How to Pass Your PhD Written Qualifying Exam

Having recently passed my PhD written qualifying exams, here are some tips and tricks that were helpful to me.

Know the Exams Format: It is very important to know the format of the written exam. Which topics are you going to be tested on? Is it open or closed book? How long is it going to take?  What types of
questions? Short answers or essays? For me, I had an open book exam from each of my 5 committee members. I had a day to complete each exam. The types of questions varied, some were short answers, others were to write a review for a topic of interest. The crucial thing here is that I knew the format of the questions beforehand and this helped me prepare accordingly.


Preparing for the Exam: Set aside enough time to prepare for the exam. Consider the exam as a marathon rather than a sprint. Depending on the scope of what the exam will cover, the time needed to prepare can be a few weeks to a few months.

Talk to Senior Students: Assuming the senior graduate students have already passed their written exam, talk to them about their experiences. Ask them, what was helpful and not helpful. You can also ask for their old exams to help you in preparing.

Communicate Constantly with Committee Members: In my case, my exams was based on questions from my committee, based on my research interests. A few months before the exams, I talked to my committee about which specific areas I was going to be tested on, since my research interest were broad. This helped me in focusing my preparations.

Keep Good Notes: While preparing, you will read a few papers, books, etc. Make sure to keep good notes to make it easier to review. I kept a Microsoft word document which I updated regularly with a summary of papers I read.

These are a few tips for the written exams, in a subsequent post, I will share tips for oral PhD qualifying exam. Let me know if you have any questions by commenting below or send me an email @ ousman.mahmud@gmail.com