Supervisions: Work to Do

Instuctions

• The time and place of weekly supervisions is normally fixed at the start of the academic year. If you'd like to re-arrange it (whether for one particular week or permanently) you must ask me one week in advance. I explain at tedious length at the bottom of this page.
• For each supervision you need to do the work from the table below, and hand it in according to these instructions in advance of the supervision.
• Bring a copy of the question sheet and a pen or pencil with you to supervisions. If you're going to want paper, bring some. If you want to ask about something from the lecture notes, bring them.
• If anything is unclear, please e-mail me on mds510@gmail.com.

Work to Do - Easter term 2017

Please note that some of the times for handing in work have changed this term.

Date of Supervision	Work for IA Nat. Sci. Maths		Work for IA Physics	Work for IB Physics A	Work for IB Physics B
	(Course A)	(Course B)
24th-29th April	No supervision (but holiday work is handed in this week)			Holiday work
1st-6th May	Holiday work			I'll mostly go over the rest of the holiday work, but attempt questions 1 and 2 if you get chance.	I'll mostly go over the rest of the holiday work, but attempt the first couple of questions from the new sheet if you get chance.
8th-13th May	Questions 1-11. Optionally omit 4(d) and 9(a)(iii) if you are very confident in matrix multiplication.	Questions 1-18. In question 4, only deal with the first three products (A^2, AB, AC). In question 9, omit all three products. Optional extra question: 2006 tripos paper 1 question 1A.	Questions 1-6.	Questions 1-7 (minus any already done).	Questions 1-6 (minus any already done)
15th-20th May	Questions 12-19.	Questions 19-33, omitting 21 and 23. (33 is optional.)	Questions 7-13.	Questions 1-6.	Questions 7-11.
22nd-27th May	Question 20 from the first question sheet, and questions 1-6 from the second question sheet.	Questions 1-4.	Questions 14-19.	All of the rest of the questions on the question sheet. Also bring with you (but do not hand in) anything that you are stuck on or want to talk about from the past papers that you are doing to revise.
29th May - 3rd June	All of the rest of the questions from the question sheet. Also bring with you (but do not hand in) anything that you are stuck on, or want to talk about, from the past papers that you are doing to revise.			No supervision (exams will have started).

I'll finish regular supervisions by 26th May (2nd-year) and 3rd June (1st-year). There will also be optional revision sessions in large groups, to look through the 2016 papers, for which I shall mark selected questions in advance. For first-year subjects, details are below.

Optional Revision Sessions: Easter 2017

Both in IA physics and maths, I shall run an optional session in a large group to go through the 2016 past papers. These will be held in the Parish Room attached to Little St Mary's Church, which is on Trumpington Street in between Peterhouse College and Emmanuel URC. They will go on for a couple of hours, with tea and cake part way through; you can come to only part of the session if you like. If you come, you must bring a copy of the 2016 past papers; I shan't have any spares.

I will mark attempts at the 2016 past papers subitted by the deadlines below. You can come to the revision session without having handed them in; I shall read out the answers as I go through the questions. If you hand in papers but don't come, I'll return the work to you at your college immediately after the revision session.

In the case of IA Nat. Sci. maths, the main revision session is on the afternoon of Tuesday 6th June, beginning 2.30pm, but if (and only if) you have an exam on that Tuesday afternoon then you can come to an alternative session on the morning of Friday 2nd June, beginning 10am, instead. If you plan to do this you must let me know by e-mail by 7pm on Thursday 1st June. There is no need to let me know that you're coming to either of the other revision sessions.

For IA Physics, the (only) revision session is on the morning of Tuesday 6th June, beginning 10.30am.

You can come to a revision session for a subject that I don't teach you if you like. However, I'll only mark attempts at past papers in the subject that I teach you.

If you hand in past papers, make sure that the pages are in the right order, hand in paper 1 and paper 2 separately (clearly labelling which is which), and do not attach any regular supervision work to either of them.

I shall collect work at the following times. You only need to hand it in before the relevant session, but please try to hand it in earlier if possible, as I shall have a lot of marking to do on the Monday.

• Wednesday 31st May - 7.30pm at Jesus or Selwyn.
• Thursday 1st June - 7pm at Selwyn or Trinity Hall.
• Friday 2nd June - 12.30pm at Corpus, or 7.30pm at Selwyn or Trinity Hall.
• Saturday 3rd June - 1.30pm at Corpus or Jesus.
• Sunday 4th June - 12 noon at Trinity Hall, or 7pm at Selwyn.
• There are no later options than this.

Holiday Work - Easter 2017

The work below is due in as described here. Information about supervisions this term has been sent out by e-mail.

Work for IA Nat. Sci. Maths		Work for IA Physics	Work for IB Physics A	Work for IB Physics B
(Course A)	(Course B)
Complete questions S5, S6, 23, 25, and 26 from the question sheet. Optionally also complete question 24. Get hold of the 2013 past papers for IA. From 2013 paper 1, attempt to complete the paper as specified by the rubrics on the front. Bear in mind that you haven't covered the material for questions 11 or 17 yet, and that 19 and 20 are B-course questions, so you may not want to choose them. (This does mean that you are choosing 5 out of 6, which is a more restrictive choice than you will face in the actual exam.) Try to produce an attempt under timed conditions if you can: it's useful to get a feel for what the time pressure is like. Complete the rest of the possible questions from paper 1, which you either didn't try or couldn't do in the time. (This is anything left from section A, plus questions 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 18.) From 2013 paper 2, attempt section A (optionally omitting 5), and questions 11, 14, 15, 16, and 17. Optional: if you'd still like to do more practice after that, I'll mark anything from the 2011 or 2012 past papers that you haven't done before.	Complete questions 24-30 from the question sheet. Get hold of the 2013 past papers for IA. From 2013 paper 1, attempt to complete the paper as specified by the rubrics on the front. Bear in mind that you haven't covered the material for question 11 yet, so you may not want to choose it. Try to produce an attempt under timed conditions if you can: it's useful to get a feel for what the time pressure is like. Complete the rest of paper 1, which you either didn't attempt or couldn't do in the time. (This is everything in the paper except for question 11.) From 2013 paper 2, attempt section A, and questions 11, 16, 17, 19, and 20. Optional: if you'd still like to do more practice after that, I'll mark anything from the 2011 or 2012 past papers that you haven't done before.	Complete questions 18-24 from the question sheet. Optionally also A13 and/or A14. From the 2012 past paper, attempt questions A5, B7, B8, C10, D12, and D13, in two hours and forty minutes. Finish the questions that you couldn't get done in the time, taking as long as you need to produce the best answers that you can. From the 2014 past paper, answer questions A1, A5, C10, and D13. Optionally complete any other questions of your choice from this paper. (But note that A2 and section E require material not taught until next term.) Optional: complete any relevant questions from the 2013 past paper that you haven't done before.	Questions 3-8 from the last QM question sheet. Obtain the Physics A past papers from 2013. Attempt paper 1, following the rubric on the front, under timed conditions. From paper 2, attempt questions A1, A2, A3, and any two of your choice from section B, in one hour and twenty minutes. Finish the questions from paper 1 that you couldn't get done in the time, and also attempt all of the others, taking as much time as you need. Finish the questions that you attempted from paper 2, and also attempt the other questions from section B, taking as much time as you need. Also complete question D13. It is a very good idea to practise more past tripos questions than this. I'll mark anything from the 2010---it's particularly worthwhile doing the QM questions---and if you are stuck on anything else you can bring it with you to a supervision to discuss (EXCEPT for 2012 paper 1 question B6, which I dislike). Save the 1026 past papers for revision closer to the exam.	Finish examples sheet 1 in thermodynamics. Obtain the Physics B past papers from 2012. Attempt paper 1, following the rubric on the front, under timed cdonditions, except that you should omit questions A1 and A4, and only allow yourself 2 hours and 45 minutes. Attempt paper 2, following the rubric on the front, under timed conditions. (You may not have covered all of the material for section C yet, but there is enough choice of questions that you can do!) Finish the questions that you attempted in both of the papers, but couldn't get done in the time, and also attempt all of the questions (from both papers) that you didn't choose, except for those that rely on material not yet taught. Take as much time as you need to produce good answers. It is a very good idea to practise more past tripos questions than this. I'll mark anything from the 2013 past paper, and if you're stuck on questions from another paper we can discuss it in a supervision. (But save the 2016 past paper for revision closer to the exam.)

Work to Do - Lent Term 2017

I usually update this table on Wednesday mornings.

Date of Supervision	Work for IA Nat. Sci. Maths		Work for IA Physics	Work for IB Physics A	Work for IB Physics B
	(Course A)	(Course B)
16th-21st January	No supervision this week (except for supervisions left over from last term).			Holiday work.
23rd-28th January	No new work this week: the supervision is for going over the holiday work.
30th January - 4th February	Questions S1-S3 (omitting any consonant parts that look too easy), S4, and questions 5-8. (7 is optional, but do try it if you can.)	Questions S1g, S1j, S2c, S2f, S3b, S4b, 5, 6a, 6b, 7, 8a, 8b, and 8c.	Questions 1-4.	Questions 1-6, if sufficient material has been covered in lectures.	Questions 10-14.
6th-11th February	Questions 9-13, definitely omitting (10d). 10 and 11 are optional. If you don't do them, then also do question 13Z from the 2008 tripos paper 2.	Questions 9-13 (all questions). Also optionally X13 and/or X14.	Questions 5-11.	Questions 7-13 (plus any not done last week).	Questions 15-20.
13-18th February	Questions S1, S2, 5, 6, 7, and 8.	Questions 1-11. Omit S3. (Optionally omit also S1b, S1d, S1e, S2a, S2b, and 7).	Questions 12-18.	Questions 14-16; also if possible 1-4 from the new sheet.	Questions 21-27.
20th-25th February	S3, and questions 9-14; optionally also 15.	Questions 12-16 (also 10 and 11 if not done last week).	Questions 19-23.	Questions 5-9 (plus any not done last week).	Questions 28-34.
27th February - 4th March	Questions S4 and 16-20 (where 18 is optional).	Questions 17-22, where 20 is optional.	Questions 1-6.	Questions 10-14.	Questions 35-39.
6th-11th March	S1, S2, and questions 7-13. (*)	S1, S2, and questions 6-13	Questions 7-10, and optionally any additional questions such as A6.	Questions 1-4.	Questions 40 and 41 from fluids, and questions 1-2 from thermodynamics.
13th-18th March	S3, S4, and questions 15-22. (Optionally also 14.)	S3, S4, and questions 14-23, optionally omitting 15 and 22.	Questions 11-17.	Questions 5-8 from sheet III, and questions 1 and 2 from sheet IV.	Questions 3-9.

Holiday Work - Christmas 2016

• I shall begin regular supervisions again on Monday 16th January 2017 for second-year students, and Monday 23rd January 2017 for first-year students. If you can't make your usual time that week then let me know. Some (mostly IA maths) students need an extra supervision at the start of this term to make up for one that I missed at the end of last term when I was ill. I'll be in touch separately about this if it applies to you.
• Whichever course you're doing, the first item of holiday work is to look over everything that you've done during the term, and make sure that you understand it. Now is an excellent time to catch up on any missed supervision work from last term. Most of you have post-Christmas tests to revise for.
• The rest of the holiday work is in the table below. It includes Tripos questions; there's advice on the advice page if you want it. For second-year physics students it is all due in the day before the first supervision of the Lent term at the usual times and places. For first-year maths students it is due in by 6.30pm on Thursday 19th January at either Jesus, Selwyn, Corpus Christi, or Trinity Hall.
• Optional extra question for everyone: have a go at the puzzle in this newspaper article.

Work for IA Nat. Sci. Maths		Work for IA Physics	Work for IB Physics A	Work for IB Physics B
(Course A)	(Course B)
Complete questions K3-6. Download the 2012 past papers for IA Nat. Sci. maths from the faculty's website. From paper 1, attempt questions 1-10, 12, 14, and 18. From paper 2, attempt questions 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 14, 17, and 18. (This is nominally 3 hours and 45 minutes' work at exam pace, but you should spend longer, and produce the best answers that you can.) [Optional.] Anyone who would like some extra (and more structured) practice plotting graphs should have a go at these graph-plotting questions. [Optional.] If you'd like to practise more Tripos questions, then attempt any questions of your choice from the 2011 papers.	Complete questions R11, R12, R13, and R14. Download the 2012 past papers for IA Nat. Sci. maths from the faculty's website. From paper 1, attempt questions 1-10, 12, 14, 15, and 18. From paper 2, attempt questions 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 17, and 19. (This is nominally 4 hours and 45 minutes' work at exam pace, but you should spend longer, and produce the best answers that you can.) [Optional.] Anyone who would like a challenge can have a look at anything from X1-12 on this (strictly optional) extra question sheet. Feel free to hand in anything you've done if you'd like feedback. [Optional.] If you'd like to practise more Tripos questions, then attempt any questions of your choice from the 2011 papers.	Play with the skate park, resonance, and lunar lander demonstrations from PhET. Consider carefully the physics involved. There will be questions. Complete questions 18-24 from the question sheet. Download the 2012 IA Physics past paper from the Cavendish teaching website. Attempt questions A2, A3, A4, B9, and C11. Download also the 2013 IA Physics past paper. Attempt questions A5, C10, and C11. You should spend longer on the questions above than you would have chance to in an exam, and produce the best answers that you can.	Play with the resonance and waves-on-a-string demos on PhET. If your computer allows you, play with the Fourier and wave-interference demos as well. Complete the rest of the question sheet on waves and optics. (This is questions 30-36, plus anything that you didn't get done in term. Do have a go at the computational questions if you haven't already; use other programs if you don't like MATLAB.) Download the May 2012 IB physics A papers from the Cavendish teaching website. From paper 1, attempt questions A4, A5, D12, and D13. From paper 2, attempt questions A1, A2, A3, B6, B7, B8, B9, and D12. (This is nominally 4 hours and 48 minutes' work at exam pace, but you should spend longer, and produce the best answers that you can.) If you'd like to practise more past paper questions, then attempt any of your choice from the 2010 paper 1.	Play with the charges and fields demonstration from PhET, looking that the field and equipotentials for a dipole and two different kinds of quadrapole. There will be questions. Also look at the radiating charge, and, if you have nothing better to do, apply gratuitous electric shocks to John Travoltage. Complete questions 1-9 from the Dynamics question sheet. Download the June 2013 IB physics B papers from the Cavendish teaching website. From paper 1, attempt questions A2, B6, B7, B8, and B9. From paper 2, attempt questions A1, A3, B6, and B7. (This is nominally just under 4 hours' work at exam pace, but you should spend longer, and produce the best answers that you can.)

Work to Do: Michaelmas Term 2016

Date of Supervision	Work for IA Nat. Sci. Maths		Work for IA Physics	Work for IB Physics A	Work for IB Physics B
	(Course A)	(Course B)
10th-15th October	No work set. (But, unless you are at Corpus Christi College, bring with you to the supervision the Maths Workbook from over the holidays.)		No work set.	No supervision this week.
17th-22nd October	All questions from sections A and B on the question sheet.	Questions A1, A3, A4, A5, A7, A8, {B3 or X1}, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8, B10, B11, and B13.	Questions 1 to 6 from the problem sheet. Optionally any of the first few questions from the additional problem sheet.	Questions 1-7.	Questions 1-6.
24th-29th October	Sections C, D, and E.	C1(iv), {C3(ii) or X2}, C4, C5(i, ii, iii), C7, C9, C10, C12, D1, D2, E2, E3, E4, F1(b, e, g, h).	Questions 7 to 13.	Questions 8-14.	Questions 7-12.
31st October - 5th November	Questions 1-13 from section F. If you feel confident with complex numbers, omit question 1 completely, and only do parts (b), (d), (f), (h) and (j) from question 2.	{F3(c,d) or X3}, F4(c), {F5(c) or X4(a,b)}, F6, F7(b,d,e,f,g,h,i,k), F8, F10, F11, F13(b), F14(e), F15(d), F17, F18(c,e), F19, G1, G3(b,e), G4, H1(e,f,h), {H2(a,c,e) or X7}, H3.	Questions 14 to 19.	Questions 15-17 from experimental methods, then 1 and 2 from waves and oscillations.	Questions 13-18.
7th-12th November	F14, F15, all of section G, and H1-7, optionally omitting H1(b,d,f,h) and H2(b,d,f,h)	H4, H5, I1, J1, K1, K2, L1, L2.	Questions 20-24	Questions 3-9 omitting 3(d).	Questions 19-25.
14th-19th November	The rest of section H.	M1, M2, M3, N1, N2, N4, O1, P1(d,g), P2(c,d,e), P3(b), P4.	Questions 1-6.	Questions 10-16.	Questions 26-30.
21st-26th November	Section I, and questions 1-2 from section J.	P5(d,g), P6(all), P7, P9, P10, P12, P15, Q1, Q2, Q4, Q6, Q7.	Questions 7-11.	Questions 17-21. 19(b) is optional. If the lecturer has covered the material in time, also attempt 22 and 23.	Questions 31-38.
28th November - 3rd December	The rest of section J, and questions 1 and 2 from section K.	P14, Q8, Q9, {R1 or X12}, R2, R3, R4, R5, R7, R8, R9.	Questions 12-17	Questions 22 and 23 (unless covered last week) then 24-29.	Questions 39-44.

General notes

Where to find the questions

• The examples sheets, which contain the questions, are usually given out in lectures. If you don't have a copy, you can download one from the web. Resources for IA Nat. Sci. maths are on Moodle, and resources for Physics are on TiS.
• If there are more questions on the examples sheet than I set, then you are welcome to do the extra ones; I'm happy to mark them.
• For maths supervisions, in some cases I've given a choice of questions in {curly braces}. The X questions are to be found on this extra question sheet. They are only there in case you are keen for a challenge: if not, stick to the choices from the lecturer's question sheet.

What I will mark

• I will only mark work from the course question sheets, attempts at questions from the extension sheet, and work set in the table above.
• I will not mark other past papers, attempts at old post-Christmas tests, or (in short) anything else. However, if you want to check your answers to specific past-paper questions, or talk about how to approach questions from anywhere else, then bring them along with you to a supervision, and if we have time we can go through them.
• If you want to check answers to past papers, then warn me (at least a couple of days in advance) by e-mail so that I can bring in my copy of the paper.

Re-arranging supervisions

I'm happy to re-arrange supervisions for almost any reason, providing that I have a week's notice. This means that you need to talk to me about it in the previous supervision (i.e. the supervision before the one that you want to rearrange), when all of the affected people are in the same place.

There's no need to read the rest of this section unless you are looking to re-arrange a supervision with less than a week's notice.

Sometimes students ask me to re-arrange their supervisions by e-mail, giving me less than a week's notice. The trouble with this is that it requires a number of e-mails to establish a possible alternative time that all three or four people affected can make, and for me to book a room. This series of e-mails usually takes a few days, by which point some possible rearranged times have already been and gone, and during which I have to allow not only for my regular timetable and the time of the rearranged supervision, but also for a number of hypothetical timetables based on rearrangements that might never happen. This is inconvenient, and if several students are asking for such rearrangements at once, can become impossible. And I don't think it fair to provide a flexibilty to some students that I can't give to everyone. Furthermore, I consider that providing a reasonable amount of notice for rearranging supervisions is a basic level of professionalism with regard to their academic commitments that can reasonably be expected of students. Therefore I shall not re-arrange any supervision with less than a week's notice except for academic or health reasons.

• In particular, I will not rearrange supervisions with less than a week's notice if the reason is...
  • rowing, even the "bumps". (If you're going to take part in a race whose exact time isn't set until shortly beforehand, then find out before the previous week's supervision all of the times that it could be. I can then try to find a time that doesn't clash with any of them.)
  • any other sport.
  • music, drama, or social events.
  • routine family visits.
  • a reason that you choose not to specify, even if you hint darkly at forces beyond your control.
  • another supervisor wanting to teach you in what is usually my slot, unless someone can explain to me why their time is so very much more valuable than mine.
  • an academic commitment that you have known about for long enough to give me a week's notice, but had forgotten about. (If you think that this is likely to be a problem, then e-mail me at least nine days before the supervision you want to rearrange, and I'll take on the responsibility of remembering to rearrange it at the proper time.)
  • anything else not listed below.
• I may make re-arrangements at short notice if...
  • you are ill, or need to attend a medical appointment. Let me know as soon as possible.
  • your department requires you to do something at short notice as part of your course, or you need to attend a catch-up practical session because you have been ill. (This should happen very rarely, because normally you will have advance notice from the department.) I may want to check with the department.
  • your Director of Studies wants you to do something at short notice. In this case I'd expect them to confirm.
  • there is a reason why a re-arrangement ought to be made on compassionate grounds, e.g. because you are visiting a relative who is ill, or helping a friend who is in serious trouble. In this case you need either to tell me exactly what the problem is, or (if it's something that you don't feel comfortable telling me about) tell your Tutor or Director of Studies, who can confirm to me that there is a good reason.