Qualifying Exam

In the qualifying exam, you prove that you have the tools and skills relevant to your field and that you know how to use them.

Students who wish to continue to BMS Phase 2 must take the qualifying exam. According to the new BMS regulations valid from 2015, this can be reduced to one exam and a Master's thesis defense.

The qualifying exam has to be 90 minutes long. You have two possibilities:

1. 2×30-minute oral exam from two BMS courses (typically one basic course and one advanced course) from your own BMS study area, and a 30-minute oral exam from a basic course from another study area. This is the only possibility if you don't want to write a Master's thesis, but we recommend you to write it!

2. Students who are writing a Master's thesis can replace the 60-minute oral exam of their own field by a Master's thesis defence. The exact form of the Master's defence has to be discussed by the Master's thesis supervisor and the BMS Office. Still in this case, a 30-minute oral exam of a basic course outside the field of interest is necessary on the same day.

The 2nd option is only possible if you follow the new BMS regulations. If you were already at BMS in April 2015 you can choose between old and new BMS regulations. If you start(ed) from October 2015 or later you have to follow the new regulations.

The only advantage of following the old regulations is that Functional Analysis and Complex Analysis counted as BMS Basic courses. These courses are still offered in English, but they are not BMS basic courses any more.

TU students can obtain 20 LP credits for their Master's degree, FU students 15 credits, for attending the BMS Fridays and the "What is?" seminars. The prerequisite for getting these 20 credits is passing the qualifying exam. For HU students, see the Credits for HU Qual part (max. 15 credits upon the decision of one particular professor).

Qualifying exam Regulations: from the official BMS website, see here (Chapter 6.)

In case of any official questions, contact Forough!

In case of any practical questions, contact the student-reps, or other BMS students who have already taken the qual. (E.g., the ones who wrote the Reports!)

How to organize your qualifying exam?

0. Contact the BMS Liaison Officer of your university. You can only do the qualifying exam after you have finished your BMS Phase I coursework (5 BMS-basic courses, 1 seminar + 1 big or 2 small advanced courses). However, you don't have to be finished with your Master's studies (neither all the courses nor your thesis) yet.

1. Decide from which courses and with which professors you are going to take the qualifying exam. One examiner should be your prospective supervisor for the PhD. Even in the case of Master's defense, there have to be 3 examiners. Junior professors and postdocs involved in BMS should be also fine as examiners.

2. Arrange an appointment when all the three examiners can make it. 

3. Check the formalities with the BMS Liaison Officer, like filling and signing a form. The Liaison Officer can also help you to book the BMS Seminar Room at TU for the exam if you need a place.

4. Clarify with the examiners what exactly the content of your qual will be. In the case of oral exams about courses, ask them to determine which parts of which book / lecture notes you have to study. In the case of Master's defense, clarify how long presentation you have to make, what kind of questions they will ask about your thesis, if you have to study something from the literature cited in your thesis etc.

5. One week before the exam the examiners will receive the form from the BMS Office, as a verification about the date of your exam.