1 / 6

All About the PhD Preliminary Exam

All About the PhD Preliminary Exam. Typical PhD progression Take courses Pass PhD preliminary exam (written) Find thesis topic Pass PhD proposal exam (oral) Complete thesis Pass PhD defense (oral). What is the Preliminary Exam?. What is the PhD Preliminary Exam?

perry
Download Presentation

All About the PhD Preliminary Exam

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. All About the PhD Preliminary Exam • Typical PhD progression • Take courses • Pass PhD preliminary exam (written) • Find thesis topic • Pass PhD proposal exam (oral) • Complete thesis • Pass PhD defense (oral)

  2. What is the Preliminary Exam? • What is the PhD Preliminary Exam? • a 6 hour closed book exam, given over 3 days in late January • tests breadth of knowledge in core computer science • must be passed to earn a PhD; proposal exam cannot be taken until the preliminary exam has been passed • Information sources on the prelims found in: http://www.cis.udel.edu/graduate/ • PhD Preliminary Exam Format • PhD Preliminary Exam Reading List • Previous Preliminary Exam Questions (1997 thru 2007)

  3. PhD Preliminary Exam Format • Area 1: Systems (Day 1) • Subarea Computer Architecture: Relevant Courses CISC 662 • Subarea Operating Systems: Relevant Courses CISC 663 • Subarea Networks: Relevant Course CISC 650 • Area 2: Software (Day 2) • Subarea Computer Graphics: Relevant Course CISC 640 • Subarea Compilers: Relevant Courses CISC 672 • Subarea Artificial Intelligence: Relevant Course CISC 681 • Area 3: Theory (Day 3) • Subarea Design and Analysis of Algorithms: Relevant Courses CISC 621 • Subarea Theory of Computation: Relevant Course CISC 601 • Subarea Logic in Computer Science: Relevant Course CISC 604

  4. PhD Preliminary Exam Format cont’d • Area 1: Systems (Day 1) • Subarea Computer Architecture: Relevant Courses CISC 662 • Subarea Operating Systems: Relevant Courses CISC 663 • Subarea Networks: Relevant Course CISC 650 • Subareas may change from year to year, but rarely do. • Each subarea exam contains four problems. • Students answer 2 questions from each of 2 preselected subareas. • Each problem is intended to take about 1/2 hour. • Codes are used to make answers anonymous to the faculty graders • Each problem is graded by 2 faculty • Conditional passes are not uncommon (e.g. retake & pass Area 3 next year) • A student may attempt the prelims at most 2 times

  5. How to Apply for the “Prelims” • Email from the CIS Graduate Committee inviting applications • Due roughly in early December • Application contains: • The 2 subareas you select in each Area • Describe: • research experiences (+ publications) • dissertation area(s) of interest • potential research advisor(s) -- go talk with them beforehand! • Questions to CIS Graduate Committee: cisgpc@cis.udel.edu

  6. Prelims Panelists James Atlas Dan Blanchard Emily Gibson Peng Wu

More Related