We feel that an early diagnosis helps students to find a more fruitful enterprise at an early enough stage that they still have strong potential to succeed with their chosen career paths. The best preparation for the Qual is to attempt previous years' exams. These are distributed to incoming students, and are available from the Graduate Studies office. A sensible way to prepare is to attempt an old Qual under exam conditions, so that one's areas of ignorance or lack of facility are clearly exposed. Reviewing this material and then iterating this process a number of times will quickly identify and improve areas of weakness.
Some students form study groups and work problems together.
We encourage this activity, but strongly suggest that it does not replace individual study, as described above. We estimate that a month's preparation time is sufficient, and will be of considerable benefit to the consolidation of your physics knowledge and facility. The Illinois Qual is a test of undergraduate material, at the depth and level appropriate for Ph.D students. It is not a set of trick questions, and is designed to test fundamental understanding of basic principles. Comparing pass scores, manner in which the Qual is administered, and the problems themselves reveals that the Illinois Qual is relatively standard, and certainly tests simpler material than that at some of our peer institutions.