Comprehensive Exam- question

[Adelaide9216]

So this spring, I will be starting my comprehensive exam for my doctoral degree. I'm in the social sciences. How do people actually organize their notes and readings considering the huge amount of information that I am going to be reading? What is your system to keep track of it all? Because I am unsure how I will go about this.

I do have Zotero, I have reading notes (but for each individual article or paper I read for class), but I am not sure how I will be able to actually see the big picture and common themes of everything I will read.

I do not have my comps questions yet, but I have started an annotated bibliography of books, articles that I have came across in the last weeks (and will keep adding references to it) that is related to my doctoral topic.

[Adelaide9216]

I think I will use N'Vivo for my comprehensive exam. I really hope it is a good strategy.

 

[Sigaba]

On 1/1/2020 at 11:03 PM, Adelaide9216 said:

So this spring, I will be starting my comprehensive exam for my doctoral degree. I'm in the social sciences. How do people actually organize their notes and readings considering the huge amount of information that I am going to be reading? What is your system to keep track of it all? Because I am unsure how I will go about this.

I do have Zotero, I have reading notes (but for each individual article or paper I read for class), but I am not sure how I will be able to actually see the big picture and common themes of everything I will read.

I do not have my comps questions yet, but I have started an annotated bibliography of books, articles that I have came across in the last weeks (and will keep adding references to it) that is related to my doctoral topic.

I recommend that you initiate conversations with members of your exam committee to start defining their expectations. While some professors may indicate that you're responsible for knowing all there is to know about your fields, others will subtly indicate what is important and what is less important. Some professors may even let you write your own questions beforehand.

Please do what you can to understand better the format, time limits, and environment for the exam. Once you know those boundaries, you can start figuring out how you can take steps to make them work for you. For example, maybe you can pick the time of day, if not day of week, that you take the exam.

In regards to the big picture, a way to go is to identify the principal debates of your discipline the last few decades and then see how works in your particular fields of interest have responded to those debates. From there, see how those responses have been the focal points of more specialized debates. If you're having trouble identifying the principal debates, look in relevant academic journals for keynote addresses, articles, round tables, extended review essays that cover multiple works, works centering around the careers of pivotal leaders, and even obituaries.

It's important that you be very very gentle with yourself while simultaneously pushing yourself harder and harder. Among the worst feelings in the world is taking a qualifying/comprehensive exam with the understanding that you could have worked harder and smarter. At the same time, it is important to understand that few people are ever really ready to take their comps until well after they've taken their comps. (If even then.)

[Adelaide9216]

Hello, my comprehensive exam is a home-exam. It's not an exam that I do in one day, in person. I have looked at the policy for it at my school, I will have to answer two questions (that I will develop in collaboration with my advisor and committee) and read about 50 publications (25 approx. per question). I believe I have to write a maximum of 60 pages in total. I have two semesters to read, write, and defend. 

To be honest, I don't feel too anxious over this. I just need to figure out an effective note-taking system. 

I also plan to speak with upper year students in my PhD program to have advice, they have already offered to give me advice for this. But one of them told me not to worry, and that I'll actually enjoy spending the summer reading about stuff that I am interested in.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Adelaide9216

[AP]

On 2/3/2020 at 1:08 PM, Adelaide9216 said:

I have looked at the policy for it at my school, I will have to answer two questions (that I will develop in collaboration with my advisor and committee) and read about 50 publications (25 approx. per question). I believe I have to write a maximum of 60 pages in total. I have two semesters to read, write, and defend. 

To be honest, I don't feel too anxious over this. I just need to figure out an effective note-taking system. 

I also plan to speak with upper year students in my PhD program to have advice, they have already offered to give me advice for this. But one of them told me not to worry, and that I'll actually enjoy spending the summer reading about stuff that I am interested in.

If I remember correctly you are in the social science, right? So by publications you mean mostly articles? 

A good resource for note-taking can be found in http://www.raulpacheco.org/resources/note-taking-techniques/ I haven't used much of his techniques (though I borrowed ideas) because in history we read mostly monographs. However, based on his Twitter interactions, students and faculty have found these techniques useful. 

Do remember, however, that what works for someone may not work for you so, ultimately, the figuring out part rests on your learning style, your needs, and comps goals. 

[Adelaide9216]

On 2/6/2020 at 10:48 AM, AP said:

If I remember correctly you are in the social science, right? So by publications you mean mostly articles? 

A good resource for note-taking can be found in http://www.raulpacheco.org/resources/note-taking-techniques/ I haven't used much of his techniques (though I borrowed ideas) because in history we read mostly monographs. However, based on his Twitter interactions, students and faculty have found these techniques useful. 

Do remember, however, that what works for someone may not work for you so, ultimately, the figuring out part rests on your learning style, your needs, and comps goals. 

Publications can be books, book chapters or scientific articles.

Thank you for the link, it looks quite helpful and resourseful! 

[AP]

1 hour ago, Adelaide9216 said:

Publications can be books, book chapters or scientific articles.

Thank you for the link, it looks quite helpful and resourseful! 

Which greatly differs from the humanities, where exams typically comprise monographs and, as a result, many of Pacheco Vega's tips need to be adjusted. Glad you found it useful.