  
 
 |
|
:: Ph.D. Qualifying
Exam (2008)
Thursday
(Aug. 21 ) and Friday (Aug. 22 )
The PhD Written Qualifying Exam is administered every
August, the Thursday and Friday before the beginning of the
fall semester . It consists of four individual 3 hour exams covering
- Advanced Optics
(based on PHYC/ECE 463
and 554)
- Lasers
(based on PHYC/ECE 464)
- Electromagnetics(based
on PHYC 511 or ECE 561)
- General Optics Knowledge
The exam will be prepared
by a qualifying exam committee of OSE faculty members. .
New Rules Approved by OSE Graduate Committee (2007)
- Students who earn grades
A or better in each of the four
core courses (Lasers, Adv. Opt. I &II, E&M) will be exempted from the qual exam.
- All full-time OSE students must take the four core courses
in the first year (or three semesters for Spring admittees.)
- All full-time OSE
students are required to take the qual exam after one year (three
semesters for Spring admittees).
- On failing the exam, they may have a
second attempt in the following August.
- Part-time students are not subject to the timetables above.
- Oral examinations no longer is
used as "last chance" examinations for students who fail the written
exam
- Students failing the exam for the second time will be
asked to leave the OSE PhD program
- The qualifying
exam may satisfy the exit examination requirement for MS Plan II students.
|
Exam
Syllabi
2005
Exam,
2006
Exam
The
Crib-sheet (07)
|
|
 If
you have further questions
about the exam, please contact:
Prof.
Jim Thomas
or Ms.
Alisa
Gibson 
|
|
2008
Exam
Schedule (tentative)
|
|
Thursday,
Aug. 21 (P&A ,
Room 184)
|
Time
|
Topic(s)
|
Format
|
|
9 am
- 12 noon
|
Advanced
Optics I
& II
|
collection
of questions
each requiring
10-40 min. to
answer.
|
|
2 pm
- 5 pm
|
General
Optics Practices
(Optics,
Lasers,
E&M)
|
potpourri
of short
practical
questions
(as in previous
exams)
|
Friday,
Aug. 22 (P&A ,
Room 184)
|
9 am
- 12 noon
|
Electromagnetics
|
collection
of questions
based on
courses
taught in
ECE and
P&A.
(likely
format:
2N out of
3N problems,
N=2 or 3)
|
|
2 pm
- 5 pm
|
Lasers
|
collection
of questions
each requiring
10-40 min. to
answer.
|
|
|
Other
Rules and Procedures
|
|
The
exam will be closed-book
and closed-notes
Items
Allowed and Not-Allowed
in the exam room:
- A
crib-sheet(s) containing
formulae that you
may (or may not)
need in solving
the problems will
be provided
to you in advance.
You are no
longer allowed to
bring your own crib-sheet
to the exam,
- A
(basic)
non-programmable
pocket (battery
powered) calculator
will be provided
to all students
(i.e. you are no
longer allowed to
use your own calculator
during the exam)
- No
cell-phone usage
during each exam
period (more generally,
you may not talk
or text measage
with anybody but
the procter during
each 3 hour period).
- No
laptops, notebooks, tablet
PCs , PDA's
or any programmable
electronic devices
will be allowed.
- Bring
your own pen,
pencil, eraser,
and ruler.
Items
that will be provided to
you:
- A
basic pocket calculator
- Formula
sheet(s)
- A
two-sided sheet
with physical constants.
- Scratch
paper
- Lunch
(each day)--- Complements
of the Physics Graduate
Students Association
- Good
thoughts by all
the OSE faculty
|
|
|
|
|
