Some still exist, but this is less and less true over time. Even when a requirement is called an "exam", it isn't what a high-schooler would recognize as one.

Some still exist, but this is less and less true over time. Even when a requirement is called an "exam", it isn't what a high-schooler would recognize as one. Many of the exams described on this page are personalized and only require mastery of a handful of papers that really matter to the individual student, and knowledge of related work: https://www.cs.stanford.edu/phd-program-requirements-qualifying-exams https://www.cs.stanford.edu/phd-program-requirements-qualify... I've been through something that sounds similar to these, and I would not have called it an exam.