Evaluating years in hours

The Graduate Program in Acoustics (GPA) at Penn State requires prospective Ph.D. candidates to pass a qualifying exam consisting of written and oral components. Objectives are to evaluate mastery and integration of some key concepts, and to determine if students have developed a fluency with acoustic concepts. The over-riding goal is to evaluate if the students have emergent qualities and understanding to potentiate success as researcher. Most of the exam is focused on the content of two required graduate courses—one primarily on vibrations in solids, and the second in fluids; these provide a common foundation to supplement the diverse undergraduate backgrounds of students, characteristic of students attracted to attend the GPA. We strive to avoid esoterica, but problems are often intentionally unfamiliar and often inspired by applications encountered in research. The author has participated as one of four on the committee that administers the exam for the past 7 years; each member is charged with developing two problems for the exam, typically offered twice per year. This talk will describe some illustrative problems developed by the author and some of the acoustic concepts they probe we think are important. Some discussion of observations of students’ difficulties will be discussed.