Astronomy 101 Exam 1

[Dionisio Sechser]

Aftersatisfactory completion of coursework, students must pass a Candidacy Exam in order to continue on for the Ph.D. In most cases, the Candidacy Exam is taken during the Summer term after the second year, after submission of one or more papers to refereed journals. The purpose of the Candidacy Exam is to test the student's understanding of basic astrophysics and depth of knowledge in his or her chosen research specialty.

Before beginning the exam, the student identifies a Candidacy Exam committee, consisting of four (4) Astronomy Department faculty. The Candidacy Examination Committee is chaired by the student's dissertation adviser. With the help of the Chair, the student selects a research field that will be the subject of the exam. The breadth of the field can vary, but it should be neither extremely narrow (e.g., relativistic aberration) nor overly broad (e.g., cosmology). The Candidacy Exam consists of a written (completed first) and an oral part, which is done after successful completion of the written part.

The written portion of the exam has three components. The first is a summary of 3 papers in the chosen research field. The second is an order-of-magnitude problem of the student's own devising, of comparable difficulty to the problems done in order-of-magnitude class. The third is a summary of the field as a whole. The student has 2 weeks to complete the written exam once assigned.

The oral exam is based upon a research project undertaken in the first 2 years of graduate school, and is scheduled within one month of the written portion of the exam. The oral exam consists of two parts. The first is an approximately 40 minute presentation to the exam committee on the completed research project. The second is an approximately 1 hour free-form question/answer session where the student may be asked about their presentation, their research project, or general astronomy and astrophysics.

For more details on the Candidacy Exam, please see the Astronomy Graduate Handbook.

The department schedules a proficiency exam for incoming graduate students at the start of the Fall semester. This exam covers four key undergraduate astronomy classes: ASTR 404, 405, 406, and 414. Please see the Course Catalog for descriptions of these courses. This exam is used to recommend coursework placement for incoming students. M.S. and Ph.D. students must show proficiency in each of the four courses by one of the following options:

The principal goal of graduate study is to train the student to conduct original research. To provide timely feedback and to help the student plan and execute their dissertation research, we conduct the following examinations:

No special report is required in advance of the exam. Research report must be submitted for each of the three periods of conducted research (fall, spring, and summer of the first year). It is understood that some of these research projects may be just past the level of a reading course, while others may be more advanced and even yield publishable results. Students who have participated in multiple research projects in their first year should pick one topic to present in depth at the research exam.

After the exam, the student is provided with oral and/or written feedback from the research exam committee and the academic advisor. The outcome of the exam can be a Pass, a Conditional Pass, or a Fail. In the cases of a Conditional Pass or a Fail, the research exam committee and the graduate program committee will require remedial measures specific to each individual case.

The exam should be taken in the fall of the third year of the program, soon after the student has chosen an area of research and has been accepted by an adviser. Students should contact the academic affairs administrative coordinator approximately six weeks prior to the desired exam date for scheduling. The grade for the exam is Pass or Fail and is documented on a form signed by all committee members. If the student fails the exam, he or she can take the GBO the second time. If a student fails the GBO twice, he or she cannot continue on to a PhD.

It is the policy of the Department of Physics and Astronomy that at least one of the internal examiners serving on the committee should be from a different area of physics than the student (astrophysics, condensed matter physics, particle physics, and atomic and molecular physics are the four different areas).

Scheduling of the thesis defense can be during fall and spring semesters, as well as the summer months. Students should contact the academic affairs administrative coordinator approximately six weeks prior to the desired exam date for scheduling. Every member of the committee must receive a copy of the thesis at least two weeks prior to the scheduled defense date. The thesis defense usually begins with the student presenting his or her dissertation for 40-45 minutes, during which the committee may ask questions. The presentation is open to the public, and the student and his or her advisor decide how widely to advertise the presentation. After the presentation, the audience leaves the examination room and the committee proceeds to the questions phase. Most defenses last between 1.5 and 2 hours. The committee may recommend changes to the thesis.

After successful completion of this final thesis defense, the committee documents by signatures that the student has passed. The academic affairs administrative coordinator forwards the appropriate forms to the graduate board notifying them of the newest PhD in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, while the student incorporates any final edits into the dissertation and submits it to the JHU library. If the student fails the defense, thesis modifications can be made and the student can be re-examined.

The National Standard Examination in Astronomy or NSEA is an examination in astronomy and astrophysics for higher secondary school students, usually conducted in the end of November (last or second last Saturday). Organized by the Indian Association of Physics Teachers[1] in association with Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE),[2] NSEA is the first stage of selection of students in the IOAA. The NSEA is carried out every year since 1987 in English, Hindi & a few other Indian languages. About 16000 [3] students from over 1,200 centres take part in these olympiads.[1]

The paper consists of 48 single correct type and 12 multiple correct type questions. It has a time limit of 2 hours. There are questions from high school level physics, mathematics and some questions from general astronomy.

The medium of test is English and Hindi only and comprises 48 objective single correct type questions and 12 objective multiple correct type questions . They have marking scheme of 3,0,-1. and 6,0,0 respectively.(as of 2023)

The basic objective of conducting this test is not focusing on merit but to involve as many students from the country to participate in the exam and try to show and expose their talent. Hence the selection to the stage II examinations i.e. Indian National Olympiad Examinations (INOs) is based on the following scheme. Students are divided into two pools; A, with those in class 12, and B, with those in class 11 or below.[4][5]

To be eligible to get to the next level, i.e. the second stage, it is necessary that a student scores at-least a Minimum Admissible Score (MAS) which is 50% of the average marks scored by top 10 candidates of their group.[1]

As stated above, approximately 300 students are to be selected for second stage. If this does not happen according to MAS, then after selection as per merit, the shortfall from 300 students will be selected based purely on merit without further consideration to proportional representation and minimum representation clauses. In the event of a tie at the last position in the list all students with the same marks at this position will qualify to appear for the Stage II examination.[4]

Our goal at the USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Organization (USAAAO) is to promote interest in astrophysics and astronomy across the country. Through resources, online training and selection tests, we encourage academic development and select students to represent the USA at the International Olympiad for Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Congratulations to all participants in the 2024 NAC! Below is the list of gold, silver, and bronze medalists, awarded to the top participants based on total score (students can check their total score on Gradescope). The exam and solutions will be released shortly under Resources.

We would like to thank all of the students who took part in the first round exam last Saturday. We are also especially grateful to teachers and all of the USAAAO volunteers for their hard work in putting together and proctoring the exam.

Exams and solutions can be found here. The cutoff to qualify for the National Astronomy Competition was 13. Scores for the first round exam are posted on Gradescope, with a representative histogram of scores shown below.

The first round exam will take place on February 10th, and there will be two time slots available to accommodate students in different time zones. The competition will be fully online, and students will be proctored by USAAAO volunteers through video calls.

The first round exam will take place on February 10th, and there will be two time slots available to accommodate students in different time zones. The competition will be online, and students will be proctored by USAAAO volunteers through video calls.

You can read more about the tests on our selection process page, and you can find study materials on our resource page. If you have any questions, email us at in...@usaaao.org! For more frequent updates about USAAAO, visit our Instagram page.

Students are encouraged to visit our Resources page in order to prepare for the competition. Please note that the NAC is an invitational exam offered to the top scorers on the open First Round exam. Furthermore, note that you must be a US citizen/permanent resident to compete for the US at the IOAA.

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