My new book ‘How to Candidacy: Detailed Guide to Pass the PhD Candidacy Exam’ covers what the PhD Candidacy Exam or Prelim is, what are the requirements to pass this exam, and how to be successful in getting through it all.

What is the PhD Candidacy Exam?

1. Six-week formal exam required by the graduate school
2. Advisor or committee chooses a topic
3. Typically not something you have worked on
4. But good for you to know
5. Deliverables: 20-page paper (at the end of four weeks) + Talk (at the end of six weeks)

If You Are a First-year Graduate Student

Focus on finding a good PhD advisor. Now is your time to do this part right.

Finding the right fit for a research group and advisor will save you much trouble later.

And by that, I mean you might have a chance to actually graduate with your degree if you do this.

If You Are a Second-year Graduate Student

Hopefully, you have found a good PhD advisor. If not, keep looking or get out of the program! There are plenty of other things you can be doing. A PhD is not worth doing unless you have found a good match for a PhD advisor. And, usually, you take the candidacy exam with the professor you hope to get your PhD from so… don’t worry about candidacy until you have found your match.

Your Committee for the PhD Candidacy Exam

Candidacy is also when you get to form your PhD committee. The committee usually comprises
four professors as follows:

1. Advisor: you choose this person (say experimentalist)
2. In-field experimentalist: advisor recommends this person
3. In-field theorist: advisor recommends this person
4. Out-of-field professor: you choose this person

When You Get Your Topic

Once you get the topic, remember that you are not alone! I was freaking out when I first saw my
topic in a formal letter from my advisor. I felt I did not know much about it at all. So, if you are freaking out about your topic, you are not alone.

Find the Local Expert on your PhD Candidacy Exam Topic!!

Your candidacy topic is not something you have worked on directly, but someone else in the
department probably has.

Find that person!

Ask around if needed. There has to be a professor, or a postdoc, or a senior graduate student… Someone that will know the literature on this topic way better than you.
Meet with the local expert, take their suggestions on what papers you should be reading, and START there. Don’t start on your own.

Start by following their suggestions. This will save you time!

Start working on your paper on week one.

You will read a LOT during candidacy but everything you read will be NEW. Something you read during week one, you might forget during week two. So, write it down!

Original blog post on this topic:

How to succeed in the Ph.D. candidacy exam