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Purpose
The Graduate Board Oral Examination for candidates for the Ph.D.
degree has three major objectives:
- To assess a candidate’s proficiency
in the discipline.
- To give a student the benefit of a critical examination of his
or her work by scholars outside the department or program committee.
- To provide a means for extra-departmental monitoring of the academic
quality of departments and committees sponsoring candidates.
Types of Graduate Board Graduate Oral Examinations
There are two types of Graduate Board oral examinations: preliminary
exams and final exams. Departments or program committees decide whether
students will use a preliminary or a final examination to fulfill their
Graduate Board requirement. Preliminary exams are given to students at
an early stage in the progress toward the Ph.D.; final exams are given
to those who have completed the doctoral dissertation.
Preliminary Examinations
The purpose of a preliminary examination is
to test the depth and breadth of the student’s knowledge and reasoning
abilities. The scope of such an examination cannot and should not be
sharply defined. The Graduate Board Oral Examination Committee can determine
the limits of the exam by reviewing the candidate’s formal coursework
along with the requirements of the candidate’s school, group, department,
or committee requirements (e.g., whether specific minor, as well as major,
subjects are to be included). The preliminary exam may cover the student’s
proposed dissertation topic; in that case, examiners should have information
about the dissertation proposal well ahead of the examination.
Final Examinations
A final examination should concentrate on the student’s
doctoral dissertation and its implications. It is reasonable for the
Graduate Board Oral Examination Committee to explore the candidate’s
breadth of knowledge in areas ruled germane to the thesis by the chair
of the committee. The dissertation and the readers’ report must
be available to the committee at least two weeks before a final exam.
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