First Year Comprehensive Exam

First Year Comprehensive Exam
At the end of the summer of the first year, PMCB students take a written comprehensive qualifying exam that tests their ability to think scientifically using concepts covered during the first year of coursework. The comprehensive exam is prepared by the PMCB Examination Committee. The exam is divided into two parts and administered over two days. The first part of the exam gauges the student's ability to read and interpret scientific literature. For this part of the exam, students are provided with four journal articles two weeks prior to the test. The second part of the exam consists of a series of questions requiring essay-style answers that gauge the student's grasp of the core concepts of biochemistry, genetics and cell and developmental biology (CON661-664). Students are tested on their ability to interpret the data, explain methodologies, identify strengths and weaknesses, and integrate the results of the paper into the larger fields of molecular and cell biology.