Comprehensive Exam
Every DSAAI Ph.D. student needs to pass a comprehensive exam. The exam aims to assess the student’s ability to do doctoral research and serves as a starting point for the Ph.D. literature survey and selection of a research topic.
The student prepares and submits a document focusing on the problem statement, literature review, and gap analysis for the comprehensive exam. The student defends their submission in an oral exam, including questions from examiners, but no presentation.
The comprehensive exam includes a committee consisting of a chairperson from one of the participating units (a supervisor cannot chair the committee), two examiners from the participating units, and the Supervisor(s).
When a student fails the first attempt, they have one more try. A student who fails the comprehensive exam twice is withdrawn from the Ph.D. program. The deadline to pass the comprehensive exam in a term is the last day of exams (as set by the graduate calendar). Any term since admission counts towards this limit, but an LOA (Leave Of Absence) does not count.
Process and Evaluation
Step 1
The Supervisor initiates the process by establishing a general topic for the literature review and selecting a committee, which consists of a chairperson and two examiners. The committee must establish the topics and list of readings assigned to the candidate for the Comprehensive Exam.
Committee Selection
- The Supervisor identifies the chairperson and two examiners.
- The Supervisor invites examiners.
- The Supervisor informs the Graduate Administrator of the chairperson and two invited examiners.
In consultation with the examiners, the Supervisor may extend the list with additional relevant papers. The final list may typically contain 20 to 30 papers.
The Supervisor should submit the Comprehensive Committee & Reading List with the chosen topic title and list of papers to the Graduate Administrator at least one month before the comprehensive exam date.
Step 2
The student prepares a report consisting of a critical review of the papers provided in accordance with the following expectations. The student may include other cited work. The reference list should clearly identify which papers were from the initial list and which are additions. In a separate section, the student should provide a bullet-form justification for including each additional paper.
Task and Expectations
Building on the given list of research papers, the report includes:
- Clear categories of the main challenges in the topic’s research area.
- Clear categories of the current solutions and methodologies that address each of the current challenges and how they address them.
- Based on these categories, the student identifies gaps in the research area. This item is a critical part of the report.
The student is:
- Not asked to find new solutions.
- Not asked to create a report that is suitable for submission for publications. The document is limited to a maximum of ten thousand words, excluding references.
- Responsible for proper grammar and spelling checking of the document through a proper professional service if needed.
What is not acceptable:
- A sequential summary of papers.
- Joint work with anyone (including other students) in any form. The document should be solely the work of the student.
- Failing to acknowledge existing survey papers in the area and pointing out how the presented document is not a copy of these papers.
- The reviewed work should not include anything by the student themselves, e.g., a description of experiments that the student has designed or completed.
Step 3
The student should submit the report to the Graduate Administrator by three weeks before the exam date. The Graduate Administrator sends the document to all committee members. This starts the clock for two weeks (or more) from the oral exam. All rules are also shared with the examiners. They are made aware of the available grading options.
Evaluation
The student is allowed to go to the oral exam regardless of the result of the written document assessment.
The written document assessment does not need to be sent to the chairperson but is shared with the committee during the oral exam. However, if an examiner recommends failure based on the submitted report, written feedback should be provided to the student and Supervisor(s) before the oral exam. The student may address the concerns before going to the oral exam.
The committee decides to pass or fail the student based on the combined assessment of the document and oral exam.