Preparing for graduate level coursework

[dogman1212]

I have a number of questions for those of you with experience taking graduate level philosophy classes. I am currently taking a gap year and working as an academic tutor with the intention of beginning graduate study next year (so far: in at NIU, out of Michigan). I find being in the dark someone annoying, and I think planning ahead and improving some of my weaknesses may be a good way of dealing with uncertainty (even though there is a possibility that grad school won’t work out next year).

Because I understand that many other hopeful first-year students may have similar questions, I used the pronouns 'we' in the questions listed below. Thanks in advance to anyone who provides helpful answers to these questions:

1. What expectations do professors generally have of graduate students in their courses?

2. What challenges should we expect to face in our courses during our first semester?

3. What mental skills do we need to develop in order to excel (get A’s) in grad school courses (possibly making careful distinctions, reading quickly, etc.)?

4. What practices and study strategies should we employ to succeed (maybe note-taking tips, whether or not to record classes, group study, etc.)?

[machineghost]

1 hour ago, dogman1212 said:

I have a number of questions for those of you with experience taking graduate level philosophy classes. I am currently taking a gap year and working as an academic tutor with the intention of beginning graduate study next year (so far: in at NIU, out of Michigan). I find being in the dark someone annoying, and I think planning ahead and improving some of my weaknesses may be a good way of dealing with uncertainty (even though there is a possibility that grad school won’t work out next year).

Because I understand that many other hopeful first-year students may have similar questions, I used the pronouns 'we' in the questions listed below. Thanks in advance to anyone who provides helpful answers to these questions:

1. What expectations do professors generally have of graduate students in their courses?

2. What challenges should we expect to face in our courses during our first semester?

3. What mental skills do we need to develop in order to excel (get A’s) in grad school courses (possibly making careful distinctions, reading quickly, etc.)?

4. What practices and study strategies should we employ to succeed (maybe note-taking tips, whether or not to record classes, group study, etc.)?

I’m finishing up an MA right now, so I might be able to help. With respect to (1), I think it’s fair to say that your professors will expect quite a bit more than your professors expect in undergrad. The quality of work that received an A in undergrad is not likely to receive an A in grad school, at least not at my school. That leads in nicely to (2), since adjusting to those expectations is one of the biggest challenges. Other challenges include the amount of time you will need to spend studying. It really is a full time job plus a lot of work on the weekends, at least for me. (3) and (4) are good questions. One thing that comes to mind that I learned to do early on is to write short summaries of the papers and books that I read, including the main arguments, putting them into standard form, etc. I found this useful for when I needed to speak about the arguments in seminars, since I would often have the page printed out and ready to refer to. It also helps you to remember the papers and books a bit better. It takes some time but is worth it. 

Also, if you plan to study analytic philosophy, I’d recommend a book called “Philosophy for Graduate Students” by Alex Broadbent. It’s a nice overview of the sorts of things you’ll be expected to know in many programs. Of course, there are other books that offer similar benefit to that one, but I found it useful. 

Good luck!

[Neither Here Nor There]

I also have an MA. My experience likewise is that papers that get As in undergrad do not necessarily get As (or an A-) in grad school. However, bear in mind that if your writing sample was good enough to get a funded MA spot, you probably aren't your average A undergrad - you are probably above average. This isn't to say that you should not put all effort into writing rigorously, you should because your MA is your time to get the needed skills you need for future phd work, but it is to say that it won't be as hard as you think to make good grades. My experience here in Canada, and it may be different n the states, is that professors try to give at least an A- in the overall class because Bs taint your future phd work. So there is more expectations than undergrad, as one's shitty undergrad paper that got an A- will be shot down right away, but it's not impossible expectations either.

As far as what it takes to make an A, a good term paper, and if you have other assignments, such as reading responses or a presentation, do them thoroughly. I would make As on my reading responses while other students made Bs, not out of talent, but because I filled out the page and made an effort to highlight the main arguments of the text. 

I don't recommend reading quickly per se. Read thoroughly. You will write your term paper on one thing. You will do your presentation on one thing. It is far from necessary to absorb all the material. The best and most original work you may do may be from studying one section of a text over and over and more or less paying half attention to the rest.

Edited February 16, 2018 by Neither Here Nor There

[apophantic]

I've personally found a higher emphasis on scholarship. whereas in undergrad, a paper might be well received in virtue of being intelligently argued or interesting in itself, a grad paper also has to be accurate and well-versed in the relevant literature. accuracy and knowledge of the relevant lit is obviously also emphasized in undergrad, but the emphasis becomes stronger in grad.  

[maxhgns]

On 2/15/2018 at 10:28 AM, dogman1212 said:

1. What expectations do professors generally have of graduate students in their courses?

They expect you to do all of the reading, and to come to class with a working knowledge of the claims made and the arguments offered in their support. They also expect you to come to class with a couple of questions about the reading--either clarificatory, or for further discussion. Formal expectations are pretty low; usually just a presentation or two (where you're responsible for teaching one of the readings yourself) and a final paper. Your written work is expected to be polished, and you're expected to delve into the literature/secondary literature on your own. You're expected to come up with paper topics of your own (i.e. no more suggested topics; you can, of course, develop a topic in consultation with the prof), to read up on the topic yourself, and to offer up an original piece of scholarship (so... attempt to solve an extant problem for yourself).

If you're in a PhD program, then you're expected to be a mostly self-directed learner. Your profs and advisors will offer you some shortcuts, but you're pretty much in charge of your own education (including your own socialization into the discipline and its norms; you're in charge of familiarizing yourself with journals, learning to present, finding conferences, learning to publish, etc.). Oh, and nobody will ever teach you how to teach. You're entirely by yourself on that front (unless you get very lucky).

 

On 2/15/2018 at 10:28 AM, dogman1212 said:

2. What challenges should we expect to face in our courses during our first semester?

Well, you should expect a fair bit of reading, and you should expect it to be pretty hard. You don't have very good tools for reading contemporary, cutting-edge work just yet, and that means that a lot of the reading will feel pretty hard and inscrutable. Just remember that everyone else is in the same boat, too. Graduate courses often presuppose a fair bit of training in related subfields, and you might not yet have that training (e.g. metaphysics or epistemology might presuppose a fair bit of familiarity with phil. of language, or logical methods, or whatever). That's OK. You're pretty much expected to pick it up along the way, largely by doing it for yourself. But everyone also knows that developing all of these competences takes time, and that you won't have them all in your first few years.

If you expect to feel out of your depth, then it won't be such a big deal when you do.The key to remember is that you are, and so is everybody else--but that you've also got the foundations you need to get up to speed relatively quickly.

Oh, and remember to let other people talk in class. Your colleagues are every bit as good as you are, and you'll learn a lot from them. So learn to shut up a little!

 

On 2/15/2018 at 10:28 AM, dogman1212 said:

3. What mental skills do we need to develop in order to excel (get A’s) in grad school courses (possibly making careful distinctions, reading quickly, etc.)?

You need resilience and determination to make it through grad school (especially the PhD). You will feel incompetent, outclassed, powerless, like nobody is doing enough to help you, depressed, completely hopeless when it comes to jobs, etc. Everybody feels it, and you need to realize that you're not special in this respect. You also need to know that you are competent, and that there's life outside academia. In fact, it's mostly better.

You need to learn humility. You were top of your class as an UG, but now you're stuck with half a dozen other people who were also tops of their classes. Grad school isn't a contest, and it's certainly not a race. It takes as long as it takes, and you're not competing with your peers. You will learn more from them, and from your interactions with them, than you do on your own, or in your classes. Preening and posturing are insufferable, and will leave you relatively isolated. Be kind, be generous, and cultivate friendships.

As for more formal skills... honestly, the most important skills are organizational. Discipline and time management will see you through the PhD process; lack of them will see you floundering. Good editorial skills (these fall under 'organizational skills') will rescue all your term papers: spend a lot of time thinking about your papers' structure, and experimenting with it. Learn how to effectively write a literature review section, and how to present the problem you're addressing. Learn how to make your case effectively, and concisely. Learn how to get it done, and how to get it done in time (a lot of students tinker infinitely and never submit their papers, and later their dissertations).

If you're in a PhD program, then odds are you'll be allowed to take incompletes. Never take an incomplete; it's better to submit something that you think isn't great. When you take the incomplete, you'll procrastinate for a while, forget most of what you learned, and then spend the last few weeks until the deadline panicking, junking your paper as crap, and producing work which, at best, is at about the same level as what you had a few months earlier. Then you'll probably ask for an extension, and the cycle repeats itself. A lot of the students who don't finish are eaten up by this cycle. (The same thing applies to handing in work late as an undergrad; if you're going to hand it in a day late, then you'd better be confident that the extra day's work will improve the assignment by more than 5%, otherwise the late penalty isn't worth it; 10% for two days, etc. The expected returns diminish pretty quickly.) Extensions are fine, but incompletes aren't. They will fuck you.

Someone might tell you that some profs expect their students to take incompletes on their papers, because their expectations for paper quality are so high. Don't listen to them. To the extent they're right, these are problem profs, and they often don't graduate many students; and anyway, you won't get a terribad grade for the paper you produced in the first place. But the longer you take to write it, the higher their expectations will become.

On 2/15/2018 at 10:28 AM, dogman1212 said:

4. What practices and study strategies should we employ to succeed (maybe note-taking tips, whether or not to record classes, group study, etc.)?

You don't need to record classes. Group study can be useful, especially for formal methods courses like logic, or if you're really lost at sea, but I wouldn't count on it. Groups are too easily distracted. I have always taken copious notes, but it's just a way to reinforce whatever I'm learning. I almost never look at my notes. What I do look at are the parts of the text I've highlighted, and the notes I've written to myself in the margins (where I ask questions, explain to myself why this excerpt is relevant to some project or other of mine, question premises, raise objections, etc.).

Get good at organizing your files. Your PDFs should be easily identifiable by both author and title (e.g. maxhgns - Preparing for Graduate-Level work), and should be filed away neatly on your computer. Clearly identify your paper drafts (I give the title and version number; e.g. Preparing for Graduate-Level Work 1.0, 1.1, etc.; I go to 2.0, 2.1, etc. after major changes, or once I get my submission back from a journal).

It can be useful to write yourself very brief summaries of each article you read, so that you can quickly be reminded of the paper's main claims and supporting arguments. You may outgrow this over time (if so, don't worry about it). But it's a good starting practice. It really helps to assimilate the material, and file it away in long-term memory.

Honestly, time management is the most important skill. You need to start working a little every day, rather than doing everything at the last minute. Start your reading early in the week, and start your term papers long before the end of the semester. The earlier you start them, the better they'll be, and the more directed your approach to the course will be.

[thehegeldialectic]

1. What expectations do professors generally have of graduate students in their courses?

Although they will often explain things, they will also expect you to have a certain amount of background knowledge about the history of philosophy, the names and basic ideas of major figures, etc. Sometimes, professors are careful not to assume knowledge, but most of the time they will expect you to go teach yourself if you aren't familiar with something.
However, the biggest expectation is that you are able to write a 15-25 page paper of near-publishable quality at the end of each semester, one that makes a strong and consistent viable argument and contributes to the field in an important and unique way. Also, if you are enrolled in three classes, you will have to write three of these.
 

2. What challenges should we expect to face in our courses during our first semester?

If you aren't already in the habit of writing strong, organized, well-researched papers of significant length, you will have to learn rather quickly. Time management will be the biggest factor. It's a good idea to already have a topic in mind for your paper at the beginning of the semester, so that you can start researching. 

You also need to be able to know when you've found a problem. Often, looking at secondary literature helps here. It's also important to know whether a topic is of a manageable length.

Often, the best papers make a very small and modest point. 

3. What mental skills do we need to develop in order to excel (get A’s) in grad school courses (possibly making careful distinctions, reading quickly, etc.)?

Learn to read extremely slowly, pay close attention to the exact meaning of every word being used in its original language, know how to research a topic (that is, how to hunt down all the existing literature on something). But the grades all basically come down to your term papers. If you can make solid arguments that engage with the contemporary literature (basically, something that looks like what you would read in a philosophy journal), you will get A's.

Edited February 24, 2018 by iunoionnis