Doctoral Preliminary Exam

Exam Dates

Overview

The Preliminary Exam is required for admission to Doctoral Candidacy. PhD students with a Masters degree are required to take the exam during the second semester of their first year of study. PhD students without a Masters degree (BS-PhD Track) are required to take the exam in the Spring semester of their second year of study. BS-PhD students may take the exam earlier with the permission of their major professor.

Exam Objectives, Structure and Procedures

The Preliminary Exam is designed to evaluate your grasp of a specified spectrum of Mechanical Engineering as well as your ability to think creatively. Although the factual material is limited to material that you should have seen before, you can expect questions to be phased in a way that you have not seen before, and to require creative processes. The academic level and the subject matter of the exam correspond mostly to the BS program in Mechanical Engineering, although some material corresponds to the MS program (see Preliminary Exam Topics).

Written Exam

For the written exam, you will be tested in two areas: mathematics and your major area (Dynamics and Controls, Mechanics and Materials or Thermal Sciences). You will be asked to solve 3 of 6 mathematics problems and 4 of 6 major area problems. The major area problems will be presented as follows:

  • Dynamics and Controls: 3 dynamics problems, 3 controls problems
  • Mechanics and Materials: 3 Solid Mechanics problems, 3 Material Science problems
  • Thermal Science: 2 Thermodynamics problems, 2 Heat Transfer problems, 2 Fluid Mechanics problems

You will be given 8 hours to complete the written exam: from 9 AM to 6 PM, with a one-hour break for lunch. Please bring your own lunch to the exam. You cannot leave the exam room except under the supervision of a faculty member. The exam is closed book. You may bring one 8.5 by 11 inch single layer piece of paper for each area (1 for the mathematics section and 1 for the major area section). You may also bring a calculator. International students may want to bring a dictionary. The questions you are given originate from all faculty members of our department. The faculty member who made a particular question will also grade it, on a scale from 0 to 10, at his/her complete discretion.

Oral Exam

The oral exam will be in the students major area. The oral exam will be approximately one hour.

The oral exam committee will consist of three faculty members, two from the major area (preferably from different sub-areas), and the third member from outside the major area. The third committee member will ask questions from within the oral exam area. The student’s advisor should not be part of the oral committee for his/her own student, but can be present during the exam.

Previous Exams

Mathematics
Dynamics & Controls
Mechanics & Materials
Thermal Sciences