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PhD Qualifying Exam

The Qualifying Exam is an important milestone in the PhD program and is designed to assess your readiness to undertake independent research.

Within the first 24 months of admission or transfer to the PhD program, you are required to sit your PhD qualifying exam, which involves submitting a brief research proposal and defending it orally to your Supervisory Committee. Before your qualifying exam, you should undergo at least one annual review leading to a Graduate Progress Report.

To prepare for the qualifying exam, you should register for SEE 890 - PhD Qualifying Exam in the term when you plan to defend your proposal. Your defence of the proposal will be evaluated based on the feasibility and scientific merit of your proposed research, as well as your sophisticated understanding (at a senior undergraduate or first-year graduate level) of general material in your major area of research.

The possible outcomes of the PhD qualifying exam are: satisfactory (S), satisfactory with concerns (SC), or unsatisfactory (U). If you receive a "satisfactory with concern" grade, you will have six months to resubmit and defend your proposal for the second and final time and/or complete additional courses. If you fail the exam, you will receive an unsatisfactory Graduate Progress Report, which may lead to program withdrawal.

Please see below for an overview of the steps leading up to your Qualifying Exam.

For more details on the Qualifying Exam requirements and procedures, please read through .