Once you have completed your work and written your final report, you must finish up your Plan B project process with an oral examination, at which you will present your work and answer questions for your advisor and a committee of two other faculty members. If you hope to pass this examination, you should not appear before your committee until your advisor agrees that you are ready. You may schedule your own examination, or you may choose to sign up for one of the pre-arranged slots at the end of Spring semester.

Pre-arranged exam slots

If you are able to schedule your exam during one of the pre-arranged time slots (usually scheduled in May and June), you need not round up and schedule a committee, reserve a room, or provide refreshments.

• The exam room will have a projector and wireless internet access. If you need other facilities, it is your responsibility to arrange for them with the office.
• If you sign up for a pre-arranged slot, and find that you need to postpone your exam, please let the UMSEC office know as soon as possible so another student can be given the opportunity.
• The sign-up sheet will be posted on the MSSE website by the end of February. Please sign up at least 8 weeks before your exam date so we have time to get your paperwork ready.

Arranging your own exam

If you cannot schedule one of the pre-arranged exam times, then you must arrange for your own exam. That requires a committee and a venue that are all available at the same time.

• Two of your committee must be members of the MSSE Graduate Faculty. The third member may be a member of the MSSE faculty, or a member of the graduate faculty in some other department at the University. Note that faculty members are not required to sit on committees; you may need to convince them that your work is interesting enough to be worth hearing about.
• Your committee members are listed on your degree program form. This means that you must give the list of your committee members to the UMSEC office at least 8 weeks ahead of your exam date.
• You may arrange a room in the EE/CSci building with the UMSEC program office (Jenny Dalton, 612.625.1381). If you need other facilities, such as a projector, make sure you request this along with the room. Most of the conference rooms have built-in projectors.
• For a one-person exam, please allow 30 minutes for your presentation, an additional 10 minutes for questions, and about 5 minutes for committee deliberation. For group exams, add 10 minutes per person beyond the first.
• It is considered good etiquette to provide some sort of light snack for your committee members.
• Once you have scheduled your exam, you must notify the UMSEC program office of the date and the names of the committee members. This must be done 8 weeks prior to the exam date to allow for paperwork turnaround in the Graduate School office. The UMSEC office will submit your degree program form. The Graduate School then returns the examination report form, and UMSEC will forward this to your advisor prior to the exam.