Without passing the QE, Josh cannot do his “prelims.” “Prelims” are the approval of a partially completed thesis.

And he cannot do his dissertation without first passing his “prelims.”

I understand just enough of this to know that this hinders his “official” thesis progress.  He can still research and write and take classes, and if he passes it next year (yes, they only offer it once a year – but at least it’s free) he doesn’t think it will set us back much, if at all.

He did find out that if he would have passed, he would have gotten a pay raise.

Oh, that’s nice.