English to Russian Science Education / Pedagogy

Доброго времени суток.

As a graduate student, you spend the first half of the year collecting and analyzing research and then writing a twenty-page preliminary paper ***on an idea you want to test*** in the second semester. The defense is a meeting with the key professors in your department who, for no less than an hour, drill you on your research and the idea you want to test. Do well in the initial defense and you’re given a blessing to continue. Do poorly? It’s your academic time-of-death.

Спасибо.