The Qualifying Exam

The Qualifying Exam (QE)

In spring of year two, PhD students in BMCDB take the qualifying exam, which consists of a written dissertation proposal and an oral exam. This is followed, ideally as soon as possible, by advancing to candidacy, in which a student codifies the members of their dissertation committee and verifies that they have completed all degree requirements.

Additionally, students who have passed the qualifying exam are eligible to receive a Master's degree "on paper," as part of their doctoral studies. Extra paperwork is required.

The primary purpose of the Qualifying Examination (QE) is to validate that the student is academically qualified to conceptualize a research topic, undertake scholarly research, and successfully produce the dissertation required for a doctoral degree. The QE must evaluate the student’s breadth and depth of knowledge in the field and must not focus exclusively on the proposed dissertation research.

Selecting the Committee Scheduling the Examination Preparing for the Examination Examination Format Results of the Examination

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the exam, the student must have completed all BMCDB course requirements, must have removed any deficiencies on the transcript, and must have at least a B average in all work undertaken while in graduate standing. The student must be registered during the quarter in which the qualifying exam is taken.

Selecting the Committee

This process should take place during fall quarter of Year 2. Students' committee selections are due to the Graduate Program Coordinator by the last day of Fall Quarter.

Qualifying examination committees will consist of five Academic Senate tenure-track faculty:
- Three (including the Chair) are selected by the student.
- Two are selected by the Student Affairs Committee. The student is allowed one veto.
All committee members must be tenure-track faculty in the Academic Senate. Emeriti are allowed.
If the student is enrolled in a Designated Emphasis (DE), one committee member must be affiliated with that DE. This committee member may be the Chair.
A maximum of one non-member of BMCDB is allowed.
Direct collaborators with the student's PI are not allowed to serve. This applies to:
- Financial collaborations, e.g., if the student's work is being funded by a grant on which the prospective committee member is a PI
- Personal relationships, i.e., no spouses or romantic partners are allowed to co-serve
If a faculty member is on sabbatical, they are under no obligation to serve on QE committees, but can elect to do so.

Chair Selection

The Chair must be a member of the BMCDB Graduate Group.
The Chair should have been a faculty member at UC Davis for at least five years.
The Chair should have served on at least one BMCDB qualifying exam committee.

Remote Participation

Graduate Studies now allows you to select an Emergency Plan that allows for an all-remote examination in the event of a crisis.
The BMCDB Graduate Group does not allow single members of a committee to participate in a QE remotely. For example, faculty coming from the UC Davis Medical Center campus in Sacramento are required to attend a QE on the Davis campus in-person, or vice versa.

Finalizing the Committee

Early in winter quarter of Year 2, students will receive a notification that their remaining two committee members have been selected by the Student Affairs Committee. Students will have approximately one week to affirm these two committee members or to ask for a replacement.
Once all committees have been approved by the student body, the Student Affairs Committee will review for conflicts of interest.
Around halfway through winter quarter of Year 2, all committee members will be notified of their participation in the QE committees. Faculty will have approximately one week to opt out of membership (e.g., due to sabbatical); once all five committee members have confirmed their participation, students are free to start scheduling.

Scheduling the Examination

Coordinating with the Committee

All Ph.D. students are expected to take their QE in spring quarter of their second year, unless a prior waiver is approved by the BMCDB Student Affairs Committee. Summer QEs are permitted, but generally not advised due to lack of faculty availability.

Students are not required to have existing data to present the QE; therefore, the exam cannot be delayed due to insufficient data.

Students will need to poll their committees to determine a QE date/time. QEs require scheduling a three hour time block during which the entire Committee needs to be present. Students are highly encouraged to start the scheduling process as soon as their committee has been finalized.

One scheduling tip: Broadly poll committee members for when they will be out of town or have day-long standing conflicts, so those dates can be eliminated prior to sending out an availability poll such as Doodle or When2Meet.

Finding an Examination Room

Students are responsible for scheduling a room for the Qualifying Exam. The major professor and/or QE chair may be able to suggest a room. There are also rooms available in Green Hall, Walker Hall, Tupper Hall, and the Genome Center.

Notifying UC Davis Graduate Studies

As soon as the date of your QE is set - and at least 30 days prior to the intended examination date - students will need to submit the Qualifying Exam Application to GradSphere. Students only need to enter the email addresses of their committee members; the rest of their information, such as position title and home department, will auto-complete.

Graduate Studies now allows for the selection of an “emergency plan” to be implemented if one of your committee members is unable to attend due to illness or family emergency:

Remote exam - exam is held entirely remotely (no hybrid participation)
Backup Date/Time - at the time of scheduling the original exam, a second "backup" exam time is scheduled
Alternate Member - a pre-determined alternate member replaces a member who cannot attend due to an emergency

Please note the following:

The alternate examiner cannot replace the Chair.
The Graduate Group will not assist in the selection of an alternate examiner. Students who want to choose this plan will need to specify the alternate examiner in their QE contracts and include them in the scheduling process.
Students who choose a backup date should consider leaving at least a 10-day gap between the two dates, to allow an ill member to get well.
Students may ask their committee members to keep a backup date and time free, but please keep in mind that they have every right to say no.
The fully-remote option cannot be implemented except in true emergencies. Students who are feeling pressured to switch to an all-remote exam should contact the Chair of Student Affairs and Advising as soon as possible.

Preparing for the Examination

Some of the items below are things students need to complete at similar times. Therefore, they are not necessarily in order and can be done at any time leading up to the QE.

Prepare the QE proposal: The proposal is a critical element of the committee’s evaluation of a Ph.D. candidate. It also is a good axis by which to prepare intellectually for your QE. By the end of preparation, students should have acquired expertise in the research area. Proposal prep should start 3 months or more from the QE to allow for iterative improvement. The PI should guide the student on its content and style. First, meet and agree on the scope of the proposal, then submit an early draft for commentary and corrections.
Study: To be adequately prepared for the QE, students need to become an expert in the literature relevant to the proposed work. The means the field as a whole, the critical problems in the field, and the previously published work that directly lead to the student's proposed work. In addition, students should identify areas that they need to be stronger in and study them. The amount of extra study required varies from student to student, based on how much knowledge they have already accumulated, the project’s complexity, and how challenging the concepts are. Students should try to anticipate and prepare for questions ahead of time. Be self-critical (about the science) and try and poke holes in it. Get others to poke also. Figure out how to fix the holes. Time spent on finding flaws now will save months to years of work later. Embrace critique!
- Sample leading questions for QE study (in other words, the proposal should contain these items and students should be ready to discuss them):
  - What are the long- and short-term goals scientific goals of the project?
  - What are the hypothesis/es and how was/were it/they developed?
  - Why is the student choosing this particular experimental approach?
  - How does each experimental method “work”?
  - How will the student analyze their data and what validations will they perform?
  - What they will experimentally do if “everything works”?
  - What are the criteria for the student's approach “working?” (how do they operationalize “success”?)
  - What is the student's backup plan if things “don’t work”?
  - What is the contribution to knowledge in the field? What’s next?
Meet with the committee: Within a month of the exam date, set up a meeting with the QE Chair to discuss the structure of the exam and general expectations for both student and Chair alike. Offer to meet with other committee members. Most will want to talk, but occasionally members prefer not to meet. Don’t be concerned about this. Be prepared to pitch the project and listen carefully to what they ask about. Chances are they will are using this to say what is important to them and hint at types of questions they may ask.
Practice the QE: Start this process at least a month ahead, to get a good idea of what needs work with enough time left to actually do it. Practice also helps reduce nervousness. Practice with as many different audiences as possible; postdocs and senior grad students might be especially helpful. Try to include people outside the subject area and above a second-year student's level of expertise. Prepare the 10-minute intro talk. This should cover the proposal from start to finish: rationale, significance, essential background, aims, proposed experimental approach, progress to date, and what’s next. Ten minutes entails needing to summarize and touch on the high points - that means fewer details. But the student sets the terms of QE engagement here and, if well done, can steer the committee’s attentions to a student's strengths.

Examination Format

The qualifying examination will consist of a dissertation research proposal that covers general background and an examination in the core subject area(s) identified by the core course instructors recommendations to the Student Affairs Committee. Students will be expected to submit a written dissertation proposal to their committee at least one week prior to the oral examination.

The qualifying examination begins with a ten-minute uninterrupted "chalk talk" by the student, which will be administered on a chalk/white board only. Chairs are allowed at their discretion to decide whether the student can pre-prepare the board with figures. The rest of the exam consists of a question-and-answer, with the committee probing the student's methods, rationales, and plans for next steps. The exam should last no longer than 3 hours.

Tips for Students on Exam Day

You should arrive early to the exam room and prepare yourself prior to everyone else’s arrival. If you are anxious, take a stroll around if you are otherwise prepared.
Once your Committee has assembled, you will immediately be asked to leave the room so members can discuss their initial impressions based on meeting with you, your proposal, and your BMCDB academic record. Some strategizing about how to apportion questioning time, who might take the lead, or other things are being discussed. Do not read anything into the amount of time this takes.
Once you are back in the room, the QE clock commences. You should briefly introduce yourself and start with your 10-minute spiel. After your 10 minutes are up, questions start.
a. Your Chair’s role is to make sure the QE progresses smoothly, covers all important areas, and stays on track, and to objectively and fairly preside over the judgment process.
This exercise is supposed to be a scientific discussion and therefore try to envision it that way, as opposed to seeing it as this awful task where you have to slay the dragon or be eaten. Assume that your Committee is friendly. Faculty love to talk about science, so engage them as colleagues rather than superiors. Much good advice on your research can arise during QEs if you are willing to listen.
Since the QE is a scientific discussion, know that criticism of the science is not a personal criticism. Therefore, don’t take it personally if a faculty challenges or disagrees with you. If you think you are right and can support it, then don’t hesitate to try to persuade them that you know what you are doing. On the other hand, if they are correct, then accept the criticism sincerely and gracefully, seek clarification if need be, and move on.
If you need a break during the exam, for example to use the bathroom or to gather yourself together, it is OK to request it.
If you know something, say it, but if you don’t, admit it right away, preferably following with, “Even though I don’t know the answer, I can speculate based on…” This shows the ability to think on your feet.
The exam will proceed usually 1.5 – 2 hours and then break. You will be asked to leave the room again and the members will discuss their impressions. They will decide what remaining areas they want to cover. In some cases, Chairs decide that more general questions should be asked to probe your breadth of knowledge. In other cases, Committees choose to drill deeper into a specific issue or sticking point.
The exam will continue usually with a limited amount of questions. Typically within the hour, the committee will break a second time and you will leave the room. By Graduate Studies' regulations, the maximum time allowed is three hours.
During the second break, the committee will vote on the outcome, resolve most disagreements, and if required, discuss preliminary recommendations for a retake. Don't worry! This process can go on quite a while, but the outcome doesn’t really relate to how long you wait for it.
When you are called back in, you will be informed of the outcome. Sometimes, the Committee leaves except the Chair, who then conveys a summary of what was discussed. Other times, the entire committee participates in the summary.

Results

There are three possible outcomes of the examinations - pass, retake, and fail.

Pass - The committee unanimously decides the student passed the exam. Students who pass are allowed to proceed with advancing to candidacy. They can also submit the paperwork to get their MS degree if they want to (see below).
Retake - The committee unanimously decides some or all parts of the exam must be retaken. A memo with specific details of retake requirements and timeline for completion of the retake will be provided to the student. Students can only retake the QE once; those who take it a second time can only pass or fail.
- Retakes are not uncommon, so students should not fear this outcome! The committee will work closely with the student to help them understand what areas of improvement are needed for the second exam. Some students are asked to retake the oral exam; others are essentially being asked to "revise and resubmit" their proposals on the basis of concerns raised during the exam.
Fail - This outcome is incredibly uncommon in BMCDB. The committee unanimously determines the student failed the exam due to significant deficiencies, and the student is not currently prepared to continue in the doctoral program. A unanimous fail on either the first or second exam is a recommendation of the student’s disqualification from the degree objective.

Getting a Master's

Students may decide to obtain an MS Plan II along the way to their PhD. In this situation, a passed QE is used to satisfy the Plan II Comprehensive Exam requirement.

If students would like to pursue this option, these are the following steps:

Submit the petition to add the MS to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Click here for a template with all the BMCDB-specific details completed.
- This form should be signed (twice!) by Enoch Baldwin, regardless of who your academic advisor is.
- You should receive an automated confirmation from Grad Studies when the MS has been added to your degree.
Post-QE students: Submit the Advancement to Candidacy (under "Degree," select the MS Plan II) smart-form in GradSphere. Students who have not yet taken the QE should submit this form at the start of the quarter when they will be taking the exam.
- The date of the "comprehensive exam" is the date you took the QE.
Email the Graduate Program Coordinator with a request to submit the Master's Plan II Report in GradSphere. Please include the date of your QE.
Once the report is approved, you will need to submit the Filing Process (under "Degree," select the MS Plan II) smart-form in GradSphere. This is the final step in the process.