Department of Physics

Preliminary Exams

All graduate students working toward the Ph.D. degree must pass the Preliminary Examination (PE). A student must be in good academic standing to take the PE, per Graduate school rules. The PE is taken after the Program of Study is submitted, and the Graduate School requires that it must be completed at least 7 months before the Final Oral Examination. A full-time doctoral student should normally complete the PE within 3 years of entry into the Ph.D. program. When it is completed, you are admitted to candidacy for the doctoral program, and your status becomes ABD (all but dissertation). The Graduate School requires continuous fall/spring enrollment after that and you have up to five years to complete your dissertation and defense after passing the PE.

The Preliminary Exam consists of two parts: A written report and an oral exam. The successful completion of these two pieces will advance the student to Ph.D. candidacy. Students are encouraged to complete both portions of the Preliminary Exam before the end of their third year, as per the Graduate School’s guidance.

In the two parts of the Preliminary Exam students will introduce their supervisory committee to the project they will pursue for their dissertation. Both the written report and the oral exam will be prepared with the guidance of the student’s advisor and the supervisory committee must approve both in separate votes. Students who change research areas after passing the Preliminary Exam are not required to retake it.

Written Report

The candidate must provide a copy of their written report to each member of their supervisory committee and all members of the committee must certify that they have received acceptable copies of the document. Candidates should allow at least 10 working days for a vote on the written report by the supervisory committee prior to the oral exam.

The outcome of the written report part of the Preliminary Exam will be decided by a three-quarters vote of the Supervisory Committee. The vote, and any deliberations, can be conducted by email. Committee members will each select one of the following four outcomes:

  1. Pass
  2. Provisional Pass. This outcome is given when the written report requires revisions, but the revisions are sufficiently minor that the thesis advisor can approve the changes without going back to the committee.
  3. Major revision. This outcome indicates that the revised document needs to be reviewed by the committee. Subsequent revisions may be deemed a Pass or Fail.
  4. Fail. This outcome indicates that the student needs to start over on the written report part of the Preliminary Exam.

The student is considered to have passed the written part of the Preliminary Exam and may proceed to the Oral Exam if at least three fourths of the supervisory committee votes Pass or Provisional Pass. The student is considered to have failed if more than one fourth of the Committee votes Fail.

If the student does not pass or fail at the first vote, they will be advised of the vote count and provided guidance on the revisions required to get a passing vote. The Committee will vote a second time if a revised document is submitted. The voting options will be restricted to Pass and Fail in this vote and the student will be considered to have passed if at least three fourths of the Committee votes to pass.

Two failed written reports will be deemed a failure of the Preliminary Exam.

Each committee member should vote on the written report within 21 calendar days of receiving it or by the oral exam, whichever comes first. The written report must be passed before the oral exam takes place.

Guidelines for the Written Report

The objective of the written report is to present the committee with a potential Ph.D. project. The presentation of this project proposal may include the following elements:

  • Overview of the state of the field
  • Review of theories and methods that are commonly used
  • Statement of the problem to be studied and justification for why this problem is the logical next step
  • Preliminary results (if available)
  • Plan to address the chosen problem An adequate presentation of the plan is expected to take 4000-6000 words.

Students who have written a Master’s Thesis, a manuscript, or similar work in an area closely related to their proposed area of research can extensively use their previous written work in the composition of their written report. Clarifications on this guideline can be provided by the student’s committee.

Students who change research areas after passing the written report part of the Preliminary Exam are NOT required to submit a new written report. It is strongly recommended that students pass the written report part of the Preliminary Exam before scheduling the oral exam. However, the date of the oral exam can be as soon as 10 days after the written report is given to the committee.

Students who entered before Fall 2023 may, upon petition to their supervisory committee, take the old format written Departmental Exam that existed when they started, in lieu of submitting a written report. The request must be made in writing at least 30 days before the start of the semester that the exam is to be done. A description of the old DE can be found in the January 2018 version of the Graduate Program Guidelines. This option will be discontinued and not available after Fall 2024.

Oral Exam

It is the student's responsibility to schedule the oral exam with the Graduate School at a time and place agreed upon by the student's supervisory committee. The Graduate School requires the oral exam to be scheduled with the Graduate School at least four weeks before the agreed upon date. A student will be deemed to have passed the oral exam if at least three quarters of the supervisory committee approve of the student's performance. When the student passes the oral exam, they have successfully passed their Preliminary Exam. After the oral exam, the ballot on the Preliminary Exam is sent to the Graduate School.