The Graduate School requires a doctoral written exam of all students.\u00a0 The purpose of this exam, as described in the Graduate School Handbook, is to:<\/p>\n
In GMB, the written exam focuses on the ability to read and understand published articles. The exam is designed to test comprehension, ability to evaluate and interpret data, synthesize results, formulate hypotheses, and devise tests of hypotheses.<\/p>\n
The written exam is held at the end of each spring semester.\u00a0 Students may take the exam at the end of the first year or at the end of the second year.\u00a0 The timing is determined in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) based on completion of the core courses (GNET 621 and GNET 631, although the exam does not test knowledge specific to these courses).<\/p>\n
The exam is designed by the Written Exam Committee.\u00a0 This committee consists of four GMB faculty.\u00a0 Committee members are selected by the DGS to span different areas of genetics and molecular biology. Each committee member first submits a topic description. Students have several days to select three of the four offered topics.\u00a0 Each committee member assembles a reading list, typically 3-4 articles.\u00a0 These lists are distributed to students two weeks before the exam.\u00a0 Students should spend this two-week period reading the articles and any background and ancillary material they deem necessary.\u00a0 Students may discuss the articles with one another and with colleagues, but they should not approach exam committee members (names of committee members are not disclosed to the students).<\/p>\n
A copy of a previous exam, including the reading assignments, questions, and examples of answers that scored highly, will be provided to students.\u00a0 To ensure fairness, students taking the exam may not consult any other previous copies of the exam, whether obtained from more senior students or by other means.<\/i><\/p>\n
Questions are distributed by Sakai at 9:00 am on a Thursday two weeks after reading lists were distributed. Answers must be returned by email by 4:00 pm the following day (Friday).\u00a0 Each section will list what resources students may use to complete that section. This may range from just the assigned articles and their notes to anything on the internet. However, students may not consult one another or any other individuals during the exam period.<\/p>\n
The Student Services Specialist will remove student names from answers and replace them with numbers, then distribute the answers to Written Exam Committee members.\u00a0 Each section is graded on a 20-point scale.\u00a0 A score of 13 or higher is considered a passing score.\u00a0 To pass the exam, a student must pass at least two of the three sections and<\/i> have an overall score of at least 42 (70% average).<\/p>\n
Scores are gathered by the Student Services Specialist and sent (blinded) to the committee chair and DGS, who review scores and make pass\/fail decisions.\u00a0 For students that do not meet the passing criteria described above, the chair and DGS may consult with other members of the committee to determine whether there are circumstances that may overturn this finding.<\/p>\n
Students who fail the written exam may take it a second time, the following year.\u00a0 Students who fail the exam twice become ineligible for further graduate work.\u00a0 Upon request of the Director of Graduate Studies, the Graduate School may permit a student a third and final opportunity to take the exam.\u00a0 Such requests are made at the discretion of the DGS and the GMB Executive Committee after consultation with the advisor(s) and dissertation committee.<\/p>\n
Purpose The Graduate School requires a doctoral written exam of all students.\u00a0 The purpose of this exam, as described in the Graduate School Handbook, is to: assess the extent and currency of the candidate’s knowledge in a manner that is as comprehensive and searching as the best practices of that field require; discover any weaknesses … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81071,"featured_media":0,"parent":6185,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-1211","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11095,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1211\/revisions\/11095"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/gmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}