PhD Preliminary Examination Information
In response to student comments, we have revised the policy concerning the use of certain calculators during the PhD Preliminary Examination:
Calculators that are approved for use on the Preliminary Exam are the same ones that have been approved for use on the Fundamentals in Engineering professional certification exam. These are readily available from Barnes & Noble, Office Depot, and other nearby stores.
Students wishing to use calculators that are not on this list must file a request through the "Contact Us" site a minimum of one week in advance of the exam. Include in your request a link to the website where the model and features of the calculator to be considered are described. Approval will be considered for any calculator that has the capabilities up to and including two-line alphanumeric displays, function/integral/derivative solvers, complex number calculations, and octal/hex conversions.
You MAY NOT use calculators with graphing capabilities, matrix or differential equation solvers, or advanced programming capabilities, including loops, function calls, memory stacks, etc.
Your calculator will be examined prior to the exam. Only those listed at the above website or pre-approved by the Graduate Office will be allowed during the exam. The exam proctors will be strictly enforcing this policy during the test period, and the use of such calculators during the exam will be considered a violation of exam policies and result in failure.
Ph.D. Preliminary Exam Study Guide (72Kb doc)
Preliminary Examination Registration Form (Word .doc file; updated February 2, 2010; 52 kb)
List of student study suggestions (updated September 13, 2007 - 62k doc)
Past Exams and Solutions (all are in pdf format)
Last revised on November 17, 2011.
