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Qualifying Exam Committee Guidelines

Purpose:

1. Administer oral PhD qualifying examinations twice per year.

Duties of Committee:

1. Publish question list at least 3 months prior to exam.
2. Announce exam format at least 3 months prior to exam.
3. Be available to answer questions from students preparing for the examination.
4. Administer oral examinations.
5. Convey result of examinations to Manager of Students Affairs within two business days of the last examination for the given component.
6. Conduct yearly review of the Guidelines for the Qualifying Examination Committee (this document), and if necessary, propose changes.

Duties of Manager of Student Affairs

1. Schedule exams.
2. Register students for the exams.
3. Convey exam results to students.

Subcommittee Membership:

1. There are five qualifying exam subcommittees, one for each component of the exam.
2. Each subcommittee is composed of three faculty members, one of whom will be designated as the subcommittee chair.
3. The subcommittee members and chairs are chosen by the Department Chair.
4. The term of service of each committee member is one year.

Committee Procedures:

1. Qualifying exam procedures are determined by the Graduate Curriculum Committee based on input from members of the Qualifying Exam subcommittees.
2. Oral exams are offered during a 3-week period which includes the first week of classes and two adjacent weeks before and/or after the first week of classes. The exams for an individual component all occur within one week. Thus, during each of the three weeks, examinations in one or two components occur.
3. Scheduling of the exams is coordinated by the Manager of Student Affairs.
4. The result of the exam is either Pass or Fail, decided by majority vote of the three examiners.
5. All questions asked must be taken from the published question list. Follow-up questions not published may be asked, but they must pertain to the published questions, not be entirely new questions.
6. Each committee may make decisions about the exam format such as how many questions to ask and whether to give the students time to write notes between getting the question and giving the answer. The format must be announced to the students registered for the exam at least 3 months prior to the exam.
7. Students registered for the exam may withdraw without penalty any time before they are given the questions they will be asked during the exam.

Specific Charges for AY 2004-2005:

1. Meet with instructors of qualifying courses to be sure that exams and courses are in sync.

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