My PhD Entrance Exam at University of Tsukuba

The PhD entrance exam was one of the key steps in my academic journey. For the Materials Science and Engineering program, run jointly with NIMS, the selection process happened through a presentation of research results and a proposed doctoral research plan.

Format: 15-Minute Presentation, 15-Minute Q&A

The format itself was fairly straightforward: a presentation on my Master’s research results and my proposed research plan for the PhD, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A.

Preparing the 15-minute presentation wasn’t too hard. Most of the content had already been presented at previous student seminars, so I just needed to add the latest results and final conclusions.

The Real Question: Is the PhD Plan Realistic?

For this exam, I felt the most important point wasn’t the quality of my Master’s data anymore — it was whether my doctoral research plan looked realistic and achievable within three years, including the requirement of publishing three first-author journal papers.

A More Formal Atmosphere

The moments before the exam were still nerve-racking, similar to student seminars. The difference: this time the examiners were every professor in the program, not just 4–6 people like usual. The atmosphere felt more formal, more serious, more intense. But once the presentation started, it felt like a process I already knew.

After the exam, I went straight back to reality: finishing my Master’s research and making sure the data was solid enough for graduation. Luckily, the results were announced fairly quickly — around mid-September.

Plans Can Change — What Matters Is Moving Forward

In the end, even though what I wrote in my PhD research proposal never became my actual doctoral topic, the process taught me something important: not every plan has to go perfectly. What matters is flexibility, a willingness to adapt, and the ability to keep moving forward.

And thankfully, I was able to finish my PhD on time, meet every requirement, and even publish three first-author journals in three years — four total across five years of study (two years Master’s + three years PhD).