November 23, 2009

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The Demography General Examination

The general examination consists of a written and an oral component. The written component is a 4-hour exam, with half of the exam covering substance and half covering methods. Materials allowed for the exam include an equation sheet and reading lists (for ECO/SOC 571 and 572) provided by the examiners. Otherwise, the exam is closed-book. Grading of the written examination is done blindly, with students using identification numbers rather than their names.

An oral exam, given by at least two examiners, is held within a few days of the written exam and typically ranges between 40 and 60 minutes. The oral component of the examination is used to gain a more accurate assessment of a student's range of knowledge and mastery of the material; normally, the oral examination is used to give students an opportunity to raise the level of their performance above that based solely on the written exam. Students should prepare for the oral exam by thinking about questions on the written exam that they may have answered incorrectly or incompletely, as this is often the starting point of the oral exam. (Students may not see their written examinations until after the completion of the oral component.) The oral exam may cover material not included in the written exam. Students are not typically asked to do extensive calculations or extensive derivations in the oral exam (although they are often asked to present solutions on the blackboard). Rather the emphasis is on conceptual understanding.

Students receive grades on both the substantive and methodological parts of the exam. A passing grade for each component is B-. Any student in good academic standing who fails all or part of the exam has the right to retake the exam. Good academic standing entails having been readmitted in the student’s department (i.e., having satisfactory grades). Under the rules of the Graduate School, general exams can be retaken only one time.