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Qualifying and Comprehensive Exam Archive
The main written exam used to demonstrate a PhD student's understanding of core course material has been called the Prelim Exam, the Comprehensive Exam, and the Qualifying Exam. The topics and courses tested have also changed over the last 20 years. However, the format of the questions for these written exams has remained the same: each question covers a topic from one of the core courses, and each question is intended to be completed within approximately 30 minutes.
Currently and for the last few years, the PhD Qualifying Exam is given over two mornings in August, nominally from 8:30am-11am on the Monday and Tuesday of the week before fall classes start. On each day, 4 questions are given, so the written Qualifying Exam has a total of 8 questions. On each day of testing, an equation sheet (see below) is given in addition to the questions, and the 4 questions for that day can be answered in any order and the total time can be distributed among the different questions as desired.
The questions cover the material discussed in the PhD core courses OPTI 501, OPTI 502, OPTI 505R, and OPTI 511R. Some students will have taken the advanced Optical Physics core course sequence of OPTI 570, OPTI 544, and OPTI 600G instead of the introductory Optical Physics course OPTI 511R; these students will be suitably prepared for the OPTI 511R questions, but all students should nevertheless look through the PDF below that lists common topics between the optical physics courses that are most likely to appear on the exam.
- Major Exams
- Minor Exams (written exams are no longer required for PhD students from other departments who are minoring in Optical Sciences)
Exam Resources
- Equation Sheet (note that the PhD Qualifying Exam now has 4 questions each day, rather than 5 as stated on the PDF)
- Optical Physics questions common topics (OPTI 511 and OPTI 570/544/600G) (note that the basics of optical resonators may also be tested, but this subject is not listed on the PDF. The PDF will be updated soon to explicitly mention optical resonators.)
Major Exams
- Fall 2020 (PDF)
- Fall 2019 (PDF)
- Fall 2018 (PDF)
- Fall 2017 (PDF)
- Spring 2017 (PDF)
- Fall 2016 (PDF)
- Spring 2016 (PDF)
- Fall 2015 (PDF)
- Spring 2015 (PDF)
- Fall 2014 (PDF)
- Spring 2014 (PDF)
- Fall 2013 (PDF)
- Spring 2013 (PDF)
- Fall 2012 (PDF)
- Spring 2012 (PDF)
- Fall 2011 (PDF)
- Spring 2011 (PDF)
- Fall 2010 (PDF)
- Spring 2010 (PDF)
- Fall 2009 (PDF)
- Spring 2009 (PDF)
- Fall 2008 (PDF)
- Spring 2008 (PDF)
- Fall 2007 (PDF)
- Spring 2007 (PDF)
- Fall 2006 (PDF)
- Spring 2006 (PDF)
- Fall 2005 (PDF)
- Spring 2005 (PDF)
- Fall 2004 (PDF)
- Spring 2004 (PDF)
- Fall 2003 (PDF)
- Spring 2003 (PDF)
- Fall 2002 (PDF)
- Spring 2002 (PDF)
- Fall 2001 (PDF)
- Spring 2001 (PDF)
- Fall 2000 (PDF)
- Spring 2000 (PDF)
- Fall 1999 (PDF)
- Spring 1999 (PDF)
- Fall 1998 (PDF)
- Spring 1998 (PDF)
Minor Exams
Please note that written exams are no longer required for students minoring in optics.
- Fall 2012 (PDF)
- Fall 2011 (PDF)
- Spring 2010 (PDF)
- Fall 2009 (PDF)
- Spring 2009 (PDF)
- Fall 2008 (PDF)
- Spring 2008 (PDF)