Anyone taking their Comprehensive written and oral exams this month?

[KenAnderson 16]

My graduate M.A. English comprehensive written exams are next week!!

AH!!    6 hours long!!!  Trying not to panic.

 

Anyone else taking their exams this term?

Edited April 11, 2013 by KenAnderson

[lisajay 92]

i've got comps on may 3. prepping for a question on the relationship of postmodernism to modernism & another on the role of ecocriticism in 20th century american lit. good times!!

[sebastiansteddy 177]

No exams here, just my MA thesis... and I am SOOO CLOSE to finished. Grr, just want to be done with it!

[ComeBackZinc 889]

PhD comps this summer. 24 hour exam, July 30th-31st, 7-day exam the following week.

[wreckofthehope 74]

Yup, first of my orals is next month, gah.....

[muchado 33]

Taking written comps on April 24th. We got the email yesterday, and I immediately wanted to throw up.

[Deletethis2020 48]

taking my (phd) generals in August. 120ish texts across 3 lists. you pick up questions, one on each list, and have 6 weeks to write 3 20 page essays in response to each question. oral defense 2 weeks later, then you are ABD! woopwoop!

I'm excited, but i'm not as deep into my lists as I should be by now. the downfield of having novels as your genre : SO MANY TO READ!!

(edited so many times because I can't type on my fing iPhone!)

Edited April 11, 2013 by inafuturelife

[Deletethis2020 48]

for those of you who are taking phd comps/generals, what's your study strategy? 

[wreckofthehope 74]

for those of you who are taking phd comps/generals, what's your study strategy? 

I'm also doing a novels field...have about 50 books on this first list. I read everything once, make a general 'thoughts' note, then do a second pass through (not necessarily reading the whole book) and make more detailed notes about how the book fits into the topic of my exam, particularly useful sections, and how it relates to other texts on the list. I have regular meetings with my committee to discuss groups of texts from the list,too. Our exams are only oral exams, so practicing talking about the books is the most important part, I think...

Edited April 11, 2013 by wreckofthehope

[Deletethis2020 48]

I'm also doing a novels field...have about 50 books on this first list. I read everything once, make a general 'thoughts' note, then do a second pass through (not necessarily reading the whole book) and make more detailed notes about how the book fits into the topic of my exam, particularly useful sections, and how it relates to other texts on the list. I have regular meetings with my committee to discuss groups of texts from the list,too. Our exams are only oral exams, so practicing talking about the books is the most important part, I think...

 

yeah, sometimes i think i'd prefer the oral version but i don't know. there's draw backs to each! i'm doing something similar, with more detailed notes for myself and then writing up brief summaries/analysis on a blog for my committee to read as that's what some other students in our program did. profs found it really helpful as they can go back and read them while they're writing your questions. the summaries help them too because god knows they're not reading everything on all these lists either!

 

i've found it hard to make analytical comments about one of my lists, women's writing, because it's sooooo incredibly broad. 17th-c to 21st-c. i needed a list with broader depth, though, and to support my WGS minor, so i'm trying to think about texts in terms of gender/race/nation/etc for that one. my other two lists have a more specific theme that i can tie each text to.

Edited April 11, 2013 by inafuturelife