Qualifying Exam

Introduction

The Qualifying Exam is one of the most challenging events in graduate school, but it's designed to prepare you for your research plan and train you to be a good scientist. Read below to learn how to get max benefits out of this intense preparation process.

What to Expect

The IGG Qualifying Exam is a two-part verbal exam that lasts approximately 3 hours. The first half features a prepared chalk-talk about the research project that the student is proposing to do during their Ph.D. You should plan a chalk talk that is approximately 25-30 minutes uninterrupted - however the committee will interrupt the student with questions, so the full talk will extend to approximately an hour and a half. The second part of the exam is focused on general knowledge of genetics and genomics, which essentially equates to any material covered in GGG 201A, B, and D. Each committee member will ask questions related to their designated area of genetics and genomics (see below). There are no notes, slides, or any other prepared material allowed in the exam for reference.

The objective of the exam is to 1) evaluate the student’s command of the field, ensuring that the student has both breadth and depth of knowledge, and 2) ensure that the student has the capability to fully conceptualize a well-designed project.

When your cohort is approaching QE season, you will receive an emailed copy of the IGG QE Guidelines that thoroughly conveys all the most up-to-date information about your QE.

Timeline

2nd year, Midwinter term: 5th quarter meeting

• • The IGG program coordinator and the Program Chair(s) will send an email with information about how to select suggested faculty members for the IGG QE committee selection process.

  • After receiving that email, students complete the 5th quarter meeting form which includes selection of QE committee member suggestions and submission of a QE abstract.

The abstract does not have to match the final proposal, although it should be similar. It is a brief overview of the student's project to help guide the committee forming process.

2nd year, Early spring term: Final QE committees are announced! 

• • Within two weeks, the QE prep coordinators will host the first QE prep meeting. It's an informational meeting, which covers some QE logistics and tips. Also, a bunch of post-QE IGG students will be there to answer questions and chat about their QE experiences. Students generally find this meeting to be valuable, but it is technically optional.

It is generally recommended that students wait until after the informational meeting to begin contacting committee members.

2nd year, Late spring and summer term

• • After that, the QE prep coordinators will host weekly two hour QE preparation sessions. They are again optional, but it is highly recommended that students attend as many meetings as possible. IGG is one of the only programs on campus that does so much to prepare students for their exams. Please take advantage of that!

  • The meetings during the spring and the first half of the summer focus on general knowledge. By the end of summer -- once people start having their dates set and their proposals drafted -- meetings will consist entirely of practice talks.

• Most people take their QEs at the end of summer in their second year or during the fall term of their third year, however you must take it before March 30th of your third year

Preparation

Forming Your Committee

The QE committee consists of five members (a chair and four additional members representing the academic areas below) who are full UC Davis faculty belonging to IGG. (It's strongly recommended to save interests in any outside faculty for the thesis committee and not the QE committee). The graduate group sends out a list at the end of winter quarter which details which faculty are prepared to serve which of the below positions - this should help you find faculty who you are not familiar with that may be a good fit for your committee.

The committee is headed by a Committee Chair, who's primary job is to ensure that the student has a fair exam including proper timing and covering all content without going out of the scope of the IGG requirements. It can be helpful for this committee member to be the most familiar with the student and the project. It is also helpful for the Chair to have previous experience as an IGG QE Chair or at least experience as a committee member in past IGG QEs (in that case, at least one person on the committee should have previous experience as an IGG QE Chair).

Each additional committee member serves a particular role reflecting the major areas of genetics/genomics you will be examined on:

• Molecular Genetics - molecular structure of DNA and its cellular activities 

• Transmission Genetics - patterns of heredity

• Genomics - study of genome-scale patterns of governance and technologies of the field

• Population and Quantitative Genetics - statistical study of populations and demographics

Your 5th quarter meeting form  will include your QE committee suggestions, a selection of three potential faculty for each of the five positions. IGG then takes each student's top three choices for each position into consideration when determining the QE committees, which are sent out via email in the beginning of spring quarter during your 6th quarter (spring of second year).

Students are asked to submit a one-page abstract of their dissertation proposal along with their 5th-quarter report forms. This is not set in stone - If the student subsequently changes the proposal topic significantly, the student should again consult with their examination Chair as to the acceptability of the revised topic(s).

Meeting with Your Committee

You should plan to meet with your committee to discuss logistics about the exam and better understand their expectations.

Writing Your Proposal

The proposal should be written in the form of an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship proposal and describe 2-3 years of work. The proposal will comprise:

• 2-3 non-interdependent Specific Aims (one page); 

• Research Plan (5 pages) 

  • Significance and novelty of the proposed work

  • Preliminary studies

  • Approach (for each specific aim)

  • Timeline

• Reference section

The objective of the Qualifying Exam is to assess the student's ability to design and interpret scientifically feasible experiments that will specifically test the hypotheses in question; the ability to review the scientific literature in the proposal field to clearly define the relationship of the proposed research to existing knowledge; and the ability to integrate (where appropriate) multiple genetic/technological approaches with proper statistical analysis of the data.

Students need to send their written proposal to their Chairs no less than 3 weeks before their QE, who will evaluate the proposal for major concerns before the students sends the finalized proposal to the entire committee no less than 2 weeks before their QE.

Preparing for General Knowledge

Many students want to begin preparing for their exam early (in the first year), and while that shows great initiative, starting too early can actually lead to burn out. Instead, focus in the first year on finding a good lab, becoming familiar with the research project, and learning from the GGG core curriculum. In the first half of the second year, focus on research and completing all other course work.

• During the first and second years, consider seeking opportunities to practice public speaking (i.e. lead journal clubs, give presentations in lab meeting, present at conferences, present at events like IGG colloquium, and/or teach).

• Keep resources from any fellowship applications as those proposals can often act as a launching point for the QE proposal.

Resources

• Viktoria Haghani and Mariele Lensink of the 2020 cohort created a flash card deck for general knowledge questions that you can access here

Practicing Your Chalk Talk

It is recommended that students begin giving practice talks approximately 1 month before the date of the exam (or sooner). It is also recommended that students have a nearly finalized draft of the written proposal completed before beginning practice talks. 

Practice as many times as you can with your lab, cohort, and people in your field. The more practice you get, the better prepared you will be to answer an array of questions and the more confident you will feel going into the exam.

Exam Day

There are three possible outcomes:

1. “Pass” (no conditions may be appended to this decision)

2. “Not Pass” (the student is required to retake all or part of the examination)

3. “Fail” (all portions of the exams must be retaken). Having received a “Not Pass” the student may attempt the QE one additional time. After a second examination, only “Pass” or “Fail” is recognized. Should the student receive a “Fail” on the second attempt at the exam, the student will be recommended for disqualification from the program to the Dean of Graduate Studies.

General Advice

The exam is designed to test your ability to design a full research plan:

• For every specific aim you propose you should have backup plans for alternative experiments that could answer the same question in the event your proposed experiment does not work

• You should think through how to interpret every possible result of an experiment - and be sensitive that some outcomes of certain experiments can lead to non-identifiable answers that will require more work. This is ok, as long as you are aware of this issue and have a proposed plan.

• You should know the assumptions for your statistical method(s) and be comfortable explaining why your statistical methods are appropriate, how the statistical methods you will be employing work and the implicit biases in how these tests are run, from multiple test correction to differential gene expression comparison. Always be aware of how biases in stats affect your interpretation of results!

• Remember - The QE is a small fraction of the time students spend in their Ph.D. It does not define how a person is as a scientist. It is simply a part of the process of earning a Ph.D. While feeling nervous is a normal part of preparing for the exam, students feeling overwhelmed or uncertain should consider reaching out to their PIs, the QE prep coordinators, and/or their grad student mentors to discuss options, strategies, advice, and other resources for how to move forward. 

After Passing

Congrats!! You're now ready to advance to Candidacy. You will have to 

• Fill out and submit the advancement to candidacy form

• Form your thesis committee

Past QE Prep Coordinators

Historically, IGG has an informal QE preparation course that is entirely student led. Here, we would like to acknowledge those who have kindly taken their time to help us all succeed:

• 2024-2025

  • TBD

• 2023-2024

  • Forrest Li

  • Mariele Lensink

• 2022-2023

  • Laurel Koch

  • Angelica Guercio

• 2021-2022

• 2020-2021

• 2019-2020

  • Nicole Kingsley

• 2018-2019

  • Nicole Kingsley