Preliminary Written Exams

Please note: All exams are sent to students at 5:00pm the day the exam begins.

2025-2026 Prelim Written Exam Dates

The scheduled exam dates are:

• September 19, 2025 (Sign-up deadline: July 25, 2025)
• February 6, 2026 (Sign-up deadline: December 12, 2025)
• July 24, 2026 (Sign-up deadline: May 29, 2026)

2024-2025 Prelim Written Exam Dates

The scheduled exam dates are:

• September 20, 2024 (Sign-up deadline: July 26, 2024)
• February 7, 2025 (Sign-up deadline: December 13, 2024)
• July 25, 2025 (Sign-up deadline: May 30, 2025)

Additional Resources

• Field Guidelines
  • American politics
  • Comparative politics
  • International relations
  • Methodology
  • Political theory
• Previous exam questions and reading lists
  • American politics questions
  • Comparative methods reading list
  • Comparative politics questions
  • International relations questions
  • Political theory questions
• Prelims Summary Chart - 2025
• Prelim Cumulative Document - 2025

Field-specific Information

• American politics:
  • Students will have three days to complete the exam.
  • The American exam starts on the exam date listed above.
• Comparative politics:
  • Students will have two weeks to complete the exam and turn the exam in on the date listed above.
• International relations:  
  • Students will receive the full exam two weeks before the full preliminary examination is due. Students will submit all three essays on the exam date listed above.
  • For the Category II and III questions, students will be provided with three questions, drawn respectively from the three subfields of International Relations: Security, International Political Economy, and International Institutions and Global Governance. Students must answer one of these three questions in each category. As before, students’ essays in response to the Category II and III questions will have to be from different subfields.
• Political theory:
  • Students will have 72 hours to complete the exam (distributed on a Friday, returned on a Monday) starting the date of the exam listed above.
• Methods:
  • The methods exam will now be a take-home, open-notes, open-book exam allowing 48 hours. Part 1 of the exam will now consist of an article critique with the student choosing the article (an application of OLS or MLE with field approval) ahead of time.
  • The methods exam starts on the exam date.

It's important to speak with the appropriate Field Head prior to signing up for the Prelim Written Exam.

2025/2026 Field Heads

• American: Goren
• Comparative: Samuels
• IR: Bell
• Methods: Sumner
• Theory: Luxon

Sign up for your Prelim Written Exam