Prerequisites
Before entering NPTC, having completed FSc Physics or A-Level Physics is strongly recommended. This establishes the foundational knowledge needed to handle NPTC/PANSO-level problems without needing to build from scratch.
If you need supplementary lectures to solidify your base, these resources are excellent:
- Ramamurti Shankar - Yale OCW physics lectures (rigorous and thorough)
- ZPhysics - Olympiad physics marathons (more accessible entry point)
Stage 1: NPTC / PANSO
The first test is the easiest part of the entire track. Standard FSc/A-Level preparation should be more than sufficient to get through it.
Stage 2: INSO Selection Stages
For the intermediate rounds leading up to team selection:
- BPhO archive - focus on modern physics problems
- INSO practice problems - work through the first few sets
This is enough to progress through to team selection without overcomplicating your prep.
Stage 3: After Making the Team
This is where serious preparation begins.
Week 1 - Build Your Nuclear Physics Foundation
Work through Lamarsh (Introduction to Nuclear Engineering):
- Chapters 1-6, 9, and 10 - read these completely in the first week to get a solid map of the subject
Core Problem-Solving Progression
Work through problems in roughly this order:
- BPhO archive problems (start here to warm up)
- All INSO practice problems
- Lamarsh problems: Chapters 1-4 (all problems), Chapters 5 and 6 (selective), and Chapters 9 and 10 (most problems)
- Cember (Introduction to Health Physics) - Chapter 6 for dosimetry
- Irodov - nuclear physics problem set
- Curated problems from international olympiads: IPhO, APhO, NMBPhO, and EuPhO
- Serway & Jewett - a few problems on relativity, relativistic collisions, and quantum numbers
Mathematics
Some multivariable calculus may come up - don't be intimidated; it is fairly approachable when encountered in context and can be picked up on the fly as needed.
Stage 4: Experimental
INSO includes a practical/experimental component. The author's team prepared using PIEAS-assigned experiments, but the real exam featured a titration, which was unexpected.
Honest advice: Don't neglect the experimental component and try to keep a broad range of lab skills fresh - the exam can surprise you. Fatigue and physical condition on exam day matter more than people expect, so take care of yourself going in.