Once the PhD Comprehensive Examining Committee has been appointed and approved, and at least 12 weeks prior to the proposed comprehensive examination, the student should complete and submit the Pharmacy Comprehensive Examination Request form.
Students should avoiding scheduling their examination on a blackout date.
Blackout dates
Pharmacy has blackout dates on which thesis proposals and PhD comprehensive exams will not be held unless special arrangements have been made and confirmed in advance by the Pharmacy Graduate Office. Blackout dates exist to allow maximum participation in the Pharmacy program and to minimize scheduling conflicts for meeting chairs and examining committee members and include spring and fall convocation, Pharmacy Research Day, pharmacy council meetings (am only) and all university closures, as outlined below:
Blackout dates are also noted on the Pharmacy graduate studies Outlook calendar, gradpharm@uwaterloo.ca.
Upon receipt of the exam meeting request, the graduate coordinator will schedule a chair for the examination. After a chair is appoitned, the gradaute coordiantor will send a meeting invitation to the student and the examination committee members to confirm the exam date and time and provide further instruction on important deadlines.
Specifically, at least 10 weeks prior to the comprehensive examination, the supervisor, in consultation with the other examiners (the examination committee) must provide to the graduate administrator a proposal that includes:
- the subject matter of the examination
- a list of references that corresponds to the subject(s). The reference list must include full citations. Where references are not readily available to the student, the supervisor may provide them to the graduate administrator via e-mail attachment.
The proposed arrangements are subject to approval by the graduate officer.
Eight weeks prior to the comprehensive exam, the student will receive written notice from the administrative coordinator stating the date of examination, composition of the examination committee, exam topics and reading list.
Four weeks prior to the exam, the supervisor will collate and submit the examination committee’s list of exam questions and answers to the administrative coordinator for graduate studies.
Each examining committee is required to submit:
- ten questions, each requiring about 10 – 20 minutes to answer fully in oral forma, with at least two questions being from each examiner
- an outline of each of the expected answers. This will ensure that the questions are of the right length but will also help non-experts to assess the students’ answer.
Failure of the supervisor to submit examination questions and answers four weeks before the exam may result in the cancellation of the exam.