 I ignored think it involved calculation of quantum oscillator properties using annhilation and creation operators

Question 4 On the Born interpretation this had a different twist to the normal ones and threw me so I wrote down the born intepretation 1 mark out of 5

Question 6 Involved calculating the Energy eigenvalues of Lz for a given wave function then a question using the generalised uncertainty principle for Ly and Lx most out say 4 out of 5

Question 7 Involved calculation of the maximum separation of proton distance from a given radial wavefunction got most of this out again say 4 out of 5

Question 8 was fairly straightforward whether or not statements about the Bell Inequalities were true or false I think I got most of theses so 4 marks

I can't really remember most of the other questions in part 1 but they involved calculation of the expectation value of various quantites such as x or x^2. The calculation of bond order for a given molecular configuration and so forth. If my memory serves me correctly I got about 4 marks for two and say 2 marks for the other one
So pessimistically total marks for part 1 
so overall for part 1 I got 4+4+1+4+4+4+8+2 = 31 marks (Some may include full marks so possibly 35 marks )

Then parts 2,3 and 4 long questions

Part 2 I chose a question on eigenfunctions of a square well I think I got most of this so say 15/17

Part 3 was a question on spin functions the first part was really strange so I left it.losing 3 marks went onto the question in part 4 before coming to this question at the end..
  The rest should have been quite straightforward as it involved  calculating the coefficients of a given spinor in another basis and then the expectation value of Sy. I got the  first part out but chose the wrong matrix to calculate the expectation value. I might just scrape 8 or nine marks here

Part 4 was a question on eigenfunctions of the angular momentum operator in spherical coordinates
Got most of the first part out but then there were two part questions on of which involved showing a given wave function was an eigenfunction of J = Lz + Sz I couldn't quite get this. The last part should have been straightforward involving transition selection rules but my mind went blank so possibly 12 out of 17 here.

So part two is about 35 marks as well

35 + 35 is 70 so might just get grade 2 but a more realistic assessment would be for grade 3.

So overall not bad (certainly better than last june's car crash of Fluid mechanics) I decided not to do the resit as it clashed with my revision for quantum mechanics.

Number theory and logic awaits and I want to consolidate my music by doing the Grade theory exams I should be able to do Grade 5 in March and also piano lessons again I want to do grade 1 piano again in March. I will also get back to my own physics calculations. My first project is to examine the X ray diffraction theory behind the discovery of DNA. Then back to general relativity and also the physics of deep inelastic scattering which lead to the discovery of quarks. I will also do an Edinburgh dept continuing education course on Plato come January Enough to keep me busy for a while yet :)

Bye for now