Admission to the Second Year
First-year students are expected to attend all courses and, in order to be admitted to the second year, pass the required number of the exams from the full set offered. For the academic year 2023-2024 the total number of credits is 66.5 and 31 credits are required in order to be admitted to the second year. Furthermore, in order to advance to the second year, every student must pass at least one exam for each of the following topics:
- Particle Physics. At least one exam among:
- Electroweak and Strong Interactions
- Quantum Field Theory
- Beyond the Standard Model
- Cosmology. At least one exam among:
- Foundations of Physical Cosmology + Early Universe Cosmology
- Large Scale Structure
- CMB and Cosmological Perturbations
- Structure Formation
- Gravitation Theory. At least one exam between:
- Introduction to Quantum Gravity
- Advanced General Relativity
The students admitted through a "preselection" procedure must also pass a qualifying exam by the end of the first academic year.
The students have the option to define an individual study programme including courses given within other PhD programmes of SISSA. Such individual study programs need to be approved by the Scientific Board, which will deliberate on the number of credits to assign to courses external to the PhD in Astroparticle Physics.
Exams and Exam Sessions
Exams on each course consist either of "homework" assignments (exercises, essays, etc.) given during the course or of an oral exam at the end of the course or a combination of the two. An exam is considered passed if the grade is at least 24 out of 30. The average score at the end of the first year must be of at least 27 out of 30. At the beginning of each academic year, the Scientific Board decides the dates of the ordinary and extraordinary exam sessions. The students should give exams during the ordinary sessions. In case an exam is not passed, it can be repeated only once during the extraordinary session. If the exam is not passed the second time, that course will not be credited to the student. The exam sessions for the academic year 2023-2024 are:
- First session: December 18-22 and January 8-12
- Second session: April 2-19
- Third session: June 3-28
A complete list of the courses of the current academic year together with information regarding the syllabuses, credits, duration and relative schedule is available in the section Courses.