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GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MOLECULAR BASIS OF DISEASE

General Examination (GE)

Procedure for Arranging the General Examination

The General Exam (GE) can be scheduled when a student has been in the program at least 2 years, begun a research project, completed 18 graded credits, and satisfied the program's course requirements. The GE must be taken before the end of the third year. Permission to register for pathology classes, including PATH 600 (research) will not be granted after this time, unless a petition for extension, based on sufficient extenuating circumstances, is be submitted to the Program Director and granted.

The purpose of the GE is to: 1) Evaluate the student's knowledge of experimental pathology and of underlying principles, 2) Evaluate the student's proposed thesis project. The goals of the evaluation of the thesis proposal are to determine whether the student has devised a thesis project that addresses a significant and tractable problem, whether the student understands published literature underlying the specific proposal, whether the approach appears well designed, whether the student can discuss possible pitfalls and alternative interpretations or approaches. Although preliminary data is very desirable, it is not necessary to successfully complete a substantial portion of the project before scheduling the GE. The GE is designed to evaluate the readiness of a student to undertake a project. It is not intended to evaluate an already accomplished project.

The General Examination must be scheduled and conducted according to the rules established by the Graduate School. The Graduate School has policies and procedures on its website. The student is responsible for obtaining a "warrant" (see below) for scheduling the time, date, room, etc. for the GE. This is described below. It must be done according the rules of the Graduate School.

It is advisable to begin the process of scheduling the GE at least 4 months early, as it can be difficult to schedule a time when all of the committee members (or, at minimum, the GSR, Chairperson and 2 other members) are available to meet. Normally the examination is scheduled for at least 2.5 hours at least one month in advance (to allow time to process the warrant etc., see below). The normal examination lasts 2 hours, however an extra .5 hours is scheduled to allow for delays or discussions by the faculty before or after the GE.

After establishing an examination date that is acceptable to all members of the committee, students should contact the Program Coordinator, or the Thesis Advisor, to schedule an appropriate room.

Next, the student obtains a "Request for General Examination" warrent by going to the How to Instructions for Doctoral Students web site. Use the link there to download a "Request for General Examination" form. After you get this form signed by your committee members, mail a copy to the Graduate School (on the form) and send a copy to Kathy Hobson, Box 357470, for your student file.

The Dean's office verifies that all graduate School requirements have been satisfied by checking the student's transcript. The warrant is signed and returned to the Program Coordinator who forwards it to the student. It is the student's responsibility to retain the warrant and bring it to the GE for committee signatures.

All GEs are published in the University Week paper the Thursday before the examination is held. This is taken care of by the Graduate School. This is part of the requirement that both the General and Final Examinations be open to attendance by any interested person and is further intended to ensure that all is done properly and openly. In practice, members of the Supervisory Committee usually constitute the only participants.

After the completion of GE, the signed warrant must be returned by the student to the Graduate School no later than two weeks before the end of the quarter in which the student is to receive Candidacy. The student is then a Ph.C. (a candidate for a Ph.D.) and registers for research credit as PATH 800.

The Two Parts of the GE - Written and Oral

The written portion of the GE will consist of two sections:
  • The Primary Proposal: This is a formal presentation of the student's thesis project. The proposal is to be in the form of an NIH grant proposal and should include the following sections: Abstract, Specific Aims, Background, Experimental Design and Methods, and Citations.
    • Abstract should not exceed 300 words.
    • Specific Aims should state in a single sentence each of the objectives to be achieved or each of the hypotheses to be tested (1 page).
    • Background should summarize the state of the field, the remaining questions, and the preliminary data that you have obtained in your research to date (approx. 6 pages).
    • Experimental Design and Methods should describe in general terms the manner in which the specific aims are to be achieved (8 pages). There should be sufficient detail in the description of the experiments so that all the readers can understand why they are to be done and what questions they address. It is often helpful to divide this section into two parts: A) Experimental Design and B) Specific Methods. In part B, details can be provided for techniques unique to the research. Most experimental methods can be referred to by citation. Diagrams are often very helpful in all sections. The cited references should include full list of authors and complete title.
  • The Secondary Proposal: NIH style proposal as for the primay but on a subject that does not overlap with the primary proposal either in methods or in specific subject. This secondary is chosen by the student. Before working on it, the secondary must be approved by all committee members to obtain their agreement that it is a suitable secondary, including that there is no overlap.
  • Examples of Primary and Secondary Proposals - an archive of proposals from past graduate stuents (password protected with your UWNetID).

The exact format of the oral examination will be specified by the Supervisory Committee before the meeting so that the student can prepare appropriately. The examination will be chaired by a committee member other than the student's thesis advisor. The most common format for the oral examination is to begin the meeting by asking the student to leave the room. The Thesis Advisor summarizes the student's progress and completion of requirements and the committee members briefly discusses their concerns and identify areas which should be evaluated during the oral exam. The student is then invited back into the room and asked to make a brief (e.g. 15-20 minutes) presentation, usually with overheads, of his/her thesis proposal. Sometimes the presentation proceeds relatively uninterrupted, but usually the committee members interrupt with many questions. Students should recognize that this is normal and appropriate. Since the committee members have already read the written proposals, they do not depend on the oral presentation for their understanding of the material and feel that it is most important to determine whether the student can defend specific aspects of the thesis or can address issues suggested by the thesis. The committee should allow at least 30 minutes for the student to present the secondary proposal (10 minutes) followed by a second question period.

After the oral examination, the student leaves the room and the committee discusses the decision. When a decision is reached the student is invited back into the room and informed. The following decisions are possible: 1) Pass 2) Fail 3) Reexamine. Sometimes a student who passes is recommended to proceed toward a Masters degree (Thesis or Non-thesis) and not proceed further toward the Ph.D. Students who fail the GE are usually advised to apply for a non-thesis Masters degree.

 
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