Citations:qual


 * 1993 May 31, David Stein &lt;dstein@oak.math.ucla.edu>, "Re: Reasoning and memory Was: Re: SPEAKING OF CHEATING...", message-ID &lt;1993May31.115754.6729@math.ucla.edu>, comp.sys.hp48 et al., Usenet :
 * "en"

- One of the most dispiriting experiences I went through in graduate school was the "qualifying exams" system here: it requires huge amounts of memorization and encourages the mastering of tricks and the knowledge of solutions to a large number of certain "qual" type problems. About one half of a qualifying exam is made up of problems from textbooks (but not necessarily the ones used in class) or from previous qualifying exams--often verbatim. Once I questioned this practice, and a professor answered that there is only a finite number of problems one can give on a qual. Each qual has about 10 problems, 5 in the M.A. section, 5 in the PhD section. On my algebra qual, all three group theory questions came straight from the book or from a previous qual.


 * 1997 January 14, Brent Hetherwick &lt;hetherwi@math.wisc.edu>, "Re: Algebra problem.", message-ID &lt;5berjr$1mng@news.doit.wisc.edu>, sci.math, Usenet&nsbp;:
 * "en"

- What's the ring R? Is '*' the torsion product or the free product? Does '+' denote the direct or normal sum? I'm sorry. I'm just a bit giddy after taking a 6-hour algebra qual.


 * 2006 July 15, Snis Pilbor , "Three practice algebra qual problems", message-ID &lt;1153005173.872889.201770@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, sci.math, Usenet :
 * "en"

- Here are 3 practice algebra qual problems which stumped me.