See your qualifying-exam reading. Find your gaps. Before the exam.
Qual Prep Tracker turns scattered PhD qualifying-exam reading into a coverage map. Pick a field framework, capture papers in one click from PubMed, bioRxiv, arXiv and Google Scholar, and see — in one screen — where your coverage is deep, where it's thin, and where it's missing entirely.
Your papers, notes, and framework customizations stay in your browser. No AI reads them; nothing is uploaded.
The structural failure mode of qualifying exams
PhD qualifying exams test the breadth of literature knowledge that students acquire through years of unstructured reading. Most students enter their exam having read deeply in their sub-specialty — and discover the breadth gaps in the exam itself, when it's too late to close them.
- Your Zotero library sprawls. 400 papers in, you can no longer tell which areas of your field are well-covered and which you've never touched.
- "I haven't read enough" is vague anxiety, not actionable data. Without a structure, you can't see which 4-week sprint would actually close the right gap.
- Your committee probes adjacent areas. Signal transduction, structural biology, computational methods — areas you have some coverage in but no map of, until you sit the exam.
The framework is the structure. The papers are yours.
How it works
Pick your field framework
Choose Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Genetics, or Cancer Biology — each ships with 10–12 areas and 3–6 sub-topics per area. Customize it to your program: hide what they don't test, add what they do.
Capture as you read
One-click capture from PubMed, bioRxiv, arXiv, and Google Scholar. The popup pre-fills title, authors, year, DOI, journal — you tag the area, sub-topic, and depth (skimmed / read carefully / mastered), then Save.
See your gaps, close them
The coverage map shades each area by paper count and depth. As your exam approaches, the gap report tiers areas as deep / medium / thin / none — with priority recommendations based on days remaining.
What's inside
Coverage map
A full-page grid of your field's areas × sub-topics, shaded by paper count and depth. One screen tells you where you stand, instantly.
One-click capture, four sources
PubMed, bioRxiv, arXiv, Google Scholar — each with a dedicated content script that extracts title, authors, year, DOI, and journal so you spend the time on reading, not data entry.
Gap report
Tiered area-by-area summary (deep / medium / thin / none) with priority recommendations factored against your exam date — and a reading-priority Markdown checklist export.
Four export formats
BibTeX for Zotero / LaTeX, CSV for spreadsheets, JSON for backup or migration, Markdown for Obsidian or your dissertation outline. Every paper, every time, free.
OpenAlex enrichment
Optional, per paper. Sends only the DOI to OpenAlex; gets back abstract, citation count, concepts, and related works — cached locally so it works offline next time.
No AI, on purpose
Nothing here generates summaries, recommends papers, or assesses your mastery. The framework is structure; the reading is yours; the depth tag is honest because you set it.
Privacy & Trust
- Your papers never leave your machine. All captured papers, notes, framework customizations, exam date, and settings live in
chrome.storage.localon your device. - No AI runtime, no telemetry, no analytics, no account. No background fetches, no usage pings, no error tracking.
- OpenAlex enrichment is opt-in, per paper. When you click Enrich, only the paper's DOI (a public identifier) is sent to
api.openalex.org. Never the title, authors, notes, or your framework. - Optional product-updates email. If — and only if — you enter an email and click Subscribe, the address is sent to GradSummit's sign-up endpoint. No paper content is ever included.
It is a workspace for tracking literature breadth — not an AI tutor, and not a guarantee of exam outcomes. Read the full privacy policy.
Built by Dr. Rafiq Muhammad, PhD — author of the Mastering Research book series.
Pricing
Every feature, for everyone — no subscription, no tiers, no account.
All four frameworks, coverage map, gap report, all four exports, OpenAlex enrichment, JSON backup & restore — fully unlocked.
Email is entirely optional and opt-in — leave it blank forever, or add it to hear about occasional updates.
Frequently asked questions
Does an AI summarize papers or recommend what to read?
No — and deliberately so. There is no AI runtime anywhere in this tool. It does not summarize papers, recommend reading lists, score your coverage, or judge whether you are exam-ready. The framework is a curated taxonomy; the papers are yours; the depth tag (skimmed / read carefully / mastered) is honest because you set it.
Which fields are shipped in v1?
Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Genetics, and Cancer Biology — each authored from canonical textbook tables of contents and graduate-program reading lists. Immunology, Neuroscience, Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Pharmacology are on the v1.1 roadmap; you can request your field from Settings → Email & updates.
Is my paper content uploaded anywhere?
No. Papers, notes, framework customizations, exam date, weekly hours, sub-specialty — all of it stays in chrome.storage.local on your device. The only outbound network calls are: (a) OpenAlex enrichment when you opt in (sends DOI only), and (b) product-updates sign-up when you opt in (sends email only). See the full privacy policy.
How does one-click capture actually work?
The extension ships content scripts scoped to four specific domains: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, www.biorxiv.org/biorxiv.org, arxiv.org, and scholar.google.com. When you click the toolbar icon on a paper page, the script reads the page's published metadata (title, authors, year, DOI, journal) and pre-fills the popup form. The extension does not run on any other site and does not request the <all_urls> permission.
How much does it cost?
It's free, with no subscription and no paid tiers. Every feature is available to everyone. There's nothing to buy and no account to create.
Can I customize the framework to my program?
Yes — and you'll need to. The shipped frameworks match ~70% of programs in each field; your program will emphasize areas the shipped framework doesn't, and skip ones it does. Settings → Framework lets you hide any area or sub-topic (their captured papers are preserved, just excluded from the coverage map) and add your own. Adapt it to your exam in about two minutes.
Can I get my data out?
Yes. You can export a full JSON backup at any time and re-import it. From the papers list you can export to BibTeX, CSV, JSON, or Markdown. From the gap report you can export the report itself plus a reading-priority Markdown checklist. One click in Settings → Data wipes everything from your device.
What if I find a bug?
Email support@gradsummit.com — replies go to a real human (the developer).