Expert: Daniel Mazur - 6/12/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello..
     I am currently in a high school doing pre-medical. After my high school, I want to continue my studies in the field of quantum mechanics and then nuclear physics. But the problem is that it requires mathematics, but as being in pre-medical, I don't study mathematics. Can u please suggest me an alternative path so that I may go for quantum mechanics after my high school.
Thanks for your consideration.

ANSWER: Hello Pooja,
from a pre-med to physics, that is a big leap. You should also tell me (follow-up?), what you intend to do in nuclear physics: do you want to become a physicist (experimental or theoretical) or an engineer? In other words, do you want to do research or do you want to design nuclear facilities?

If you really have no maths now, you'd need to be really brilliant to do well at a college - either in physics or in an engineering program. Eng. is supposed to be a little easier, but I strongly discourage unfounded optimism. On the other hand I applaud your decision to seek advice, mine is as follows:

Whether this was your last pre-med year or not, you have basically two options. One, find yourself a tutor - a physics, maths or engineering student of the 3rd-or-higher college year. Even a senior high-school student majoring in physics or maths will do. With him/her go through all the maths that high-school students take, when they major maths. Of course, somebody with teaching experience is better, but they usually cost more. I STRONGLY suggest that you do the same with physics. Nuclear physics is, after all, physics and I have done some extra-curricular radiation physics to know, that you cannot do it without knowledge of all physics there is - quantum mechanics is only a small (albeit important) part of the whole picture.

Second approach (you can combine the two) means that after your pre-med graduation you find a Prep maths and physics course at a college, sometimes also called "the zeroth year". That will act as an equalizing year for you to catch up with your future classmates, simply to get on the same footing. It will cost you that one year and the value of it really depends on your individual preferences, on your family situation, on your financial situation... We all have to take into account factors beyond our curriculum and so will you.

It may seem strange that I have not yet suggested a book from which you could learn all without a tutor's help. This is because a tutor (a good one) is generally better teacher than a bare book. On the other hand, there are books to help you... and even with a tutor you should have a preferred book. There is, literally, a thousand of books to choose from, when it comes to high-school calculus. Much better than buying one blindly from the internet you should walk into a bookstore and skim through a few samples first. This is because, while maths is only one, there are several conventions of how to write down problems and sample solutions and you already have some basics that you learned using a certain convention. There is no use making the task more difficult for yourself by having to get used to new conventions as well.

In physics the situation is different. The easier part is that there there is a much smaller spread in conventions, so you frequently can even rely on symbols to mean the same across many different textbooks. The more difficult part is that they assume mastery of calculus, so you may repeatedly run into a stalemate until your math skills catch up. Now, the first and second year of college basic physics course is (in the USA, I know nothing about Australia) pretty much revision and more thorough work on subjects already belonging to high-school level. Or at least to high-school physics majors. So, if you choose the more difficult path of getting a college book for the physics part of your prep (Halliday-Resnick-Walker is a popular one, for example), you may later benefit from it, when you actually start your freshman year. For your information, quantum mechanics is second- and third-year subject at a college, nuclear physics is usually a graduate topic - you'll need to study at least up to Masters' degree to make it your specialization.

Well, I think this ought to give you some idea about what you're up against! If you have any questions later, I'll be happy to answer!

Good luck!
Daniel


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sir i have another question, As u have suggested that i should take mathematics and physics tutions, but after that, should i give maths paper too in my board exams, like additional mathematics if i want admission in quantum and cosmological physics, or just taking tutions and having grip on maths would be enough?

Answer
Hello Pooja,
this depends on the demands of the individual universities and departments. Take United States for example: Whatever you have your Bachelorate in, you can apply for Master's program and the physics faculty will review your application (your grades, your letter of purpose, your letters of recommendation) and decide, if they think you would be able to make it through up to a Master's degree or not. The admission does NOT include a specialized exam in maths or physics.

However, after you start taking graduate courses - plus some undergraduate that may be lacking from your curriculum - you WILL be required to take and pass a specialized physics and maths exam, the so called Qualifying Exam. You will get several attempts at taking it (3 or 4 usually) and if you never pass it, you will not be assigned a thesis project and therefore you cannot get the degree.

You are, at the moment, at an earlier level - you're between high school and college. Most colleges in Asia and Europe have their entry exams, so in order to be admitted, you will have to pass an exam - as you call it, "give a paper in maths and physics". How easy and difficult this exam will be, that is completely up to the institution.

Some universities may pardon you from the entry exams, if you have extremely good grades or other "achievements" during high school. Have you ever heard of the Maths Olympics, the Physics Olympics, or the Computer Science Olympics? If you participate in one of those during high school and you have a good result (for example a medal place in a regional round), you may be excused from entry exams and automatically accepted. From what you've written, I don't think this can be your case.

To sum up, in order to get some chance at studying cosmological physics (quantum is a standard undergraduate subject, nothing special about that) you need to learn maths and physics at the level of graduates of specialized maths and physics high schools. Yes, you need to work extremely hard, I recommend that you get a tutor. It is the only way, in my opinion.

Good luck to you!
Daniel