CS Prelim Requirements and Results John Kubiatowicz CS Chair of Grad Study/Prelim Committee University of California at Berkeley 8/14/2012

Why Prelim Requirement? Give you the tools to do your research –Combination of course work and prelim exam »More on this in a moment –Resources for preparation: list of papers/books »Available on prelim information page Also, makes sure you have exposure to sufficient breadth of concepts for your graduate student career –When combined with minor requirements, get enough exposure to innovate in your PhD This is important! –If you are a systems student, you will learn about Theory and Machine learning –If you are a Theory student, you will learn how to do systems research –Etc.

CS Prelim Breadth Requirement Involves core classes, not specialized classes –Must come from the specified list of classes –Petitions for alternative classes usually not successful One class each from three categories: –Systems: VLSI, Hardware Architecture, and OS »cs250, 252, 262A, or 262B; –Theory: Algorithms, Security, Complexity »cs270, 271, 273, 276, or 278 –Theory + Systems: Programming Languages, Parallel Algorithms, Probabilistic Reasoning, AI »cs263, 264, 267, 280, 281A, or 289; GPA must average 3.5+ for all three courses; only one minimum grade of a "B+" is accepted toward fulfilling this requirement. New students: Must be done with Prelim requirements by end of second year –i.e. your 4 th term –If have master’s must be done by your 3 rd term

CS Prelim Exam Oral Examination in front of 2 professors –Test your knowledge of the subject –Professors ask questions, you answer on whiteboard Topic Areas: –Artificial Intelligence –Computer Architecture –Bio Engineering –Computer-Aided Design –Database Management Systems –Graphics –Human-Computer Interaction –Networking –Numerical Methods –Operating Systems –Parallel Processing –Programming Languages –Security & Privacy –Theory

CS Prelim Exam (Cont) Students expected to take exam during 3 rd or 4 th term (i.e in your second year) –If you have master’s, expected in 2 nd or 3 rd term –Any later, and you need to petition Exams happen in third week of term –Must sign up at end of previous term Expectations for exam (such as syllabus) available on department web pages – Expect to have most of prelim breath courses done before prelim –Thus – get cracking on prelim breadth courses during first year Need to petition if you are deviating from normal procedure in any way –Including delaying exam or taking exam in other division (i.e. you are in EE and want to take CS exam)

Passing the Exam Take this seriously and you will do fine –Study! Often there are topic-specific study groups –For instance: OS students meet during summer to read papers from the recommended list (syllabus on web) Rare instances that people fail: they don’t take it seriously! –They don’t study (????!) –They don’t know material on syllabus (????!) –They don’t know material well enough to think on their feet »This is not an exam that you can simply cram for you need to understand the material so that you can build on it Failure is not the end of the world –Hopefully it is wakeup call, no more –You can take it more than once! –At least one more time, possibly more with support of advisor I know students who took three times to pass and are now happily working as faculty –Don’t plan on this, however…

Some Statistics Prelim History from 1992: –572 CS students have taken exam –417 (72.9%) passed the first time –120 (20.9%) passed the second or third time –538 (93.8%) overall pass rate! Breakdown by area across all exams (since 1999): Area# Students#Pass#Pass Rate AI % AR443068% DB362569% GR442966% HCI302687% NET504182% NM11436% OS77577% PL47370% PP55100% SEC44100% THY686799% Totals %

Student Review Process Once per term student and advisor sit down –Discuss expectations, current goals, concerns –You get to hear how your advisor thinks you are doing and get to give him or her feedback –You get to discuss your timeline and courses –Bring review forms with you – these get signed by you and your advisor As an incoming graduate student you are assigned a temporary advisor –He or she can help you decide on prelim breadth classes, for instance Faculty get together and do a collective review of students to make sure that everyone is making progress

For Your CS Questions Talk to Xuan Quach –337 Soda Hall –She can give you details about procedure, your status, who to talk to about problems/issues Graduate student Handbook: –