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Prelim Skills Preparation

Skills Preparation for MCRO Written Preliminary Exam

The prelim exam tests a wide variety of obvious and not so obvious skills, both intentionally and unintentionally.  The 2025 exam format will be similar to that used for the 2020 through 2024 exams.  There are lots of ways to prepare over the next nine months, all of which will be helpful for your education as well as the exam.  Traditionally, MCRO faculty believe that the bulk of Ph.D. education comes in lab and working with the advisor, not in classroom, which is why we are meeting.  Everyone is welcome to share ideas and ask questions at any time.  Hopefully, advisors can share activities that they have found to be helpful for past students.

1. BACKGROUND

Purpose of Exam

  • According to UNC Graduate School policy, purpose is to identify students who need additional training, not to fail anyone out of graduate school.
  • Must pass to earn degree, but when you pass is not particularly important.
  • Bob will discuss preparation of all students with advisors in December.
  • If not adequately prepared, then can delay exam with a plan to address weaknesses.
  • If start exam and discover not adequately prepared, then can stop without penalty up until the last month or so.
  • Faculty goal is to help 100% of students get past this hurdle.
  • The purpose of this meeting is to help students understand expectations for what will be tested and ensure adequate preparation.

Format of Exam

  • 2025 format will be similar to the 2020 through 2024 versions, which were generally well received by the students who took them. In particular, the exam will be an original hypothesis-driven research proposal on a non-dissertation research topic.  The exam will be submitted anonymously.  Students will get faculty feedback on two draft Specific Aims pages and have the opportunity to revise their full proposal in response to faculty feedback prior to receiving a final grade.
  • Summarize opinions of students who took exam in 2024:
    *Generally felt prepared for the exam, understood the purpose and rationale for the exam, thought the format was fair, and recognized clear improvement in thinking and writing ability from the combined experiences of MCRO795 and the written exam
    *Primary objection was length of exam period, which spans five months from January through May, is an inefficient use of time, and leads to unnecessary anxiety. This has been a persistent complaint for years, even though students can turn their exams in early.  Pending a faculty discussion and vote, the 2025 exam period is very likely to start six weeks later in late February and end as usual about June 1.  There would be an alternate deadline a month later for students who need more time.
  • Non-thesis proposal format is good vehicle to reveal student ability to think, but important to realize that you will NOT be writing an actual research proposal:
    *exam graded by different criteria than a research proposal
    *cannot get help with actual writing except for the UNC Writing Center (and potentially generative AI)
    *no limit on fraction that can be “funded” (Pass)
    *logic in exam is more explicit than in proposal (cannot just cite reference, must explain reasoning)

Preparation

  • You will NOT learn everything that you need to know for the Ph.D. or the exam in the classroom.
  • An important part of graduate school is taking more responsibility for your own learning, but you are not alone – have advisor, fellow trainees, and eventually thesis committee to help.

 

2. WHAT DOES EXAM EXPLICITLY TEST? (need to know what to prepare for)

Five Explicit Prelim Scoring Criteria

  • Clear hypotheses supported by reasonable rationales.
  • Experiments logically consistent with the Specific Aims and can actually answer the questions posed.
  • Experimental design explained and alternate experimental approaches considered.
  • Various possible experimental outcomes and interpretations considered.
  • Clearly written and illustrated.
  • Each criterion evaluated on whether or not proposal meets expectations for a second-year graduate student.

Hypothesis Driven Projects

  • We will discuss hypotheses a lot in MCRO795, in particular the difference between a hypothesis and an experimental prediction derived from a hypothesis. Example:  “If I knock out a gene, then I will observe a particular phenotype” is an experimental prediction based on an underlying hypothesis.  Being able to explicitly articulate the hypothesis (i.e., your informed speculation about how nature works) is powerful because it allows you to make multiple predictions (e.g. what happens if you delete a gene, overexpress a gene, make a missense mutation to change a critical amino acid, etc.).  Testing a hypothesis from multiple angles increases confidence in the results.  Faculty can help by reinforcing the difference between hypotheses and predictions now.
  • The MCRO preliminary exam will be to write a hypothesis driven proposal, because it reveals logical thinking ability. If your lab focuses on discovery science or technology development, then there needs to be a way for the student to get adequate practice in thinking of hypotheses and how to test them.  This will also be important for writing about your thesis research in MCRO795 this fall.

Thinking About Science (Experimental Design, Data Interpretation, etc.)

  • Before every experiment you do, list ALL possible outcomes and how you would interpret each. This can lead to improved design/controls to rule out alternative explanations.  Also, a frequent problem for young scientists is that experiments they propose do not actually answer the question being asked.  Best to figure out before you do experiment.  Don’t do these exercises in isolation – discuss your ideas with others.
  • New students often spend most of their time on technical troubleshooting and may not have much of their own data to analyze. Need practice thinking about experimental design, controls, alternative interpretations, etc.  Advisors can provide opportunities by including in discussion of other’s data/next steps.
  • Group meetings where everyone talks every week is one mechanism to facilitate engagement with experimental design and data.

Research Proposal

  • Students will turn their ideas into a written research proposal. We will practice this in MCRO795, but it can be useful to read the scientific portion of one or more grant or fellowship applications from your lab now to see what a proposal contains and how a proposal is organized.  Shorter applications (e.g. F30/F31/R21) are likely more useful for this exercise than longer applications (e.g. R01).
  • People normally write an outline to logically organize their thoughts before writing a full document. It could be a useful exercise to do the same thing in reverse for a research proposal, i.e. create an outline from the final document.  What is the purpose of each paragraph or section?  Reducing the document to an outline and then discussing it with your advisor can help you to see the logical structure.
  • As you read research proposals, it can be helpful to create a “word bank” of commonly used words or phrases that are useful in conveying various aspects of a research proposal.

Writing

  • Although evaluation of the preliminary exam is mostly based on your thinking, students do need to be able to write well enough to clearly communicate your ideas. This will be a focus of MCRO795.
  • If you are not confident of your writing ability, then there are many suggested activities in this document that provide you with the opportunity to write down your ideas. The act of writing may help you think more logically and better retain your ideas.  They also create a record for potential future reference.  You could then ask your advisor to give you feedback on your writing.  If you want writing practice, it is best to write short samples (0.5 to 1 page).  Short documents are sufficient to reveal writing flaws and also facilitate both more writing practice and more faculty feedback.
  • Some students have difficulty writing and/or anxiety about writing anything. Practicing writing entirely optional documents of your own choosing should remove the potential stresses of deadlines or grades and hopefully desensitize you to the task, thus gradually making writing easier.
  • If you are someone who has a lot of difficulty writing, then the UNC Writing Center offers advice on a wide variety of topics and common problems (https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/). If you want, you can meet with a trained writing coach to get feedback on a document, or submit a document online and get feedback.
  • If it is hard for you to write or get started, then you might want to experiment with voice to text applications, i.e. speak into your phone or computer to get some words down on the page and go from there. Conversely, during the exam using a text to voice application to hear what you have written can be a good strategy to check your writing.  When you read your own writing, your brain tends to fill in what you thought you wrote rather than what you actually wrote.  In contrast, hearing your words makes problems more evident.
  • In extreme cases of writing anxiety, seeking counseling through CAPS could be life changing. Counseling is a slow process, so the sooner you acknowledge that you have challenges associated with writing and seek help the better.  There have been students who failed the written exam because they were in denial about their writing anxiety and did not face the issue.
  • The key is to figure out now what works best for you in terms of writing, so you are comfortable when writing demands increase.

3. WHAT ELSE DOES EXAM IMPLICITLY TEST?

Critical Evaluation of the Literature

  • Most new students have a long list of background papers to read relevant to their thesis projects. Perhaps advisor can discuss such key papers regularly with junior students, and/or have a lab journal club.
  • Many students have regular one on one meetings with their advisors. If you do not have data to discuss, then talk about a paper together instead of canceling the meeting.  There is value to the individual attention.

Developing Good Project Ideas

  • Universally regarded as the hardest task.
  • Need to know how to conduct literature searches to find relevant papers.
  • When read papers (alone or in journal clubs), think about why an experiment was done, what are next logical steps, how to apply results to a different problem, etc. Try to come up with hypotheses, Specific Aims, experiments to test.  Discuss with somebody.  For example, use a group meeting as journal club to practice developing project ideas from the paper discussed.
  • Can start with papers related to new lab and developing your thesis project.

Permissible Topics

  • Your proposal cannot be on your dissertation research, but you can choose a project that benefits your research.
  • You can use the same methods as in your research.
  • You can use the same bacteria, virus, or cell type as in your research.
  • You cannot write about research previously or currently done in your lab, or future research under active consideration in your lab. You advisor decides if your project meets the rules.  You can propose research that your lab might plausibly do in the future.
  • Writing your proposal about a topic that is adjacent to your dissertation research can be beneficial.
  • To stay motivated, pick a topic that is fun and interesting.

Interaction With Others

  • Successful scientists talk with other scientists. You don’t know what you don’t know until you talk with other people about your ideas.
  • Isolation is #1 behavioral problem associated with poor exam outcomes. If you are introverted or come from a culture that encourages self-reliance/discourages asking others for help, then you will need to work particularly hard to overcome your natural tendencies.
  • Useful to be aware of wide variety of experimental techniques. Students forming journal club among themselves and learning from each other’s knowledge could be very useful.  Students you know from First Year Group who have now dispersed to other departments could be a useful resource.
  • Ask questions at seminars. ~80 risk free opportunities in coming year.  Once comfortable asking questions inside department, will be more comfortable talking to strangers at conferences, or discussing ideas for your prelim proposal.

Time Management

  • Procrastination is #2 behavioral problem associated with poor exam outcome. If working on large projects over an extended period of time is a problem for you, then start developing strategies now.
  • Figure out environments where you can be productive. What will you do if there is a SARS2 variant that evades vaccines and we are locked down again next year?

Good Work Habits

  • It would be prudent to start engaging with these preparatory activities now, during the summer. When fall comes, students will be busy with MCRO795 and perhaps TAing on top of research.  It will be easier to maintain skills preparation if you make them a habit now, rather than try to start them when busy in the fall.  There is no reason to delay improvement of your scientific skills.

Learn to Use Useful Software

There is a variety of software that can dramatically improve your productivity and effectiveness, as well as save you time.  Ask your advisor and other colleagues what programs they use, obtain the software, and start using it.  In some cases, there is a long learning curve.

  • Bibliography management (e.g., EndNote)
  • Citation analysis (e.g., Scopus, use link at Health Sciences Library) and more sophisticated connectedpapers.com
  • Literature searches (e.g., Google Scholar searches content of publications, not just abstracts, and can discover obscure pieces of information
  • Illustrations (e.g., BioRender, PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator)
  • Statistics/Figures (e.g., Prism)
  • Talk to text and text to talk applications
  • Generative Artificial Intelligence (e.g., ChatGPT, ConsensusAI). Generative AI has many strengths and weaknesses.  Play with it now. Use of generative AI is allowed for the exam.  Students have found it useful for initial literature searches and for condensing text.

4. COURSES

  • MCRO795 is necessary preparation for the exam, but not sufficient. Will get some practice on developing research proposals and data interpretation, lots of practice writing, and work on some thinking skills, because clear thinking is a prerequisite for effective writing.  However, cannot cover everything.
    *1st half of course is about thesis project, 2nd half from foundation paper
    *Advisors should see/discuss some student assignments and faculty feedback
    *Some advisors write their own critiques/edits of the weekly assignments for students in their lab.  This is a way to ensure expert feedback and better understand student skill level.
  • MCRO710/711/712. Critical reading of literature.  Specifically includes thinking about future projects.

5. EXAM ADVICE

We will discuss lots of detailed advice for success when the exam gets closer.  For now, here are some things to keep in mind:

  • It is unhelpful to view an off-topic proposal as artificial exercise or a burdensome waste of time. It is far more constructive to view an off-topic proposal as an opportunity to learn how to inform yourself about a new field and create something entirely original.  You are earning a Ph.D., and these are skills you will employ through your scientific career.
  • Furthermore, even though the exam content is different than your thesis research, the techniques can be relevant to your thesis research. If there are new techniques that you wish to use in your thesis research, you can intentionally create a proposal that utilizes the methods you want to learn about anyway.
  • The Peer Mentor Network (PMN) (https://pmentor.weebly.com) is an organization created by MCRO students to help other MCRO students. They provide various support services during the prelim exam and also have monthly small group meetings where students can talk about anything they want.  This is an easy way to meet MCRO students and postdocs that you may not know.  You can join at any time – just contact Matt Higgs, Cat Lewis, or Jilarie Santos Santiago.
  • Everyone’s experience in graduate school is different. You will save yourself a lot of grief if you take the exam based on when you are ready to do so, not on when other students who joined MCRO at the same time as you take the exam.

6. QUESTIONS? IDEAS?

  • If you have any questions or concerns about the preliminary exam, or you have preparation ideas that you would like to share more broadly, please contact Bob Bourret (bourret@med.unc.edu, 6108 Marsico Hall).

 

Last updated 2/3/2025.