Doctoral comprehensive/qualifying examination
The PhD Comprehensive/Qualifying Examination (CHEM 796) will be scheduled in the second term of the doctoral program, or in the fifth term of a BSc Direct Entry Program.
Students are required to hold a committee meeting at the end of term 1 or within the first six weeks of term 2. During the meeting, student’s PhD Advisory Committee, chaired by the advisor/supervisor, will define the topics to be covered in the CHEM 796 Oral Comprehensive Examination.Then, the PhD Comprehensive/Qualifying Examination (CHEM 796), will be scheduled to occur within the last six weeks of the second term.
The student’s Advisory/Supervisory Committee will also make recommendations for three Examining Committee members (normally constituted so as to include representation from both campuses of the Centre and one of whom may be a non-Centre member). The Examining Committee will normally include some or all of the Supervisory Committee, but will not include the student’s supervisor. A form is provided to fill in the recommended committee members and choose a recommended examination date/time.
Three examiners will provide three questions each. The student will answer six questions (two from each section), which should be able to be completed by the student in approximately 15 minutes. The student will be allowed to review the questions for 30 minutes prior to the start time of the examination. The total time booking for an exam will be approximately two hours.
Doctoral Seminar
The CHEM 795 doctoral seminar is a credit requirement that is normally scheduled in term 7 of the program (five terms after the Comprehensive Exam; term 10 for direct entry and direct transfer students). Students will present a 30-minute departmental seminar on their thesis research work, including relevant background material and results. The seminar will be attended by advisory committee members, fellow students, and other interested members of the department, so the presentation should be self-contained and geared toward a general chemical audience. At the conclusion of the seminar, audience members may ask questions of the speaker, but the question period should be limited (ca. five minutes), as would be the case for an oral presentation at a conference.
A given CHEM 795 seminar will be chaired by the supervisor of the student presenting, and that student's advisory committee is expected to attend; the scheduling of that seminar should reflect the availability of these audience members according to the calendar set by the Chemistry Graduate Office. To maximize attendance and efficiency, CHEM 795 seminars will typically be planned as 1-hour slots, with two students presenting in that hour.
Faculty of Science policy requires all PhD students to hold a Supervisory/Advisory Committee meeting once a year to informally present and discuss their research progress. In the interest of efficiency, students should schedule this annual meeting for a time soon (within one week) after their CHEM 795 seminar, unless a meeting has already been held in the previous 12-month period. If the CHEM 795 seminar presented the student's recent research progress (which need not be the case), a committee meeting following closely thereafter would remove the need for another, separate research presentation at that meeting.
Note that the Supervisory/Advisory Committee meeting is separate from the CHEM 795 presentation, the latter being strictly a student seminar with a broad audience and two different student talks in a single 1-hour time slot. Extended, detailed questioning from committee members should be reserved for the committee meeting that is scheduled for a different time. This committee meeting (or one in the prior 12-month period) is required to obtain credit for the CHEM 795 seminar.
In addition to the seminar presentation, the student must attend at least six departmental/CHEM 795 seminars by other speakers to obtain credit for the CHEM 795 seminar.
PowerPoint presentation
To ensure useful feedback, the student must provide copies of their presentation slides (PDF or PowerPoint format) to the Chemistry Graduate Coordinator at least two working days before the seminar.
Evaluation
The Evaluation Committee consists of the research advisor/supervisor, and at least three other faculty members, usually members of the student’s Advisory Committee. In addition, evaluations can also be submitted by other faculty members present at the seminar. The supervisor chairs the seminar and will be responsible for gathering the evaluations.
Evaluators will grade the seminar based on the following criteria:
- Preparation, content, and organization.
- Presentation, speech, and grammar.
- Student’s understanding of material.
- Student’s ability to handle discussion.
Evaluators will provide comments on, and assign grades (Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory) to, each of the evaluation categories, and they will provide an overall grade for the seminar. Students will be assigned a grade of Pass or Fail based on the evaluations. In the event of a Fail grade on the first attempt, the student must repeat the seminar within one term. Two Fail ratings results in a failure for CHEM 795 and a Required to Withdraw from the program.
To reward strong performance in seminar presentations, a prize is awarded annually on each campus of the Centre for the best master’s and doctoral seminars.