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GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) GRE Subject Tests Overview Flashcards
52 question-and-answer cards covering GRE Subject Tests Overview as it is examined in GRE (Graduate Record Examinations). 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the GRE Subject Tests Overview deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
What is the definition of a continuous function in terms of epsilon and delta?
f is continuous at a if for every ε>0 there exists δ>0 such that |x−a|<δ implies |f(x)−f(a)|<ε.
What is Bayes' theorem?
P(A|B) = P(B|A)·P(A) / P(B), relating the conditional probability of A given B to that of B given A.
Approximately how much of the GRE Physics Subject Test is devoted to classical mechanics?
About 20 percent, the largest single content area, covering kinematics, Newton's laws, energy, and Lagrangian/Hamiltonian methods.
State Newton's second law of motion.
The net force on an object equals the rate of change of its momentum; for constant mass, F = ma.
What is the Lagrangian of a system, and what equation governs its dynamics?
L = T − V (kinetic minus potential energy); the Euler-Lagrange equation d/dt(∂L/∂q̇) − ∂L/∂q = 0 gives the equations of motion.
What do Maxwell's equations describe?
The behavior of electric and magnetic fields: Gauss's law for E, Gauss's law for magnetism, Faraday's law of induction, and the Ampère-Maxwell law.
State Gauss's law for electricity.
The electric flux through a closed surface equals the enclosed charge divided by ε₀: ∮E·dA = Q_enc/ε₀.
What is the Lorentz force on a charged particle?
F = q(E + v × B), the combined force from electric and magnetic fields on a charge q moving with velocity v.
What is the photoelectric effect and what did it demonstrate?
Electrons are ejected from a metal when light above a threshold frequency strikes it; it demonstrated the quantization of light into photons (E = hf).
State the time-independent Schrödinger equation.
Ĥψ = Eψ, where Ĥ is the Hamiltonian operator, ψ the wavefunction, and E the energy eigenvalue.
What is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle for position and momentum?
Δx·Δp ≥ ħ/2; position and momentum cannot both be known with arbitrary precision simultaneously.
In special relativity, what is time dilation?
A moving clock runs slow relative to a stationary observer: Δt = γΔt₀, where γ = 1/√(1−v²/c²).
State the first law of thermodynamics.
The change in internal energy of a system equals heat added to it minus work done by it: ΔU = Q − W (energy conservation).
State the second law of thermodynamics in terms of entropy.
The total entropy of an isolated system never decreases; ΔS ≥ 0, and equals zero only for reversible processes.
What is the relationship between wave speed, frequency, and wavelength?
v = fλ; wave speed equals frequency times wavelength.
What is the Doppler effect for waves?
The observed frequency of a wave changes when the source and observer move relative to each other, increasing as they approach and decreasing as they recede.
In experimental physics, how is the standard error of the mean calculated?
Standard error = s/√n, where s is the sample standard deviation and n is the number of measurements; it quantifies uncertainty in the estimated mean.
What is the difference between accuracy and precision in laboratory measurement?
Accuracy is closeness to the true value; precision is reproducibility (closeness of repeated measurements to each other).
In biological psychology, what is the resting membrane potential of a typical neuron and what causes an action potential?
About −70 mV; an action potential is a rapid depolarization caused by voltage-gated Na⁺ channels opening, followed by repolarization via K⁺ efflux.
In cognitive psychology, what is the distinction between short-term and long-term memory in the modal model?
Short-term memory holds limited information briefly (about 7±2 items for seconds), while long-term memory stores large amounts of information durably after encoding.
What is the difference between classical and operant conditioning?
Classical conditioning associates a neutral stimulus with a reflexive response (Pavlov); operant conditioning changes voluntary behavior through reinforcement or punishment (Skinner).
In social psychology, what is the fundamental attribution error?
The tendency to overemphasize dispositional (personality) causes and underestimate situational causes when explaining others' behavior.
What did Piaget's theory of cognitive development propose as its four stages?
Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.
In clinical psychology and measurement, what is the difference between reliability and validity of a test?
Reliability is the consistency or repeatability of measurement; validity is whether the test actually measures what it claims to measure.
What this deck covers
The GRE Subject Tests Overview deck follows the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) GRE Subject Tests Overview syllabus — 4 chapters and 13 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 13.0 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 121 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
GRE Subject Tests Overview flashcards FAQ
How many GRE Subject Tests Overview flashcards are in this GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) deck?
52 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 52-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the GRE Subject Tests Overview cards cover?
They follow the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) GRE Subject Tests Overview syllabus — 4 chapters and 13 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.