AMS Qualifying Examinations
Spring 2015 Qualifying Exams:
Common exams: Monday, January 26th, 8:30 - 11:30 a.m., Javits 111
Area specific exams: Wednesday, January 28th, 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Frey Hall 201
Comp Bio Area oral exams: TBD
A student must pass a qualifying examination to be allowed to continue toward the Ph.D. degree. It is designed to test the student's preparation to do research in applied mathematics. The Doctoral Qualifying Examination comprises the so-called Common Exam and the Area-Specific Exam. Every doctoral student must take the former but may choose to take the latter in the student's declared area of concentration -- computational applied math. (CAM), operations research (OR), or statistics (STAT). The exams are given twice a year during the first week of Spring semester and summer.
Note that a student must first find a research advisor before he/she can take the area qualifying exam.
Common Exam (Updated on December 12, 2003)
In the first two hours of the three-hour Common Exam the student is expected to do six out of eight problems in linear algebra and advanced calculus at the level of AMS 510, Analytical Methods for Applied Mathematics and Statistics. The following link has problems from recent AMS 510 homework assignments that give an idea of what the Common Exam questions in linear algebra and advanced calculus will be like. 510 review problems
In the remaining hour, the student answers the problems in one of the two categories. The CAM Category requires doing three out of total four problems (two problems from each of AMS 526 and 501). The Stat/OR category involves doing three out of four problems from AMS 507, Introduction to Probability.
Computational Applied Math (CAM) Exam: Organizer - Prof. Jim Jiao
The exam is 4 hours long. Students will be asked to solve 8 problems.
4 problems out of the following 5 problems: 2 or 3 from 502 and 2 or 3 from 503.
4 problems out of the following 5 problems: 2 or 3 from 527 and 2 or 3 from 528.
Computational Biology (CB) Exam: Organizer - Prof. Robert Rizzo
This exam is an oral exam designed by the student’s advisor.
Operational Research (OR) Exam: Organizer - Prof. Esther Arkin
The exam is 4 hours long. Students must answer
2 out of 3 questions on AMS 540
2 out of 3 questions on AMS 550
3 out of 10 questions: 2 questions each from 553, 546, 545, 544, 556, 569.
Quantitative Finance (QF) Exam: Organizers - Profs. Zari Rachev and John Pinezich
This is a four hour, comprehensive examination covering material from:
* AMS 511: Foundations of Quantitative Finance
* AMS 512: Capital Markets and Portfolio Theory
* AMS 513: Financial Derivatives and Stochastic Calculus
* AMS 517: Risk Management
For full credit, you are required to answer:
* 2 out of 3 questions from AMS 511
* 2 out of 3 questions from AMS 512
* 2 out of 3 questions from AMS 513
* 2 out of 3 questions from AMS 517
It is strongly recommended that students taking the exam have achieved grades of A or A- in the listed courses.
Statistics (STAT) Exam:
The STAT Area Exam is a 4-hour in-class exam with two parts:
(i) Math STAT Exam: 2-hour close book exam covering AMS 570 and AMS 571.
(ii) Applied STAT Exam: 2-hour open book exam covering AMS 572, 573, 578, and 582. Four textbooks, four notebooks, and a calculator are allowed, but no computer.
*** Students are expected to take and pass the Common Exam first before taking the STAT Area Exam. However, they are allowed to take both exams together. Also, our master students in good standing can take these doctoral qualifying exams.
Past Common Qualifying Exams and Area Specific Exams may be accessed by clicking here: Past Qualifying Exams