Prelim exam instructions for the committee

1. Written component
   1. Approximately six weeks prior to the date of the oral exam, the student submits to the PhD exam committee a 10 page document (including figures but excluding references) that describes:
      1. the context of the proposed research, including a review of relevant literature
      2. the purpose of the proposed research and its novelty
      3. the proposed methodology and timeline
      While preparing the document, students are encouraged to discuss the general content of the document with their supervisor. However, the supervisor should not give detailed comments on the document itself or make edits to the document.
   2. The prelim committee will prepare written feedback which will be collected by the chair of the committee and sent to the student within 2 weeks of submission of the written document. This will contain:
      1. Feedback on whether the level of the written submission is adequate
         1. If not, an explanation of what is not adequate should be given and specific suggestions should be made so that the student can make necessary corrections and resubmit.
         2. For accepted proposals, the committee will provide a list of feedback items that includes comments/questions about the proposal itself, that the candidate must explicitly address at their 30-minute talk at the oral exam.
      2. The scope of the oral exam: supervisor will inform the committee what Physics topic areas are relevant to the candidate's research. The Q/A session at the oral exam will focus on these topics.
         1. The committee will provide study materials from specified textbooks and papers, and a list of up to 4 questions per committee member, from which the questions for the Q/A part of the prelim exam will be motivated
         2. Questions for the Q/A session can be motivated by the proposal itself, but they should assess undergraduate knowledge of the physics.
         3. The committee will take into account that the student has one month to prepare for the oral exam
2. Oral component
   1. The student must give an oral presentation based on the proposed project, outlining their goals, methodology, the originality of the research, and the proposed timeline. During this presentation, the candidate must also address any feedback about the written proposal provided by the committee at the feedback stage of the written proposal (see section 1(b)). The student can choose to have the presentation be in private session with the committee members only, or public (i.e. open to members of the department).
   2. Following the oral presentation, there will be a question period in private session with the committee. The committee will question the student on:
      1. The presentation and the proposed research, including the written document
      2. A wider range of related topics based on the list of topics and the related reading materials provided to the student in the feedback to the written component (see section 1(b)).
   3. The suggested length of the exam is approximately 30 minutes for the presentation and up to approximately 1 hour for the question period.
   4. The committee chair will keep a record of the exam which includes the questions asked and comments on the quality of the responses.
   5. The following is the rubric for assessment of questions in the Q/A session of the oral component of the Prelim exam:
      Each answer is graded on a four-point scale
      1. Answered the question to the committee's satisfaction without help.
      2. Answered the question to the committee's satisfaction with some help and direction provided from the questioner or committee.
      3. Didn't answer the question to the committee's satisfaction, even after receiving help and direction from the questioner or committee.
      4. Didn't answer the question at all, and was not knowledgeable enough to make any reasonable progress, or exhibits a fundamental misconception[*] about basic knowledge.
         [*] fundamental misconception can mean something really fundamental, such as, for example, knowing the difference between the length scales on which Quantum mechanics can be applied to compared to Classical mechanics.
      Pass/fail criteria:
      1. Pass: A candidate with majority 1s and 2s
      2. Fail: Otherwise