Preliminary Examination

For help, contact the VP Academic.

The physics preliminary exam is required for completion of a PhD in Physics. It has to be taken within the first year of the PhD program. The prelim now has two options:

New format

The new format takes a more research-relevant approach. It will take the form of a special supervisory committee meeting. Students will be asked to prepare a document about their field of study which will survey existing and relevant literature and describe the motivation and methodology of their research project. The document will be submitted to the committee members a few weeks ahead of the exam. The literature will be suggested by the student’s supervisor and/or other committee members. The exam itself will include an oral questioning period - the committee will ask the students questions relevant to the written document and the proposed field of research. General physics questions may also be asked if they are relevant to the PhD research. The committee will provide feedback to the student on the document as well as the oral part and will call for a re-examination if needed.

Old format

Written exam which serves as a review of core undergraduate concepts. Traditionally it has been divided into two exams taken in-person on consecutive days. Day 1 contained short questions (choose 10 out of 16). Day 2 contained long questions (choose 1 of 2 questions in each one of the four subjects: Mechanics, E&M, Quantum, Stat-Mech). However, in the previous two years, due to the pandemic, the exam was held online as a 72-hour take home exam. This year given the covid uncertainty the exam will be held online again. In this format, if a student fails the exam s/he is eligible for a second try, of the same format, a year later. There are no questions on more specific subfields of physics such as particle physics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, geophysics, medical physics, or astrophysics.

Students typically study for up to two months prior to taking this exam, where 1 month is the minimum recommended to the supervisor to let their students review for the exam.

Past prelim exams can be found here: http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/grads/prelim/