Students may repeat the exam once and must satisfy this requirement by the start of their fifth semester of enrollment. Students enrolling for the first time in the Fall semester are encouraged to take the prelim exam as a diagnostic exam for advising purposes. Although this diagnostic attempt does not count as one of the two allowed attempts, any sections that are passed need not be retaken later. A separate examination is given for each of the four sections. Example questions are available.
Exams have a mixture of short and long problems.
A typical section will have five to seven problems to be completed in the allowed time period of 2 hours. Once a section is passed, it need not be taken again. The Graduate Committee organizes the administration and grading of the examination by the faculty. The grading is done as anonymously as possible, with two graders per section. The Graduate Committee holds a special meeting to review the results of the Prelim Exam about a week following the administering of the last section of the exam.