This GRE Physics cheat sheet compresses the ETS Physics Subject Test's nine content areas into a printable rundown of the formulas and facts examiners lean on most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free GRE Physics toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
GRE Physics exam at a glance
- Administered by: ETS (Educational Testing Service)
- Questions: About 70 five-option multiple-choice
- Time: 2 hours 50 minutes (170 minutes)
- Scoring: Scaled 200–990 in 10-point increments, plus a percentile rank — no pass/fail
- Raw score: Correct answers minus one-quarter of wrong answers (guessing penalty)
- Cost: $150 (verify the current ETS fee)
What’s on the GRE Physics cheat sheet
- Classical Mechanics (~20%) — the work-energy theorem, momentum and collisions, rotation, oscillations, and the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations — the single largest area.
- Electromagnetism (~18%) — Gauss's and Faraday's laws, RC and RL time constants, the Lorentz force, and Maxwell's equations with c = 1/√(μ₀ε₀).
- Quantum Mechanics (~12%) & Atomic Physics (~10%) — the Schrodinger equation, infinite-square-well and oscillator energies, the uncertainty principle, Bohr energies, and quantum numbers.
- Thermodynamics & Statistical Mechanics (~10%) — the first law ΔU = Q − W, Carnot efficiency, ideal-gas processes, and the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
- Optics & Wave Phenomena (~9%) and Specialized Topics (~9%) — Snell's law, the thin-lens equation, double-slit and single-slit conditions, plus nuclear, particle, and condensed-matter facts.
- Special Relativity (~6%) & Laboratory Methods (~6%) — the Lorentz factor, time dilation and length contraction, E² = (pc)² + (mc²)², and error analysis and instrumentation.
How to use it in your final week
- Lead your review with Classical Mechanics (~20%) and Electromagnetism (~18%) — together nearly 40% of the questions, so the formulas here move your score the most.
- Memorize the constants and one-line relationships cold: E_n = −13.6 eV/n², E² = (pc)² + (mc²)², η = 1 − T_c/T_h, and 1/f = 1/d_o + 1/d_i. The sheet keeps them on a single glance.
- Read the whole sheet the morning of the test as a fast recall pass — recognizing the right principle quickly matters more than depth at ~2.4 minutes per question.
- Pair each review pass with a short timed practice set so pacing across all nine areas feels routine before test day.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your GRE Physics practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
GRE Physics cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the GRE Physics cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no sign-up and no account. It sits alongside Career Employer's free GRE Physics practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so your entire prep stack costs nothing.
It condenses the highest-yield formulas and facts across all nine ETS content areas — the work-energy theorem, Gauss's and Faraday's laws, the thin-lens equation, Carnot efficiency, the Schrodinger equation, Bohr energies, and the Lorentz factor — grouped by the weightings ETS publishes so you review the biggest areas first.
No. It is an admissions test, not a pass/fail exam, so the sheet frames everything around your scaled score and percentile instead. Totals report on a 200-990 scale in 10-point increments with a percentile rank, and graduate programs set their own expectations.
It is built from the current ETS Physics Subject Test content outline and the ETS Physics Practice Book weightings, with constants checked against NIST. We review it against ETS's published materials so the formulas and content percentages stay accurate.
Click the download button or the preview card at the top of this page to open the PDF instantly. Bookmark the page so you can pull it up for a final formula pass the morning of your test.
References
- 1.ETS. “GRE Physics Subject Test: Content and Structure.” ETS.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.ETS. “GRE Physics Test Practice Book (content percentages).” ETS.org. ↑
- 3.ETS. “Understanding Your GRE Subject Test Scores.” ETS.org. ↑
- 4.ETS. “GRE Subject Test Registration and Fees.” ETS.org. ↑
- 5.NIST. “The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty.” National Institute of Standards and Technology. ↑
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