Qualifying Exams

• A structured opportunity for students to develop capacity for
  • Understanding and communicating the scholarly knowledge of their field
  • Learning new topics and relating them to the student's field of study
  • Writing cogent scholarly prose that effectively synthesizes information and analyzes problems
  • Responding to questions, articulating arguments, and generally engaging in scholarly discussion and debate
• An opportunity for the committee to offer informed thoughtful suggestions for further professional growth and future success
• Cultivate professional self-confidence (and serve as a partial antidote to the Imposter Syndrome that afflicts most of us)
• Ensure that a Ph.D. from Dartmouth EEES is a symbol of excellence in scholarship and an asset for professional success

The student's Qualifying Exam Committee is composed of five members: four Dartmouth faculty and one external member. Generally, the four Dartmouth faculty are the student's advisory committee plus one other member of the EEES faculty. However, by agreement of the student and advisory committee, one of the four Dartmouth faculty for the qualifying exam may be a qualified Dartmouth faculty member who is not a member of EEES. Non-EEES faculty who serve on EEES student committees may choose to apply for election as adjunct faculty in EEES (see bylaws).

The exam is chaired by either the student's major advisor or another committee member who ensures that the exam guidelines are followed:

1. Written examination: The purpose is to demonstrate the student's capacity to provide sophisticated written responses to questions drawn from predefined topic areas. The committee and student will agree no later than 4 months prior to the exam date on Topic Area 1 (principal field) and Topic Area 2 (secondary field) for the written exam. At least one month before the written exam, the student will provide a set of 10 possible questions to the committee, 5 for each Topic Area. The committee can then use those questions to form their own for the written exam.

2. Oral examination: The purpose is to demonstrate the student's knowledge, analytical abilities, and capacity for synthesis within the student's field of study. The domain of the oral examination is the chosen field of study (as agreed upon by the student and the committee) and the articulation of that field in relation to the wider intellectual domain of EEES. The oral exam occurs between 1 and 3 weeks after the written exam.

Overview: The written exam has two sets of questions, one for each Topic Area. Topic Areas should be thoughtfully discussed by the student and committee to develop consensus and then should be explicitly defined and recorded in a letter at least 4 months prior to the written examination. Faculty advisors, in consultation with the Qualifying Exam Committee, help the student identify the literature base for each topic area. Students and committees are encouraged to browse previous topic areas (EEB, SEE) and add their own for the benefit of those who follow.

• Topic Area 1 should be defined to match the scholarly field that is the intended area of professional expertise (i.e., the field in which a Ph.D. recipient would be seeking jobs and would be qualified to teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate level).
• Topic Area 2 should be defined to enhance scholarly breadth (i.e., cultivate technical expertise and professional capacity in a field that is distinct from that which the student intends to contribute with the core of their Ph.D. research). Good candidates for Topic Area 2 are areas that could provide underdeveloped intellectual bridges to Topic Area 1. As a benefit of studies in Topic Area 2, students should be qualified to teach and conduct research in a field where they would not otherwise be trained if their studies were more narrowly focused on their primary research field.

Exam questions

The written exam questions are generated as follows: At least 1 month prior to the exam date, the student will provide a list of 10 questions to the committee, 5 for each Topic Area. As such, the student has the opportunity to shape the scope of the exam, and to formulate important questions about the Topic Areas, which itself is valuable training. The exam committee, led by the student's major advisor, will then use those student questions to inform the writing of their own questions, of which two sets will be selected, one set for each Topic Area. The committee decides a page limit (a maximum, not a suggested length) for the answer to each set of questions. The questions for each Topic Area will be designed by the committee to be reasonably addressed by the student in either an 12-hour period or a 1-week period, the choice of the exam length belongs to the student (see Exam length, below).

Exam length

Once the two exam questions have been crafted by the committee, the student then decides how long the exam period for each question is, either 12-hours or 1-week, and the question dates are set. This ensures that the questions and the page limits are decided independently of the chosen exam length. The exam length options provide flexibility to promote student comfort and success and to accommodate different life circumstances. The substance of a 12-hour answer versus a 1-week answer should not be different; the difference in the answers associated with the two exam lengths should be in the level of polish, quality of editing, and presentation of the answer. The student can choose to take the exam in two 12-hour periods, two 1-week periods, or mix exam lengths for the two different questions, for example, answering the Topic Area 1 question in 12 hours and the Topic Area 2 question in 1 week.

Exam implementation

At the beginning of each of the agreed upon times for the two written responses, the exam chair will provide the student with the committee's question drawn from the corresponding Topic Areas. On each occasion, students will develop a written response and return it to the exam chair within the 12-hour or 1-week period; the chair then passes the response to the committee. The written questions can be open-book or closed-book at the discretion of the committee. When the written exam for each Topic Area is implemented is at the convenience of the student and committee, but student responses to both Topic Areas should be submitted no later than one week prior to the oral exam.

The oral exam is chaired by the exam chair, typically the faculty who served as the chair for the written exam.

Exam scope

The domain of the oral examination is the full field of study of the student and how that field is articulated in the wider domain of EEES. Sometimes the oral examination will include follow-ups to the written responses, and sometimes not, at the discretion of the committee. Questions are typically the most detailed and in-depth in areas identified in advance by committee members (including, but not restricted to, the Topic Areas for the written exam). However, it is common to spend much of the time in orals on broader topics. Students should expect discussions that take them to the edge of their knowledge, wherever those edges might be. As questions diverge from areas directly related to dissertation research, the emphasis will be increasingly on major concepts and theories. Studying for the oral examination is an opportunity to fill in gaps in the student's foundational knowledge of EEES.

Exam format

Between one and three weeks after the completion of the written exam, the oral exam takes place and is scheduled for a 3-hour block (with breaks anytime). During the exam, all committee members will have a chance to develop their own line of questions for the student, but the format is informal in that questioning may pass freely from one committee member to another. The chair ensures all committee members have had their chance to ask questions and that the student is responsive to those questions. At the beginning and end, the committee will ask the student to step out for about ten minutes while they compare notes and discuss.

The oral and written components are evaluated as one package with a single grade as follows:

• pass
• provisional pass with prescribed work to strengthen weak areas
• a second qualifying exam, with a full or reduced range of topics
• did not pass

Failure will be rare with students who have progressed well in the program, been in close communication with their committee, and prepared for the examination. The other three outcomes have all been common. Outcomes will be reported with EEES.QualifyingExamReport.Template.v03. Students are given two chances to pass their exam. Two failures result in a failure to qualify for the PhD.

After the Oral Exam, the exam committee, lead by the exam chair, will synthesize feedback and comments from both the written and oral components and fill out the Qualifying Exam Report, linked above.

• By the end of Year 1. Start planning with your advisor and committee on an approximate date for your qualifying exam.
• By early in Year 2. Establish your qualifying exam committee, which should include at least five members: your advisor, three other Dartmouth faculty, and an outside examiner.
• No later than 4 months before the qualifying exam, agree with your committee on Topic Area 1, Topic Area 2, and the ~1-week periods for each written component and the date of the oral component.
• Choose an exam chair for the exam, typically your major advisor, but could be someone else on your committee to ensure exam guidelines are followed.
• Solicit from each of your committee members (i) literature to prepare you for the written exam and (ii) suggestions for other knowledge areas for you to become familiar with before the oral examination. The latter goes beyond your Topic Areas that were the basis for the written component. Get as much input as you can from committee members on things to read, study, and think about.
• At least 1 month prior to your exam, provide your committee with 10 questions, 5 for each topic area.
• Be certain that your outside examiner is provided well in advance with all necessary information regarding their role and responsibilities. Ask your advisor to help with this.
• Coordinate with the external member and EEES regarding travel arrangements, housing, possible seminar, etc.
• Consider asking your more senior colleagues to administer a mock orals with you so you can practice being on the spot (and so they can show off their skills in mocking EEES faculty members).
• Take every chance you can get to cultivate your skills in talking and thinking about science.
• Choose an exam length time for each Topic Area, 12-hours or 1-week.

• By the end of Year 1. Establish a timeline to qualify with the student.
• By early in Year 2. Help the student select an exam committee, comprised of the advisor, three other Dartmouth faculty, and an outside examiner.
• No later than 4 months before the qualifying exam, establish Topic Area 1, Topic Area 2, and dates for written and oral components.
• Ensure the committee is aware of the Topic Areas and the scope and structure of the exam.
• Provide suggestions for (i) literature to prepare the student for the written exam and (ii) other readings or spheres of knowledge for the student become familiar with before the oral examination.
• Assist the student in coordinating with the external committee member about their role and responsibilities.
• Coordinate the committee's preparation of questions for the exam, which are drawn from the corresponding Topic Areas and informed by the 10 student-developed questions submitted 1 month prior to the exam. Help the committee form two sets of questions, one from each Topic Area.
• Chair the exam.

• Serve on qualifying exam committees.
• Provide suggestions to major advisor and student on Topic Areas 1 and 2.
• Provide suggestions for (i) literature to prepare the student for the written exam and (ii) other readings or spheres of knowledge for the student to look into before the oral examination.
• Use the Topic Areas and the 10 student-developed questions to generate two sets of questions for the written exam.
• Get clarity from the exam chair on the scope of material to be covered in the exam.