Biomedical Informatics Doctoral Comprehensive Examination Guidelines

Overview

The comprehensive examination should be scheduled as the student nears the end of coursework and no later than the first semester after completion of coursework requirements in the doctoral program. The comprehensive examination has both written and oral components, which are overseen by a comprehensive exam committee of four faculty, at least three of whom must be members of the Biomedical Informatics Core Faculty. The course material that is covered in these syllabi defines the scope of the examination. The student is encouraged to identify and study the material in which he or she is not confident. The committee develops a written examination. The student prepares written responses to demonstrate mastery of the material in the curriculum. An oral examination will take place after the comprehensive examination committee has read the student’s answers. Successful completion of both written and oral components is required. The Doctoral Comprehensive Oral Examination is closed to the public.

Management

The Biomedical Informatics Training Program (“TP”) Core Faculty Curriculum Committee will oversee the doctoral comprehensive examination process for all Biomedical Informatics Doctoral Program students.

Each year, the TP Core Curriculum Committee will designate one of its members to serve one year (September 1-August 31) as the PhD Comprehensive Examination Coordinator (“Coordinator”), whose responsibilities are detailed below

The Training Program Coordinator will maintain a database of the comprehensive examination process status for each student, including committee members, important dates, and progress. Each student should inform the Training Program Coordinator and his/her Biomedical Informatics advisor of each step of the process. The Doctoral Comprehensive Oral Examination is closed to the public.

Timing

The comprehensive examination should be scheduled as the student nears the end of coursework and no later than the first semester after completion of coursework requirements in the doctoral program. If a student cannot do so for a good reason, he/she must petition the Chair of the Curriculum Committee for a longer period of time in which to schedule the exam. An “I” or “G” grade (i.e., an “Incomplete”) in a course that is a requirement of the doctoral program must be updated to a satisfactory letter grade before a student can sit for the written component of the comprehensive exam, but not necessarily before it is scheduled.

Committee Composition

The Exam Coordinator begins the formation of a Comprehensive Examination Committee for each student by requesting from the student the syllabi for each course taking as part of the program of study, including lists of textbooks and other references. The Training Program Coordinator will provide the Exam Coordinator with the student’s transcript. From this material, the Exam Coordinator chooses members for the student’s Comprehensive Examination Committee and obtains their agreement to serve. The Exam Coordinator will also select the Chair for the committee. A Comprehensive Examination Committee will comprise four faculty, at least three of which must be members of the Training Program Core Faculty. One member of the Comprehensive Examination Committee must have expertise in the student’s cognate area. The student’s Biomedical Informatics advisor may serve on his/her Comprehensive Examination Committee including in the role of Chair. The student or the student’s advisor may provide informal input to the selection process. However, the Exam Coordinator is the final arbiter of committee composition.

The Comprehensive Examination Committee Chair (“Chair”) will:

• inform the student of the composition of his/her Comprehensive Examination Committee,
• arrange the dates of both the written and oral examinations well in advance,
• oversee the development of the written examination,
• collect written examination questions from the committee members,
• distribute the questions to and collect the answers from the student, and coordinate and communicate all other matters related to the process of the comprehensive examination in accordance to these guidelines.

The Training Program Coordinator and the current PhD Comprehensive Examination Coordinator are available to assist the Chair in this process.

Written Examination Scope

The scope of the exam is defined by the course material that is covered in the syllabi of the courses that the student uses to satisfy the curriculum requirements for the doctoral degree. Included within the scope is the expectation that the student has a deep understanding of the core concepts of that course material, as well as the ability to integrate those concepts creatively to solve problems.

Initially, the Exam Coordinator will receive from the Training Program Coordinator a copy of the syllabus for each course the student has taken as part of his or her program of study to meet the requirements of the curriculum. For distribution and elective courses that exceed the curriculum requirements, the student should indicate which subset of those courses to include in the scope of the comprehensive examination. The subset must be sufficient to satisfy the curriculum requirements (e.g., a sufficient number of credits of distribution course work). The Training Program Coordinator will provide the Exam Coordinator with the student’s transcript.

Each member of the Comprehensive Examination Committee will prepare one question to be submitted to the Chair of the Committee. The Chair will provide guidance on the topic area on which each member should focus his or her question. Questions will usually be rooted in the committee members’ areas of expertise. However, in keeping with the “comprehensive” spirit of the exam, committee members are encouraged to develop questions which bridge across more than one course. Each of the four questions of the exam should be designed so that a well-prepared student could answer it in no more than eight hours of total effort.

The Written Examination

The written examination will be completed as a “take-home” examination. The Chair will collate the four questions and send them to the student. The examination is “open book and open notes;” however, the student may not consult other people regarding the examination. The University Honor Code is in effect. The student will have seven days to prepare written responses that demonstrate the student’s mastery of the material and return those responses to the Chair. The Chair will provide members of the Committee with copies of the student’s responses to read.

The Oral Examination

Within a week after the student submits responses to the written examination, Committee members must read the written examination responses and reach consensus that the student’s performance is sufficient to allow the oral examination to be held as scheduled. The oral examination should be scheduled by the Chair to occur if possible no more than four weeks after the responses are received. The oral examination is typically a two-hour meeting at which all Committee members and the student are present. Its scope will be focused on the written examination questions, but may include additional concepts in the student’s program of study for meeting the requirements of the curriculum. The oral examination will culminate in the final decision of the Committee regarding the student’s performance on the comprehensive examination; successful completion of both written and oral components is required to satisfy Ph.D. requirements. The sections below on Outcome Options and Determining Outcomes provide additional details.

Number of Attempts

If a student fails the first Comprehensive Examination (see below the sections on Outcome Options and Determining Outcomes), then he/she is allowed to take the Comprehensive Examination one more time. Consistent with School of Medicine guidelines, the process of re-taking a Comprehensive Examination must be started within 90 days of the date the student was informed that he/she failed the first Comprehensive Examination. A re-take is defined as starting on the date that the written portion of the second Comprehensive Examination is distributed to the student. (See specific information further below regarding the process of re-taking the Comprehensive Examination.) If a re-take is not started within 90 days due to inaction on the part of the student, the student will be dismissed from the Ph.D. program at the end of the academic term in which the 90-day limit is reached.

If the second Comprehensive Examination is failed, then the student is dismissed from the Ph.D. program, effective at the end of the academic term in which the second failed attempt occurred.

Outcome Options

Taking into account both the written and oral portions, the following options are available to the Comprehensive Examination Committee when a student takes the Comprehensive Examination:

• pass with distinction
• pass the overall exam
• fail the overall exam
• partial pass (see Determining Outcomes below for details)

Determining Outcomes

Initially, the Comprehensive Examination Committee will vote whether the student passed with distinction or not. A pass with distinction should be used only for trainees who demonstrated truly outstanding performance on both the written and oral portions of the Comprehensive Examination. The vote will be determined by a simple majority. If there is a tie vote, then the student will be deemed not to have passed with distinction.

If the student did not pass with distinction, the Comprehensive Examination Committee will vote whether the student has passed or not passed the Comprehensive Examination. The vote will be determined by a simple majority. If there is a tie vote, then the student will be deemed to have passed.

If the result is given the grade ‘not pass’ then the Comprehensive Examination will vote on whether to fail a student or give him or her a partial pass. The vote will be determined by a simple majority. If there is a tie vote, then the student will be deemed to have received a partial pass.

A partial pass (on either the first or second attempt) may be due to problems with the written, oral, or both portions of the exam. It is the Committee’s responsibility to establish the requirements that a student must meet in order to convert a partial pass into a pass. A partial pass must be resolved to a pass or a fail by the Comprehensive Examination Committee, based on how the student performs on the requirements he or she is given. The Committee also sets the amount of time the student will have to meet those requirements. This time limit would typically be less than four weeks, and can not exceed six weeks, except under extraordinary circumstances that must be approved in advance by the Comprehensive Examination Coordinator.

In establishing the requirements associated with a partial pass, the Committee will consider and vote on a proposal; the vote should be to either “accept” or “not accept” of the set of requirements, as determined by a simple majority of the Committee members. If there is a tie vote, then the vote of the Chair will determine the outcome. More than one proposal can be considered and voted upon by the Comprehensive Examination Committee, but the final result of deliberation must be a single set of requirements that the student must meet; those requirements should be communicated to the student by the Chair as promptly as feasible and ideally on the same day that the Comprehensive Examination was taken.

As coordinated by the Chair, the Committee will vote on whether the student has either (1) successfully completed the requirements for converting a partial pass into a pass on the Comprehensive Examination, or (2) has not successfully completed the requirements for converting a partial pass into a pass, and thus, fails the Comprehensive Examination on that attempt. Such a vote may occur at a meeting of the Comprehensive Examination Committee or by other means, such as by e-mail. A simple majority vote will rule. If there is a tie vote, then the student will be deemed to have passed the Comprehensive Examination.

Once the Committee has determined that a student has either passed or failed an examination, the “Comprehensive Examination Report” for Doctor of Philosophy through the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine will be filled out by the Chair and signed by all members of the Comprehensive Examination Committee. The “Comprehensive Examination Report” should be delivered by the Chair to the Training Program Coordinator, who will submit it to the School of Medicine.

Coordinating a Second Examination

A student who failed the Comprehensive Examination on a first attempt must petition the Comprehensive Examination Coordinator in writing to take the Comprehensive Examination a second time. The student should then work with the Coordinator to find a date and time that is within 90 days of the date the first Comprehensive Examination was failed.

Committee Composition on a Second Attempt

The second Comprehensive Examination Committee will be established according to the above guidelines regarding Committee Composition, with the following additions:

• The Comprehensive Examination Coordinator and the Curriculum Committee Chair will work together to determine the composition of the second Comprehensive Examination Committee.
• Whenever feasible, the second Comprehensive Examination Committee will consist of three faculty members who were not on the first Comprehensive Examination Committee and one who was.
• The student may recommend to the Comprehensive Examination Coordinator one core faculty member to serve on the second Comprehensive Examination Committee. The Coordinator will endeavor to include that faculty member on the Committee, if it is feasible to do so.
• The Comprehensive Examination Coordinator will provide the student with the names of those faculty who are being proposed as members of the second Comprehensive Examination Committee. The student will have three days to provide written comments and submit written requests for changes to the Comprehensive Examination Coordinator about the proposed second Comprehensive Examination Committee membership. This written correspondence will be regarded as confidential information.
• The final decision regarding composition of the second Comprehensive Examination Committee will rest with the Comprehensive Examination Coordinator and the Curriculum Committee Chair. The student will be provided the names of the members of the second Comprehensive Examination Committee by the Comprehensive Examination Coordinator.