The Preliminary Exam
The Preliminary Exam is a comprehensive examination jointly prepared and administered once each year by the entire physics faculty. It consists of four separate three-hour written exams which are taken on consecutive days in January during the week preceding the start of the spring semester. The subject matter covered is found in undergraduate and first-year graduate courses in physics. The focal points of the separate exams are:
- Classical Mechanics
- Electricity, Magnetism, and Optics
- Quantum Mechanics and Modern Physics
- Thermodynamics and Kinetic Theory
All graduate students (both M.S. and prospective Ph.D. candidates) must take the Prelim Exams in the first January following the completion of two semesters (excluding any summer sessions) of graduate work in physics. Thus, students entering in August with a B.S. must take the exam after three semesters of graduate school. Students entering in January with a B.S. must take the exam the following January. A student entering in August with a M.S. must take the exam the next January after one semester of graduate school at Oklahoma State. If a student does not pass the Prelim Exam, he or she may be allowed to retake the exam one additional time the following year.
