1. The Database portion of the Systems Qual.

2. The InfoQual Oral: A 30-45 minute oral exam administered by Hector Garcia-Molina, Jennifer Widom, and one of Rajeev Motwani or Jeff Ullman. Material is drawn from the InfoQual Reading List.

3. The InfoQual Written: The student and advisor together select 3-4 papers in a specific area of interest (e.g., the student's likely thesis area). The student writes a report of approximately 5 pages that summarizes, synthesizes, and criticizes the selected papers. The report is read by the advisor plus one more of Hector Garcia-Molina, Jennifer Widom, Rajeev Motwani, or Jeff Ullman.

Timing: Component 1 must be taken in the spring, at the time the Systems Qual is administered. Components 2 and 3 may be taken at any time, and there is no ordering requirement among the three components.

Passing: Components are passed/failed independently. Components 1 and 2 may be taken up to two times, and must be passed by the end of the third year. For component 3, the written report is expected to be satisfactory after one round of criticisms and suggested improvements from the two readers.

Report Quality: The quality of the written report will be evaluated on both content and presentation. Students are strongly encouraged to read through the very useful Elements of Style before beginning.