Comprehensive Assessment for PhD students

Any new students enrolling in the PhD program as of Sept 2022 will undergo a comprehensive assessment process and will also take a mandatory 0.5 credit grant writing course (currently offered in the Winter term ONLY). Any PhD student enrolled prior to Sept 2022 will have the option to take EITHER the old comprehensive exam OR the new comprehensive assessment and the new grant writing course.

Students who will complete the previous comprehensive examination process click here.

Philosophy behind the comprehensive assessment process
The purpose of the comprehensive assessment is to emphasize and gauge the development of skills needed to succeed as a PhD student. Students will be assessed on their depth and breadth of knowledge within their domain of study, their ability to think critically and evaluate relevant literature, their understanding of key concepts and methods in their domain of study, and their abilities to express scientific thoughts in a written and verbal manner.

For the student, the comprehensive assessment is intended to be a formative rather than evaluative exercise. The role of the advisory committee is to guide the student in this process. The assessment is not evaluated as a pass/fail exercise, but rather is intended to enable the advisory committee to identify areas, skills, or gaps in knowledge in which the student requires further development.

The assessment is centered around 3 exercises (described below). Two exercises involve the production of written documents, and the third is a public speaking exercise. For the written exercises (Exercises 1 and 2), the student produces early drafts that are evaluated by the advisory committee. To fulfill these exercises, students may choose to follow author guidelines for potentially publishable entities. Students do not have to submit these drafts for publication to fulfill the requirements of the exercise. However, upon consultation with their supervisor(s) and advisory committee, students could continue to develop their work beyond the end of the assessment process toward submission, should the student excel in one or both exercises.

Timing and commitment
PhD students must complete the comprehensive assessment prior to taking the grant writing course Neuroscience 9601. The grant writing course is offered only in the winter term (January – April). Students should complete these exercises within a term, while also fulfilling regular lab and GTA duties as required. For MD/PhD students, MSc to PhD transfers or PhD students entering with an MSc, it is expected that the comprehensive milestone be completed within the first 16 months (4 terms) of entry into the PhD. For direct-entry PhD students, it is expected that the comprehensive milestone will be completed within the first 28 months (7 terms) of their PhD. Further details about the timeline and the specific meetings can be found at the site: Timeline and Previously Completed Work

Role of student, supervisor(s) and potential outside mentors
The student is expected to work independently on all three exercises. However, students are free to confer with their supervisor(s) and any other outside mentors (other than the advisory committee) should they choose to do so. The supervisor and other outside mentors can provide advice and feedback on any of the exercises, in the interests of aiding student development.

Role of advisory committee
All exercises will be assessed by the student’s advisory committee, evaluating the student’s progress and development. Feedback will be provided by the advisory committee to the student, and the student may be directed to campus resources should the student require additional work in a particular area (e.g., the Writing Centre, resources or reviews in their specific area). Further details about the role of the advisory committee for the specific exercises can be found at “Role of advisory committee webpage”. If requested by the advisory committee, the student may be required to incorporate feedback and repeat a particular exercise until the advisory committee feels that the student is performing at an appropriate level. Once accomplished, the milestone will be marked as completed on the student’s transcript. The comprehensive assessment must be completed to the advisory committee’s satisfaction before the PhD degree can be granted.