Propositions Exam: Check! I'm officially ABD!

I’m ABD y’all!

Another milestone down! This past Friday, October 29, I had my propositions (props) exam. The end-of-Ph.D. for most folks “just” consists of writing a thesis and having a seminar and oral defense. For Caltech chemistry, there’s an added step: the props exam. Now that it’s over, I’m officially ABD (all but dissertation).

For the props exam, Caltech chemistry Ph.D. candidates write three propositions (because “proposals” isn’t fancy enough?) to present to their committee. One can be recycled from a postdoc application (#thanksNASA), and one must be “well removed from the field of thesis research.” After submitting these to the committee, there is an oral exam. The exam begins with a 15-minute presentation about one of the props in the style of a job talk.

If you’re going through a props exam yourself, I’ve shared some thoughts about my experience below in case they are helpful. Before the exam, I felt like a lot of people didn’t remember their own experience because it can be such a whirlwind, so here are my thoughts so you can get at least one full recount.

How I prepared

Once I came up with a list of three research topics, including one that was “well removed” from my work, I wrote each topic as a question in a Word doc. From there, I drafted working abstracts for each, starting with some brief background information and clearly identifying the gap in the research. In the working abstracts, I also provided a brief overview of the methods I might use (i.e., will use [X instrument] to…) and what some expected results might imply for the field at large. After some brief back-and-forth with my advisor, I sent the props off to the rest of my committee so they could have the option to veto any of the props. I did this about a month before I started preparing the props so that I wouldn’t spend time on a prop that would ultimately be shot down by my committee.

After writing the props, I sent them to a friend and groupmate to read them. I had also read their props prior to their exam. The feedback we shared focused on clarity (since the props are likely out-of-field to most, if not all, of your committee members) and identifying places where the props could be more quantitative (e.g., amount of sample, time on instrument, signal-to-noise). Feedback also included more minor concerns, like grammar and mechanics.

After sending in the props, it was time to prepare the presentation. I practiced it a few times to make sure it was about 15 minutes before reaching out to friends so I could give a practice talk. My friends also each happened to know at least one person on my committee well enough to anticipate what types of questions I might be asked, which was incredibly helpful because it prompted me to look up things I was less knowledgeable of. They also provided feedback on the organization; I think the best piece of advice given was to repeat what will be gained from the proposed work, or the big picture idea, multiple times throughout the presentation.

How I didn’t prepare

The chemistry website advises that “You should begin formulating a set of propositions early in the course of graduate study.” Too bad I was too busy trying to do, ya know, research and submitting, ya know, real research proposals.

Some folks keep a notebook with ideas. I had a sticky note that I started populating earlier this year. Even if you don’t start writing your props early, you can keep a list of research questions, one of which may turn into a prop. Anytime you find yourself asking “Why does that happen?” or “What does this mean?” when reading a research article or listening to a seminar, I recommend writing the question down with a link to the paper or information about the talk. This is good research practice (something I didn’t realize until recently), and it will give you a list of ideas to pull some props ideas from.

Scheduling the exam

Scheduling the exam, also known as “herding the cats” according to my advisor, was okay. Some people have luck using a scheduling polling program like Doodle or when2meet. With my committee, I’ve had better luck sending a list of dates and times and asking which work. For committee members who have an admin who helps manage their calendar, I Cc the admin and follow up with them directly to get things scheduled more quickly. Two of my committee members share the same admin, which made it fairly easy to schedule.

For Caltech chemistry’s props exam, you typically need 1.5 hours. At least for physical chemists, the exam seems to typically last about an hour. Everyone I talk to recommends scheduling for the morning right before lunch so you can (a) get it over with and (b) take advantage of people wanting to leave to eat. Morning for my committee in SoCal meant 2:00 p.m. for me in PA, so I was anxious all morning. After dropping my kid off at school and having a hearty breakfast (turkey and provolone crepe with a roasted red pepper mayo from Helena’s in Carlisle, totally recommend), I took a two-hour nap. It was glorious.

Finally, the exam should be scheduled at least 10 weeks before your defense, but this rule is often broken. Mine was about 6.5 weeks before my defense. As long as you aren’t trying to schedule your props exam the week before your defense, you should be fine.

During the exam

My exam was over Zoom, so once my chair arrived, I made them the host. I got put into a breakout room for about 10 minutes while my committee talked. When I came back, my chair mentioned that my advisor explained my “situation” (which I assume means the fact that I have a postdoctoral fellowship starting in January) and that my props were satisfactory, so I could relax. He said we could just talk about the prop for which I had prepared a presentation.

I gave my presentation and was stopped throughout to answer questions. One piece of feedback I got was that I should have consulted more sources in designing the analytical methods than one laboratory paper. This is great advice, and I had my reasons for not doing this (i.e., there isn’t much literature on the specific problem I was proposing to answer and I’ve been more interested in finishing up my thesis). The advice was also given in the guise of advice for future postdoc-and-beyond Olivia, which was nice. That is, it didn’t feel too much like a criticism but as helpful feedback showing me where I could continue to grow.

After my presentation, I answered more questions. There were plenty of questions I didn’t know the answer to, and my one committee member (the same who gave me the advice about broadening my reading for developing methods) kept assuring me that he was mostly curious and not necessarily looking for an answer. I did my best, making guesses based on my own knowledge. I also invited my advisor to address things I knew he was more familiar with after taking a shot. Much of it felt more like a conversation, which was nice. For the most part, the questions were from (what seemed to be) a place of genuine curiosity. I had heard this would be likely from other folks who went through their own exams, but it didn’t calm my nerves any. So if you are nervous about such an exam, here’s another data point to say that yes, you will probably have more of a conversation rather than being tested.

The exam ended with my chair saying I did “fine” (lol) and that they didn’t need to meet. I had passed!

One of my committee members gave me two pieces of encouragement. First, I made beautiful slides, and he can always tell a few slides in whether he’s going to enjoy a talk. That made me feel good because I pride myself on my slides (I like to make custom bullet points and themes for just about every presentation). He then said, “Some people just make horrible slides.” Someone else immediately said, “You mean like [Name of Person Redacted]?”

Second, he encouraged me in the future to not take on all responsibility myself, that I can ask experts in other fields for help. This is something I’ve started working on, and it was great to get some validation that this is something that I need to work on and that it is okay to not find all the answers yourself.

After the exam

My partner had left to pick up the kiddo from school, so I called my mom, then I Zoomed with my friend Cam to celebrate. My family and I then went to Denim Coffee for a hot mocha to celebrate, and we also grabbed some delicious Belgian food from Cafe Bruges. Before finishing up this blog post, I relaxed by watching The Amazing World of Gumball with my dinner.

My advisor had also emailed our group and said, “Everyone should congratulate Olivia for passing her Props Exam with flying colors!” This made me so happy considering the official verdict from the chair was that I did “fine” (which is fine, that’s just the advisor persona of my chair).

To make passing the exam official, I emailed the graduate program coordinator to let her know I passed, and she’ll be updating my status in the Registrar’s Information System.