Graduate Oral Examination and Final Defense Forms
Following successful completion of the majority of core courses, students must pass written and oral comprehensive examinations before being admitted to candidacy. These examinations will test students on their basic knowledge of epidemiology and biostatistics as obtained through the core and elective courses of the curriculum and demonstrate that the student is able to become an independent researcher.
Written Exam: The written exam will be given to students following the end of spring semester of the second year of study with the date for the exam determined during the spring of each year. It will include a set of six questions and a take-home assignment, four of the six questions will be answered by the students on-site. The take-home assignment will be due five days later. Two of the six questions will be required of all students with the student selecting the additional two questions they answer from a list of four possible. The take-home assignment may be writing a grant application or analyzing and discussing a dataset. All questions will be submitted by program faculty and cover basic epidemiologic and biostatistics topics and advanced/specialty areas. The on-site exam will be open book but no internet access will be available. Grading will be pass/fail with 80% the level of passing and students will need to receive 80% or better on 3 of 4 questions. Students are also required to receive a passing grade on the take-home assignment. Sample questions will be made available to students in the spring.
Oral Exam: The oral examination should be conducted within three months of successful completion of the written exam with the goal of proceeding to candidacy by the end of the Summer semester of the student’s second year. The oral exam will be based on the student's proposed analytic research project, as agreed to by the student's advisor and advisory committee. The structure of the proposal will follow the guidelines for a federal grant submission such as those for the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The proposal should be no more than 20 pages long, 12 point font, double-spaced and should include the following:
- Title - including student's name and advisor and committee members
- Table of contents
- Objectives and hypothesis
- Introduction / literature review / background knowledge
- Analytic research design and methodology with specifics regarding sampling and sample size
- Analysis strategies
- Ethical issues / IRB considerations
- Timetable
- Anticipated problems
- Bibliography - not included in the 20 page limit
- Appendices if appropriate - also not included in the 20 page limit
This proposal must be submitted to the student's advisory committee and defended orally before the committee. The student must receive a satisfactory grade from each member of the committee to pass this exam. Upon successful completion of this oral examination, the student may proceed to candidacy and begin the research as outlined in earnest.