Exams vary according to your committee and advisor. If Dr. Manson is your advisor then the following is generally applicable. See below for sections on:

• Elements common to most exams
• PhD exams
• MGIS exam and capstone/Plan B considerations
  • Timeline
  • Key points

Elements common to most graduate exams

Exam parts. Most exams have two components:

• Public presentation. Most exams, except for a stand-alone PhD prelim, involve a presentation in which you talk about your work. Programs (and advisors) vary in the preferred length of the final presentation, which typically ranges from 20 to 45 minutes. Most students prepare a Power Point or similar presentation of their work. Advisees of Professor Manson are encouraged to aim for a maximum of 10-15 slides and a maximum of 20 minutes because interruptions and questions from the floor will often carry the presentation to 45 minutes. On completing your presentation, you answer questions from the floor. The exam is public, so you may get questions from anyone, including your committee members.
• Exam. You then meet in a private session with the committee where they will ask you questions about your work. It doesn't hurt to brush up a little on subjects that you took with the professors who are examining you BUT do not spend more than a few hours on this. Just refresh your memory on what the major topics were and think about where your examiners are coming from. If one specializes in modeling and validation, for instance, do not be surprised if you get questions along those lines. For students taking a PhD prelim exam or defending a final product (e.g., dissertation, Plan B papers, Capstone), many questions will center on the written product you have provided or the material you presented. This said, questions relating to almost any aspect of your work or courses you have taken are fair game.

General advice. Take solace in the fact that you cannot study for a graduate exam because the groundwork for it has been laid throughout your graduate career.

• Think of the the exam as an extended conversation with your examiners. They are not interested in tripping you up or making you look bad. They are genuinely interested in hearing what you have to say and what you have learned during your time at the university.
• Send two-week and one-week reminders to your committee. These reminders serve to not only remind your committee but make you seem together and organized (which I am sure is true). Give the date, time, venue, and title of your talk. If one or more of your committee members are not from the campus at which you are giving your defense, consider providing a link to a campus map.
• Practice your presentation a few times to make sure you can do it without reading it and that your timing is right. PRESENTATIONS ALWAYS GO LONGER IN THE ACTUAL DEFENSE THAN THEY DO IN PRACTICE.
• The best thing you can do is make sure that you have practiced your presentation several times and then do not look at it or think about it the day before your exam. Instead, eat well, grab a movie or do something else relaxing, and then get a good night's sleep. Also see this presentation advice.
• The key with your presentation is not to bludgeon your committee with everything you have done, but instead to highlight something interesting that you did. Your committee will read everything in your paper(s), so don’t repeat what is there, but instead just highlight the key points.
• On the day of your exam, eat a good breakfast (but not a large one - you don't want to fall asleep) and be sure to leave a good amount of time to get where you need to be for the exam.
• Double check on any technical needs you will have, such as arranging for a laptop and projector, and double check that your presentation works with this equipment. You may want to have a few printed copies of your presentation on hand in case your laptop or projector dies.
• Some students like to provide food and beverages for their committees, especially if the exam is in the morning. While there is something kind of strange in this, it is one of those things that have become customary. On the upside, it means you can focus on something besides the exam before you take it. That said, don't bother if it will mean too much extra work for you, especially if you have a bunch of other things going on before the exam.

PhD exams

Key people

• Graduate Secretary (GS)
• Director of Graduate Studies (DGS)
• IT Staff (IT)

Two exams. Geography at UMN has two exams before you can declare candidacy (i.e., ABD, all but dissertation)

1. Preliminary exam, which is based on a set of three written exams (aka. prelim papers) submitted over weeks or months to three of your committee members. These in turn are typically based on readings (anywhere from 50 to 150 articles or book equivalents) and shared seminars OR are extensions of MA papers.
2. Proposal defense, in which your committee ascertains that your proposed research is feasible and appropriate for a PhD.

Format. In theory these two exams are different but they are often done at one time because a) they are often related and b) it is hard to get your committee together in one room at the same time.

• When prelims and proposal defense is done at the same time, the typical format is to give a 15-20 minute presentation on your proposed research. Then your committee will ask you questions for up to two hours about the proposed research and your prelim papers.
• A prelim exam without a proposal defense may or may not warrant a presentation - ask your advisor. Regardless, your committee will ask you questions about your papers.
• A proposal defense without a prelim exam is much like a combined exam/defense because you give a presentation on your proposed research that is followed by questions for about an hour.

Preparation

• Prelim. Read the readings that your committee members assigned to you and be prepared to amplify on the arguments in your three written prelim papers. It is critical that you meet with your committee members one-on-one to discover the expectations that each one has for you in terms of the papers.
• Proposal defense. Beyond writing a good proposal, keep some considerations in mind:
  • Review proposal writing
  • Keep it short - you are not recreating your proposal, just hitting high notes
  • Emphasize the theory - methodology linkages
  • Identify potential roadblocks and back up plans
  • Identify what you would cut if you run out of time or money

Checklist

This is not a complete list of things to bear in mind. See the Graduate Secretary, Bonnie Williams, to make sure you have everything lined up. Also consult the graduate student handbook.

• You must meet with the GS to arrange with the graduate school to take the exam.
• Prelims require a complete program form, a final PhD defense requires a completed reviewers form.
• Also meet with the DGS if you think you have incompletes or other outstanding issues.
• You must arrange for the room and any associated technology. Speak to the GS about the room and IT about any technology needs the room does not provide.
• Be sure to bring to the exam any forms that must be signed by your committee members

MGIS Capstone and Exam

Key people

• Associate Program Director (APD)
• Director of Graduate Studies (DGS)
• Assistant DGS and (ADGS)
• IT Staff (IT)

Consult the MGIS graduate student handbook for detailed information on the oral exam process, particularly with respect to what you need to have in hand to schedule the exam (e.g., grad school packet and no incompletes on your record). It is your responsibility to be fully apprised of the requirements. Speak with the ADGS and DGS if you are unsure about any aspect of your degree program. This page just describes a few of the bigger issues to consider.

The term "capstone" refers to a single topic thesis, three Plan B papers, or in some cases two very substantial papers where one is considered the main capstone and the other an appendix or adjunct paper. The handbook is the best place for up to date information on what the program wants from the capstone.

See the following pages for details on

• Writing a research paper, which includes advice on formatting and so on that applies to almost all written work
• Writing a technical review
• Writing a literature review

Timeline

One key mistake made by students is underestimating how long it takes to finish and defend a capstone. Finishing the analysis is just the start because their are multiple rounds of consultation, revision, and editing to be done. Below is a time line with the absolute minimum turnaround times - even with this timeline you run a serious risk of not finishing your capstone and would ideally double the time for each stage.

This timeline is the absolute minimum amount of time needed, to the point where you run a serious risk of having your advisor or a committee member come to your exam with issues that may eventually force you to spend additional time working on your project. As above, working with your committee and having a very solid draft is good idea overall, and it reduces the amount of time you need to spend on revising the capstone after you defend.

Your advisor will not allow you to defend your proposal until he or she is convinced it has a very good change of passing the exam. You advisor reserves the right to cancel the exam up to and including the day of the exam if the capstone is not ready.

Here is a sample timeline that assumes the defense is May 15. Note that the two most critical dates are:

1. Getting your capstone to your advisor at least a six weeks before your defense date.
2. Getting your capstone to your committee at least one month before the defense.

Key points

Bear in mind that you are primarily responsible for arranging to take the exam. Be proactive and meet with your advisor and the APD to make sure you have everything lined up to take the exam.

• Paper work. You must meet with the APD to make sure you have everything lined up to arrange with the graduate school to take the exam.
  • Exam form. BRING YOUR EXAM FORM TO THE EXAM SO YOUR COMMITTEE CAN SIGN IT. Several students have forgotten to do this in the past and it can take weeks to get the signatures since stamps or co-signers are not allowed.
  • DGS. Meet with the DGS if you think you have incompletes or other outstanding issues.
• What to submit? Per the timeline, getting your capstones to your committee in a reasonable time frame is critical.
  • Draft vs. final: The capstone that you defend is a final version. You may hear it termed a 'defensible draft' to distinguish it from the final version sent to the graduate school, but in actuality it is a complete, final product. Elements such as spelling, grammar, figures, and tables must be in their final form.
  • Format. Send an electronic copy as soon as feasible and an accompanying offer to provide a paper copy if the person wants one. It is usually a good idea to just go ahead and make paper copies anyway and get them to your committee. Nothing says ‘almost done’ like a nice capstone document.
• Poster. If one of your Plan B papers is a poster, it should have the abstract attached.
• The poster itself should be reproduced as a single page in your capstone document. The detail will not show up but you need something. You do not need to print out a full copy of the poster for the exam, but it doesn't hurt to do so.
• Single capstone. If you are doing a single topic capstone then see the page on writing a research paper for general advice.
• Three Plan B papers. Treat these as three separate entities in that each needs to be signed off on by either your advisor or the instructor most familiar with the work. All three papers will be bound together to create a single capstone document.
• What to present? As above, an exam presentation should be 15-20 minutes at most. Dr. Manson tends to prefer presentations on the shorter side, 10 to 15 slides and 10 to 15 minutes long is ideal. If you have a single-topic capstone project, then present on that. If you have three Plan B papers then it is largely up to you. Most students focus on a single paper for their presentations, although a few have tied together all three papers into a single presentation. This latter strategy is risky unless you can really move through the material in a cogent manner.
• Editing. Your committee or advisor may or may not edit your document for style because they can reasonably expect a graduate of our program to be able to turn out an excellent document on his or her own, or at least be able to find help on his or her own. Your committee will guide you in substantive matters (e.g., methods or analysis) but in terms of style, they may only tell you where the document needs improvement and give examples. Keep in mind that while the committee is ultimately concerned with the substance of your work, poor style will at the very least frustrate a reader and more likely both make the substance difficult to appreciate and lead the examiner to question whether the student was diligent in their research. Should he or she trust a student to conduct excellent research if the student cannot produce a clean document?
• Committee workload. It is critical to understand that your committee requires time to examine your document and make changes. You cannot realistically expect to work on your project for a year or more and then have someone review it in a few days on a last minute deadline. Budget your time accordingly (below), which means giving your committee at least a month with the final product. Your best bet for avoiding problems is to make sure that you have worked with every member of you committee through the entire process. By the time you submit your defensible draft, there should be no surprises for you or your committee.
• Exam scheduling. Try to schedule your exam for mid semester, but barring that, shoot for the final week of semester and the week after. It is very difficult or simply not possible to schedule an exam during winter or summer breaks because this is when faculty do research away from the university. You are responsible for getting your room booked and technology set up – this can take weeks, so do it as soon as your advisor says you can defend. The easiest is to go through the APD, politely asking for assistance in scheduling a room. Consider getting one with a projector built in so you don’t need to go through the hassle of booking one. Speak to IT about any technology needs not met by the room.
• Signature pages. If at all possible, get signature page(s) ready for the day of the exam for each of your capstone papers; this applies to situations where you have three Plan B papers that have been overseen by different professors. Use these signature and title pages as template for each Plan B paper/poster. If you do not have a signed signature page, your committee members can sign the signature pages even if you have changes to make. Your advisor will hold onto the signature page(s) while you make changes. This is especially important if you are going to be traveling or otherwise unavailable after the exam. This way, you can do the edits over email and then get a friend to print the documents here and give them to your advisor. He or she will then give the complete documents and the signed cover pages to the program. If you have a paper that should have been signed off on by a professor not on your exam committee (e.g., something from a course in the last few years and the professor is now unavailable), your advisor can sign off on it if the committee agrees to it, but this should be a rare occurrence.
• Almost done? Most defenses result in the student being asked to make changes. The advisor will handle most of these, working with the student to complete the changes. Once the advisor has signed off on the changes, he or she will give you the signature pages, and you then submit the final capstone to APD.