Music Graduate Office

Faculty Guide to Doctoral Qualifying Exams

After doctoral students (DM, DME, or PhD) have completed course work (which usually takes three years) they take qualifying examinations, after which they are admitted to candidacy for the degree. Here is a brief guide to those exams for faculty members, focusing on the role of JSoM faculty. Links are provided to detailed Web pages aimed at students.

Please note: Qualifying exams are given in every doctoral program in the School and are meant to be a common requirement of all programs. Nevertheless, within the basic outline required by the JSoM faculty there is room for variation from area to area and (to a more limited extent) from student to student. This guide is meant to communicate the basic principles and to illustrate some of the ways, within those principles, that faculty members choose to give exams. In the areas in which there is room for discretion, this guide is not meant to be prescriptive.

Faculty members are welcome to contact the Director of Graduate Studies (musicdgs) about any aspect of doctoral qualifying exams about which they have questions.

1. When students take exams [http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/grad/Doctoral/Quals.shtml#Start]

Doctoral students take qualifying exams after they have completed course work including lessons, courses in the major and minor fields, tool subjects, proficiencies, and (in performance programs) a minimum number of recitals. They need to have completed all tools and proficiencies, as well as all the work in a field (major, first minor or second minor [when required]) to take its exam, and in any case no sooner than their final semester of all their course work.

Students apply to start exams a semester or so before they actually begin, and the Music Graduate Office confirms what they still need to do before starting. The Graduate Office offers an information session every semester to explain the entire process, which many students attend.

As students prepare to take exams, faculty members may be asked to serve on a student's Advisory Committee (which consists of three members of the major field and one from each minor); this committee writes and reads the students exams and administers an oral exam. (In performance programs they also grade recitals.) Department chairs may be asked to approve electives in the major field, or to approve courses in the department's minor field. Committee members for exams are always permanent members of the faculty at the rank of Senior Lecturer or Assistant, Associate or full Professor.

2. Written qualifying exams [http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/grad/Doctoral/Quals.shtml#Writtens]

Students take a written qualifying examination in each field taught in the JSoM. Some minor fields substitute a closely parallel requirement (a portfolio of work, a recital in a performance area, etc.), but most give written exams that ask students to demonstrate their command of a field in essays and other kinds of written answers.

Students schedule exams through the Music Graduate Office when they are qualified. Exams take place in an exam room in the office, proctored by the staff. The Graduate Office requests the text of an exam from the faculty when the student schedules the exam.

Once a student has scheduled an exam, minor-field representatives or chairs of three-member major-field committees receive a request for the text of a written exam, with a request to provide it two weeks before the scheduled date. (This is essential for making certain that the exam is ready in time.) Minor-field representatives construct the exam; chairs of major-field exams collect questions from the other two members and assemble an exam.

Minor-field exams take place in a morning or an afternoon for a total time of 3 hours and 50 minutes. Major-field exams take place in the morning and the afternoon of the same day in two sessions of 3 hours and 50 minutes each.

Representatives are asked to provide complete exams, including questions and any supporting materials (scores, texts, and so on.) The exam room is supplied with computers (both Macintosh and Windows) for typing answers, lined paper for hand-writing answers, scratch paper, and staff paper.

A template for a minor-field exam (Word) is available here. A template for a major-field exam (Word) is available here. Major-field exams need to be in two independent sections, one given to the student in the morning and one in the afternoon. It is very helpful to students to provide approximate times for each question.

Questions often include essays, score identification and analysis, score annotation, short identifications, and many other kinds. Past written exams in every field are available for faculty consultation in the Music Graduate Office; please get in touch with the DGS about this or with any other questions about constructing an exam.

After students have taken written exams, the Graduate Office supplies them with a copy. Copies are sent to the minor-field representative or to the three major-field representatives for reading and grading (passing or failing).

Faculty members are asked to read and supply a result within two weeks so that students can progress through the qualifying exam process in a timely fashion. The usual results are a passing or failing grade; in cases of disagreement among committee members (in the major field) or a desire for a partial re-examination, the DGS will consult with committee members.

Students may take written exams in the fall, spring or second summer sessions. Summer exams are requested from committee members before the end of the spring semester, and students are reminded that summer exams might not be read until the fall, depending on faculty schedules.

3. Oral qualifying exam [http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/grad/Doctoral/Quals.shtml#Orals]

After a student has passed all the required written exams, he or she is eligible to schedule the oral examination. Oral exams are attended by the three major-field committee members, any minor field representative who wishes to give an oral exam in that field, and by the DGS (who acts as proctor and organizer). Minor-field representatives have the option of waiving an oral exam (see below) for particularly strong exams, though in some departments it is traditional that an oral exam is always required.

Oral exams ordinarily take place in the fall and spring semesters. Oral exams may take place during the second summer session if the entire committee is available. A faculty member who is on the official teaching roster of the school are considered available for oral exams. Faculty who are not teaching in the summer are under no obligation to agree to participate in an oral exam and in no case will a member of an advisory committee be replaced because they are not available for a summer oral exam.

Oral exams are held in the conference room of the Undergraduate/Graduate Offices. Students reserve an available date (generally Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday at 3:30 pm) and are then asked to check with committee members about their availability. Faculty members will hear from students asking about dates. They might be checking on possibilities; at most they will have a tentative reservation. Their date is not official until all committee members have said they can attend in person.

Oral exams generally last about an hour and a half, with a recommendation of 15-20 minutes of questioning per committee member. The major field is typically examed first, though any member of the committee may offer follow up questions at appropriate points.

As with written exams, topics are entirely open, and might be the subject of consultation beforehand with the student.

Students are given the results of the exam right away, after a conversation among committee members. Students are sometimes asked to repeat part or all of an oral exam. In these cases, the DGS writes the student a letter outlining the committee's concerns and laying out the requirements and approximate timing of a second exam.

--DRM, July 2007; rev. EJI, July 2009