What is a PhD qualifying exam?

Every candidate pursuing the PhD degree is generally required to take a qualifying examination (popularly called quals). This exam is basically an “official license” to pursue PhD in the department. The format of this exam is program specific. i.e, it is not universal. For example, at UW-Madison, the CS and the ECE departments have VERY different qualifying exam structure. In fact, specializations within CS (such as ML / Security / Theoritical CS / Systems) have different format / requirements.

There are a few other University / School / Department specific things that happen when a student qualifies this exam - for instance in my department (ECE at UW Madison), every student is evaluated for Advanced Graduate Standing (AGS) immediately after clearing the qualifying exam, and AGS is granted if they qualify the exam, and have a letter of support from their research advisor. More information can be found in the graduate student handbook of your respective program.

When to take the qualifying exam?

Although the qualifying exam generally examines the depth of the candidate’s fundamentals in the topic of their research / specialization, it also looks to the breadth the candidate has achieved. In general most programs require PhD candidates to take the qualifying exam within 4 semesters of entering the PhD program. However, this may be different if you did a MS to PhD upgrade. For instance, as of 2021, ECE at UW-Madison requires a PhD candidate to take the qualifying exam no later than the 4th semester in the ECE graduate program. i.e, somebody upgrading to PhD from an MS in ECE after 3 semester of joining UW ECE, has to take the qualifying exam in their 4th semester - irrespective of that being their 1st semester as a PhD student.

Steps leading to the exam

At the start of each semester, an ECE faculty incharge of qualifying exams or the ECE graduate coordinator sends out a registration form (google form) for the qualifying examination. Any student who wants to register for the qualifying exam that semester has to fill this form, indicate their area of research (Signal processing and ML / Power and Energy / Control etc).
If a student registers for the qualifying examination, a committe of 3 ECE professors (2 from the student’s area of research and 1 from another area) will be assigned. This information will be communicated approximately a month into the semester.
The chairperson of the committee will contact the student and assign a scholarly paper within a few days after the committee is formed. The student will generally get approximately 30 days to read the paper and prepare for the qualifying examination.

Preparation tips

Study the assigned scholarly paper. Try to derive the results in the paper / re-create the simulations to re-produce the same results as the paper.
Track the references cited in the paper and try to trace the concepts presented, back to the fundamentals.
Identify the merits and drawbacks of the material presented in the paper.
Prepare a set of slides that cover just the concept presented in the paper. Limit yourself to <25 slides that have useful content (excluding title slide, thank you slide etc).
Create several back-up slides. These can include: i) analysis tracing the results presented, back to the fundamentals, ii) other application scenarios for the concept discussed in the paper, iii) your detailed analysis of the paper’s merits and demerits, iv) real-world applications.
Have atleast a couple of mock presentations. Note that you are not supposed to discuss the assigned paper with others. So, you can use the recording feature in Powerpoint / Zoom to time yourself and refine your presentation.

Exam day

On the exam day, the student has to present the assigned scholarly paper and answer the questions posed by the committee. The presentation will last for approximately 30 minutes and the student needs to be prepared for a Q&A session of approximately 30 minutes thereafter. The questions asked by the committee are usually related to the assigned research paper. However, the committee can choose to quiz the student in the general area of research (not exactly limited to the assigned paper).

Result

The committee in the ECE department usually does not inform the student of the result. However this may be different in other departments. Approximately a month after the qualifying examination (close to the end of the semester), the graduate coordinator will inform the committee decision (pass / fail).

Disclaimer: Any UW - ECE specific details quoted here are the author’s interpretation of the rules from Summer 2020. These details are not exhaustive. As policies change frequently, the author is not to be held accountable / responsible for any inaccuracies. Please refer the official student handbook / talk to your academic advisor / graduate program coordinator for specific details and rules applicable to your case.