Graduate Program (MBD): General Examination (GE)

When to Take 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 approved.

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.  The additional extra 0.5 hours is scheduled to allow for discussion by the Committee before or after the GE.

Procedure for Scheduling a General Examination

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.  Follow the steps below to schedule your General Exam:

  1. You (the student) get approval from all thesis committee members to schedule a GE.  You identify a specific time and place that the committee members can attend. 
  2. You submit the request for GE online via: MyGrad - Student View   NOTE CAREFULLY: The Grad School requires that the Request for GE be submitted at least 3 weeks prior to the requested exam date.  After submitting the request, you should email Steve Berard (and Dan Bowen-Pope as backup) to alert them to check the MyGradProgram website for your pending request.
  3. Grad school checks to make sure Grad School requirements are met and forwards the request to Steve Berard
  4. Steve Berard checks to make sure Pathology program requirements have been met and approves GE time/location on MyGradProgram. 
  5. After Steve Berard approves request, an email confirmation from the Graduate School is sent to the student and committee members
  6. You print a copy of the GE Warrant [from MyGradProgram] and bring it to the exam.  The GSR prints and brings a copy of the GSR Report. If the GSR forgets to bring the GSR Report, this can be done after the exam.
  7. At the end of the exam, the committee signs the GE Warrant and you bring the signed warrant to Steve Berard.  The GSR submits the GSR report separately.  
  8. Steve Berard logs the results into MyGradProgram and keeps the signed copy for our files
  9. The GSRs are not in our department so they take care of their own paperwork, ie they print out their forms to bring to the exam and/or just return to their office and submit the results on line.

After passing the GE, the student is a Ph.C. (a candidate for a Ph.D.).  Continue to register PATH 800.

The Organization of the General Exam - Written and Oral

The goals of the General Examination

The main purpose of the GE is to determine whether you are familiar with, and understand, the state of knowledge in the field of your proposed thesis project. Have proposed a reasonable hypothesis, can explain and defend the logic behind the proposed experimental design to test the hypothesis, and can adequately discuss the interpretation of results.  The committee will also ask questions that test your understanding of general principles of biomedical research.

Although preliminary results are desirable, it is not necessary to complete a substantial portion of the thesis project before scheduling the GE.  The GE is intended to evaluate your readiness to undertake a project, not to evaluate a completed project.

Written Examination

The 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 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. (approx 6 pages)
  • Preliminary Results reports the data that you have obtained in your research to date (approx. 6 pages)
  • Experimental Design and Methods should describe the manner in which the specific aims are to be achieved (6 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.  Diagrams are often very helpful in all sections.
  • References the cited references should include full list of authors and complete title.

Oral Examination

Duration:  The oral examination, including the closed-door discussions before and after the student presentations, takes an average of 2 hrs, so the room should be scheduled for 2.5-3 hrs and the committee members should commit to at least two hours.

  1. The examination will be chaired by a committee member other than the student's thesis advisor.  The exam chairperson should be a committee member with significant experience serving on thesis committees.
  2. The exam chairperson will begin the meeting by asking the student to leave the room. The Thesis Advisor will summarize the student's progress and completion of requirements and the committee members will briefly discusses their concerns and identify areas that should be focused on during the oral exam. The student is then invited back into the room.
  3. The student is asked to make a brief PowerPoint presentation of his/her thesis proposal. The student should prepare a presentation that would take 20-30 minutes if it were not interrupted, but should recognize that the committee members will very likely interrupt with many questions.  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.  The most important aspect of the GE is the question/answer component.  The questions may address specific aspects of the student’s proposal or may be address the broader field in which the student is working.  The committee will also ask questions designed to evaluate the student’s understanding of principles (and specifics) of biomedical research in general.
  4. 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) Re-examine.  Students who fail the GE are usually advised to apply for a Masters degree.  After passing the GE, the student is a Ph.C. (a candidate for a Ph.D.) and continues to register for research credit as PATH 800.

Masters Degree in Pathology

In some cases the Supervisory Committee may judge that a student will not be able to complete the PhD program, or that continuing to work toward a PhD is not in the student's best interest. In the event that the Supervisory Committee makes this recommendation, they may direct the student to obtain a Masters degree and exit the graduate program. The Graduate School recognizes two types of Masters degrees: thesis Masters and non-thesis Masters.

The non-thesis Masters degree requires 36 graduate-level credits and does not require that the student pass the General Exam. The student must apply for graduation to the Graduate School during the first 2 weeks of a quarter. If credits are adequate, the application is sent to the department for approval.

The Thesis Masters degree requires, in addition, that the student pass the General Exam and submit 2 copies of properly formatted thesis plus signed warrant from the student's committee.