Remember that this exam serves both as the MS final oral and as the PhD prelim oral. All PhD students are asked to "pick up an MS on the way to the PhD". Therefore the student should bring to the exam two examination report forms: One for the MS final oral and one for the PhD prelim oral.

It is recommended that, unless policies and procedures are quite familiar to all members of the committee, a brief meeting, with the student absent, preceed the student presentation, just to go over the order of events and to see if there are suggestions or questions. This particularly recommended when an examiner from outside the department is present.

The student should be told at the beginning (and, in fact, in advance of the meeting), how much time is available for the presentation.

After the student's public presentation, all those not examining the student should be asked to leave and the examination phase should not begin until everyone else has left and the door is shut.

The examination period may be run as the chair wishes, but it would be a good idea to clarify procedures during the five minute meeting preceding the student's presentation.

Immediately after the examination, the candidate is excused from the room, and a written secret ballot is taken before discussing the examination. Following the discussion, a second and final vote is taken, and the participants sign in the appropriate place on the two report forms.

For Grad School examination policies, click here, and scroll down to the red lettering reading "Preliminary Written and Oral Examinations" and the continue down to the boldface black lettering reading "Preliminary Oral Examination Content and Outcome".

Director of Graduate Studies in Mathematics (612) 625-1306     gradprog@math.umn.edu 127 Vincent Hall 206 Church St. S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA

www@math.umn.edu URL http://www.math.umn.edu/grad/prelim.html The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. © 2009, The Regents of the University of Minnesota

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