Preliminary Examination
Students in all Programs must pass a preliminary examination. Details of the EPGP preliminary examination, including a detailed calendar that is updated every year and a flow chart are provided in the student handbook. The student handbook also provides examples of the format and an example of a proposal for guidance. An abbreviated description of the preliminary examination is copied from the handbook below.
General information
The graduate student preliminary (qualifying) examination (often referred to as “Prelim’s” or “Qualifiers”) must be successfully completed in order to pursue your graduate research and to advance to candidacy. The purpose of this examination is to test your understanding of the BBSC course work, program-specific course work, general science and critical thinking, the basis of research methods and to evaluate your aptitude for research. The examination will ordinarily be completed by the end of the second year of study and is a prerequisite for admission to candidacy to the Ph.D. program. Students who fail the examination cannot enter candidacy and are therefore subject to dismissal from graduate school. At the discretion of the mentor and the Program Director, a student may be offered the opportunity to pursue a Master’s degree.
Choice of Preliminary Examination Committee
Upon approval of your research laboratory, you should now consider selecting the members of your Preliminary Examination Committee (PEC) as described below. It is the students’ responsibility to contact all prospective members and determine that they are willing to be members. Submit your list (please provide 5 faculty names and 2 alternatives), together with a brief (approximately 300 words) description of your actual research project, to the Most students have several publications by the time that they graduate. so that it can be reviewed by the SEAC. The description will be used by the PEC and SEAC members to ensure that your preliminary examination does not directly overlap with you or your PI’s research project. Upon approval you will be notified by email. For various reasons it is not always possible to have all of your choices of faculty on your committee. For example because of time commitments we typically limit the number of committees on which a specific faculty member sits, to two. Occasionally the SEAC therefore chooses a committee member who was not suggested by the student.
The committee consists of a total of five members. The SEAC will elect a chairman.
The membership includes:
At least one member of the Student Evaluation and Advisory Committee (SEAC),
(Xuejie Yu, Jere McBride, Paul Boor, Hal Hawkins, Norbert Herzog, Rick Pyles)
One or two members from outside of the Experimental Pathology Program,
Members from within the Experimental Pathology Program exclusive of the mentor.
The Structure of the Preliminary Examination
The examination begins in the first week of the Spring semester of year 2 and consists of a written grant proposal that you must orally present and defend to your PEC. The examination is administered by your PEC, which is specific for each doctoral student. The Preliminary Examination generally should be completed in approximately four months. Each part of the examination (written proposal and oral defense) is graded as pass/fail. The student has a maximum of two chances to pass each part of the exam. The time of administration can be changed at the discretion of the SEAC in conjunction with the Program Director (S. Higgs). A calendar detailing when specific tasks must be done (i.e. deadlines) and by whom, will be supplied to each student by the Program Coordinator.
The student will provide the PEC, two published papers of their choice (pdf file or hard copies), together with an NIH R01 format Specific Aims section that includes a well developed hypothesis and rationale (see example below) for each paper. The proposal should be written for a research project that could realistically be completed in one year and is an extension of ideas in the submitted papers. The student should indicate which grant proposal they prefer to write in the event that their committee believes both proposals to be equally acceptable. An updated brief description of your own research project (approximately 300 words) should be included with your papers (as previously submitted when selecting your PEC members).
Students should make common sense, realistic assumptions regarding the budget, facilities and equipment needed for you proposed research. Budgets, biographical sketches, detailed resource descriptions are not required. Approvals from institutional committee (IBC, IACUC etc) can be assumed as already given. Do not submit appendices to supplement your 10 page limit! References are not included in he page limitations. Page limitations should be strictly followed.
We strongly recommend the following book for assistance in preparing your grant proposal: http://www.grantcentral.com/workbooks.html. This workbook is a very practical, step by step guide to the philosophy and proven techniques for the writing of successful grant proposals. You can order it online and use it to assist you in the preparation of your preliminary examination grant proposal. The guy who wrote it is really good, take his lessons to heart! Read it and use it!
Students will have approximately five weeks to prepare and submit their grant proposal to the Experimental Pathology Program Coordinator. The PEC will be asked to evaluate and vote on the proposal (pass/fail; note: there is no marginal pass). All PEC members evaluate the proposal for (a) scientific soundness, (b) whether the proposed hypothesis can be tested by the proposed aims, (c) the logic and originality of the experimental approach and methodological plan. The committee can opt to reject the written grant proposal as inadequate prior to the defense. A single PEC dissenting vote is allowed (i.e., 4 pass/1 fail). The Committee chair will communicate with the student (with copies to SEAC chair and the Program Coordinator) by e-mail, notifying them of their grade (pass/fail). Students receiving a passing grade will contact their PEC to arrange a meeting to defend their proposal (see below).
In the event of a failing grade, the student will have one additional opportunity to rewrite within one month) the proposal. Should the second version of the proposal not be found acceptable, then the student will have failed the preliminary examination process. Students that do not successfully complete this part of the preliminary examination cannot enter candidacy and are therefore subject to dismissal from graduate school. At the discretion of the mentor and the Program Director, a student may be offered the opportunity to pursue a Master’s degree.
Help and Feedback
The student will not receive any help from fellow students or faculty in the preparation of the Preliminary Examination grant proposal or its defense. You will not receive specific feedback from your PEC prior to your oral defense. In the event of a failing grade, the PEC chair will provide a summary of the committees’ concerns to aid in rewriting the proposal and/or second oral defense.
Oral Defense
The student defends the proposal during an oral and PowerPoint presentation to the PEC. Remember that the presentation is based directly on your written proposal, so stay focused and do not introduce new specific aims etc that the committee has not evaluated. Students are responsible for contacting all members of their committee and coordinating the time and location of their examination within the time period specified by the SEAC, and are encouraged to do as soon as it is possible. The PEC chair will confirm the time and date for the oral presentation. The total presentation/examination should last no more than three hours. The format is variable and should be discussed with the PEC chairman. It can, for example, be a 1 hour presentation followed by questions, or can be a longer presentation with PEC members asking questions during the presentation. Questions that will be asked will focus on your proposal/presentation but can take many forms. Be prepared to explain methodologies (formulae, what specific reagents do etc), experimental plans (use of controls etc), data analysis (statistics) etc, etc. Remember, that questions are not limited to your proposal but can also include knowledge that can reasonably be expected based upon the students research interest and academic background. The PEC chair will inform the entire PEC of the defense format prior to the event. The defense of the proposal will be evaluated and one PEC dissenting vote is allowed (i.e., 4 pass/1 fail). If the oral defense is failed, the student must re-defend the same proposal. In very exceptional circumstances, the student may be required to submit a proposal based on an alternative paper, approved by the PEC and SEAC. Two failed defenses of a proposal will result in failure of the preliminary examination process, Students that do not successfully complete this part of the preliminary examination cannot enter candidacy and are therefore subject to dismissal from graduate school.