Student Handbook

A-exam

To qualify as a Ph.D. candidate, each graduate student must pass an “A exam”. In BMCB, the examiners for the A exam are the student's Special Committee and one other member of the Field chosen by the student. (This fourth examiner also may be selected from a different Field with the approval of the major professor.) In BMCB the “A” exam has both written and oral components.

Some procedural details

The A exam must be taken by the beginning of the spring semester of your third year. You must schedule your A exam and file a Schedule of Examination Form (available from the Graduate School web site at http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/?p=11) by September 1 of your third year. This form must be signed by the three members of the Special Committee and the Director of Graduate Studies. If the exam is not taken by January of the third year, you will be allowed to register only after writing a plan for taking the A exam and obtaining signatures from your committee members and the DGS.

Course requirements for the major (including BioBM 751 "Ethical Issues"), and all or most for the minor, should be finished by the time of the A exam. Occasionally, the student and the Special Committee may feel an additional course is useful or important after the A exam and this may be recommended or required by the Special Committee.

You must ask a fourth faculty member to read the proposal and attend the examination. This person is not officially a member of your committee, and should not sign the Schedule of Examination form nor the Results of Examination form. The fourth faculty member is normally a member of the Field of BMCB but need not be; if you decide to invite someone other than a Field member, check first with your major professor.

You should give a hard copy of the written proposal to each member of the examination committee at least one week before the oral exam.

You must turn in the Results of Examination form to the Graduate School and the Graduate Field Assistant within 3 business days after the oral exam. This form can be downloaded from the Graduate School web site at http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/?p=11.

The written proposal

Your proposal will describe the research you intend to accomplish as a graduate student.1 The proposal should be well-formulated and presented in sufficient detail that it can be evaluated for its scientific merit. Include sufficient information to permit an effective review without readers having to refer to the literature. Brevity and clarity in the presentation will be considered indicative of an applicant's approach and ability to conduct a superior project. The proposal must be written following the format specified below which is based on the guidelines for NIH postdoctoral grant proposals.

The oral exam

The oral component is a defense of this proposal and you can expect that the majority of questions will be directly related to your proposal or to areas that are considered off-shoots of it. The committee will likely ask you to explain, in more detail than the written format permits, background material and experimental protocols.

The committee member representing your minor subject area represents a special case. This person has the responsibility to ascertain that you have achieved competency in that subject area, and the topic of the research proposal may not afford a good opportunity to do this. We recommend that you meet with the person in question, and determine prior to the A exam how he/she suggests you prepare. Some committee members representing minor subject areas may ask broadly-based questions on very basic concepts, whereas others may address a more narrow area and ask the candidate to be prepared for questions in that area.

In addition to the evaluation of your proposal, the A exam is the time when committee members will discuss and evaluate your performance in the laboratory.