Prelim
type of school examination
The term prelim (short for preliminary examination) generally refers to an examination that qualifies a student to continue studies at a higher level, and/or allow the student to comprehend their studies and see how prepared they are for an upcoming examination. It can also act as a gauge on how knowledgeable one is within the chosen subject.
Prelim exams may pre-date the qualifying exam at some institutions, although some universities combine both concepts into one exam.
United States graduate programs
In many United States institutions the term "Prelims" is used for the preliminary examinations required before a graduate student is permitted to begin working on a doctoral dissertation. Depending on the institution, "prelims" may also be called "qualifying exams" ("quals") or "general exams" (sometimes abbreviated as "generals"). Johns Hopkins University refers to the exam as "Doctoral Board Oral" Exam, or DBO, a change from the previous "Graduate Board Orals," or GBO, as it used to be referred. Practice in this regard varies among US Graduate School programs, and even among academic departments at the same institution. Some have a single examination or set of examinations, in which case they are typically called "Prelims." Other departments have two sets of examinations, one taken early in the student's graduate work called "Comps" because they are intended as a comprehensive survey of the student's overall preparation to undertake graduate-level work, and a later set known as "Quals" intended to assess the student's qualifications to undertake dissertation research. Typically a student who does not pass such examinations will be given one more chance. If a student does not pass on the final attempt, they are usually given the opportunity to graduate with a terminal Master's Degree.
“Prelim” enters the record as type of school examination. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Prelim, type and school can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Prelim” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Prelim, type and school provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7240037. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Prelim” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.