Ph.D. (Kinesiology) Qualifying Exam

At the end of the first academic year a student is enrolled in the Ph.D. (Kinesiology) program (i.e. at the end of the Spring Semester) and successfully completes the first year’s coursework, each student will be required to take a Qualifying Exam. This assessment will consist of a written examination administered within the department based on a number of short essays supplied to the student at the beginning of the semester in which they sit the examination.

This examination is designed to assess the critical thinking and critical writing skills of the student, skills that the student will have been expected to begin developing as part of the educational experience supplied in the Principles of Scientific Inquiry class and continue to self-develop during the period they have to review the short essays supplied to them.

The questions posed in the examination will be formulated by an external examiner and be based on general conceptual themes appearing in the short essays identified by the departmental GRD committee. The examination will be graded by the external examiner and will be of a PASS/FAIL nature.

A student must receive a PASS grade in their Qualifying Exam to continue in the Ph.D. (Kinesiology) program.

Any student that does not receive a PASS grade on the first attempt will be given the opportunity to retake the qualifying examination in the Summer semester after being supplied an additional series of short essays at the beginning of that semester. The second examination attempt will be administered in the same manner as the initial attempt. A student that receives a FAIL grade on their second attempt of the Qualifying Exam will be immediately dismissed from the Ph.D. (Kinesiology) program.