Taking Comprehensive Exams...

[Nrrrdgrrrl]

Anyone else taking their comps/quals this semester?  I have decided that I would rather write 3 dissertations than take theses exams.  My committee doesn't seem to agree!

 

I'm in a PhD program in Religious Studies, in the Anthropology of Religion track.  We have three exam papers, taken over the course of a week.  We get 4 hours for each paper.  Doesn't seem like nearly enough time for me to be comprehensive...

 

Anyone else in this same boat???

[Marshall]

A little late to the game but I'll be taking my exam this semester too. I'm a geology student specializing in ichnology (field of paleontology) and our exams are completely oral. 20 minute presentation on your dissertation work & then 2 hours of getting questioned by your committee on everything you know. There's so much I'd rather do than these exams and they feel quite daunting.

 

Definitely in the same boat!

[Nrrrdgrrrl]

I would be fine doing mine entirely orally...but we have to write first, then defend orally!

 

When are you taking yours?

[Secret_Ninja]

We had two rounds of these. The first gave us 6 questions, and we had to write essay answers for four of them. We had 4 hours total to do this (all of us were in one room). We were expected to write at least 4 pages on each question, by hand (using those blue books). I cranked out 24 pages total. They expect extremely thorough responses. This happened at the end of our 2nd semester. Then, once you have your dissertation plan ready, they give you 3 paper topics for your advanced exams. First is theory, second is method, and finally an NSF style dissertation proposal. We have months to prepare for these, though we don't know exactly what will be asked, you have an idea. Once it's time to write, the process takes 3 weeks.  5 days for each question. They limit you to only 20 pages, so you have to be concise, but thorough. A few weeks later we defend these orally. 

 

I found that as long as you prepare, you will be surprised what you can crank out in 4 hours. Just make sure that you are organized and that you have been reading over the relevant papers so that you can reference them quickly. Most writing time is spent researching - you want to get all that out of the way beforehand if you can. 

[Nrrrdgrrrl]

Yeah, it is a bit different in my field.  We are expected to have a strong grasp of 3 main areas of scholarship: theory, our track, and our specialization.  For each of those, we create a list of 50-75 books that are supposed to inform our responses.

 

It's a LOT of reading, but luckily, I'm a great note-taker. 

 

I'm starting a 4 hour practice here in 8 minutes...wish me luck.

[Secret_Ninja]

Yeah, it is a bit different in my field.  We are expected to have a strong grasp of 3 main areas of scholarship: theory, our track, and our specialization.  For each of those, we create a list of 50-75 books that are supposed to inform our responses.

 

It's a LOT of reading, but luckily, I'm a great note-taker. 

 

I'm starting a 4 hour practice here in 8 minutes...wish me luck.

Very wise - we did the same with our first round of exams. Good Luck!

[CarlieE]

We're taking our MA comps this month. We get 6 questions, two which are mandatory and the other 4 are selected from a pool of options. We get 5 hours per day, so 10 hours over  2 days. The exam begins at 9am and ends at 2pm, then repeat the 2nd day. 3 questions per day (1 mandatory and 2 we choose from the pool). Max words per essay answer is 1,500. Our reading list has 193 items on it.

 

This breaks down to roughly 1 1/2 hours per exam question.

[Nrrrdgrrrl]

Wow...that seems super hardcore for MA exams! Do you mind if I ask where you're at?

[gr8pumpkin]

I've been through this once before... (I'm currently trying to get a second doctorate).  My strongest piece of advice for anyone on comprehensives is that if you have any choice in the matter on *who* is on your committee, get the most sympathetic, we're-practically-pals, hippie-dippy, this-is-all-just-a-formality sorts of profs stacked on your committee as you can.  If your committee has to have five people on it and you have a choice of three, then get three of those types, a plurality.  Those are the profs that will actually help you out lest you stumble, and will lead you by the nose to the answers they're looking for.  Don't be noble and find the most excruciatingly tough profs you can because you think the process will forge you from a piece of coal into a diamond.  Get through it first.  Then you have the rest of your career to become a diamond.

Edited March 2, 2014 by gr8pumpkin

[Nrrrdgrrrl]

that is actually pretty good advice.  My advisor is absolutely that kind of support...she's tough, but she knows me, knows my work well, and has set this up basically as a rite of passage.  Then I have one member who is the furthest from what I do, but still incredibly helpful (and good friends with my advisor).  And then...then I have the most difficult, challenging, push-you-to-tears-forged-in-the-pits-of-Mordor member; she's a hard-ass, but I like to think I'm a better scholar because of her...

 

We'll see how it goes.  Exactly one week from this moment...exactly.  March 10, 9 am..that's when I start!

[Maleficent999]

I am 2 years away from this and I am already stressing out about it.

[juilletmercredi]

My strongest piece of advice for anyone on comprehensives is that if you have any choice in the matter on *who* is on your committee, get the most sympathetic, we're-practically-pals, hippie-dippy, this-is-all-just-a-formality sorts of profs stacked on your committee as you can

 

Yup.  I selected 2 professors for my oral exams and although they definitely asked me rigorous questions (one of them basically asked me "So what does our entire field mean?"  WTF?), the exam was more like a comfortable conversation between scholars about the direction of our field than an EXAM exam.  (They also kicked me out a little bit early, lol, to 'deliberate'.  They decided that I had passed with honors.)  It's not that they didn't actually examine me; it's that they had been working with me for the previous 4 years and had discussed my entire lists with me already, so they knew that I knew my stuff, and they weren't as concerned.

 

My proposal was kind of the same way - along with my adviser I selected my own committee, and I chose great people who would contribute to my dissertation and help me shape it for publication but ALSO who would actually read my drafts and treat the defense as less an opportunity to haze a soon-to-be-PhD and more as an opportunity really test me and see what I knew, as well as help me revise the thing for publication (which is the real reason to write a dissertation!)  So although I was nervous at my proposal defense, I also knew that my committee wouldn't have let me defend it if it sucked and if they had comments and revisions, they were going to give it to me straight.

 

This is going to sound crazy but thinking back, studying for my methods comprehensive exam was probably my favorite academic part of the program.  I'm a quantitative researcher and I love stats and methods, so it was basically 3 months of me reading books and articles on methods and learning a whole bunch of new stuff about that.  It was pretty awesome and I had zero anxiety at the exam because I had read soooo much and practiced so many essays that I wrote about 3 times as much as I actually needed to.  Also I was getting paid basically to read books for 3 months, which is a dream job if there ever was one.  So comps doesn't have to be horrible guys!  Don't be afraid.

[Nrrrdgrrrl]

Yup.  I selected 2 professors for my oral exams and although they definitely asked me rigorous questions (one of them basically asked me "So what does our entire field mean?"  WTF?), the exam was more like a comfortable conversation between scholars about the direction of our field than an EXAM exam.  (They also kicked me out a little bit early, lol, to 'deliberate'.  They decided that I had passed with honors.)  It's not that they didn't actually examine me; it's that they had been working with me for the previous 4 years and had discussed my entire lists with me already, so they knew that I knew my stuff, and they weren't as concerned.

 

My proposal was kind of the same way - along with my adviser I selected my own committee, and I chose great people who would contribute to my dissertation and help me shape it for publication but ALSO who would actually read my drafts and treat the defense as less an opportunity to haze a soon-to-be-PhD and more as an opportunity really test me and see what I knew, as well as help me revise the thing for publication (which is the real reason to write a dissertation!)  So although I was nervous at my proposal defense, I also knew that my committee wouldn't have let me defend it if it sucked and if they had comments and revisions, they were going to give it to me straight.

 

This is going to sound crazy but thinking back, studying for my methods comprehensive exam was probably my favorite academic part of the program.  I'm a quantitative researcher and I love stats and methods, so it was basically 3 months of me reading books and articles on methods and learning a whole bunch of new stuff about that.  It was pretty awesome and I had zero anxiety at the exam because I had read soooo much and practiced so many essays that I wrote about 3 times as much as I actually needed to.  Also I was getting paid basically to read books for 3 months, which is a dream job if there ever was one.  So comps doesn't have to be horrible guys!  Don't be afraid.

This gives me hope.

 

I will re-evaluate after they are finished, but the last 8 weeks (since my exams were scheduled) have been BY FAR the absolute worst of my graduate school career.  Not because I dislike studying or reading, or because my committee has been rough on me (they've been tough, but helpful), but because even at this point, I am plagued with self-doubt.  I KNOW that I know everything I need to, but I am afraid I'll get in my own way.

 

I gave the annual grad-student presentation at my department's forum in December, and was praised far and wide, over and above anything I expected.  My greatest fear about exams at this point is disappointing anyone in the slightest.  I know that I will pass, but a part of me is worried that I won't pass as gloriously as I fear my committee expects.

 

I was made for academia...the ridiculous ego, coupled with the crippling anxiety...what a perfect scholarly disposition I have!

 

Sorry for ranting and raving, but I think it is helpful to have all sides of people's experiences on here!

 

4 days until I start...

[prefers_pencils]

Our comprehensive exam is closed book. I've just begun studying but I honestly didn't think that it would be this miserable. Trying to get my anxiety under control is a superhuman task.

[Nrrrdgrrrl]

Our comprehensive exam is closed book. I've just begun studying but I honestly didn't think that it would be this miserable. Trying to get my anxiety under control is a superhuman task.

I finished and defending a few weeks ago, and I am still recovering, emotionally, mentally, etc.

 

But, I will say, once you're through them, you immediately forget just how painful the process is...it's like giving birth.  And we are asked to birth some seriously hefty brain-babies in the exam process.

 

YOU CAN DO IT!

[WhyPhD]

Can anybody tell me that is it possible to take the coms exam in the same semester as you are taking a seminar course, I mean is the workload manageable?  I'm in humanities and I have to read 40 sources and answer two questions either in one paper or in two separate ones. That seems a lot but I was wondering if anyone else has done the coms while taking a seminar course for which you have to write a 20-page paper.  

[Nrrrdgrrrl]

Can anybody tell me that is it possible to take the coms exam in the same semester as you are taking a seminar course, I mean is the workload manageable?  I'm in humanities and I have to read 40 sources and answer two questions either in one paper or in two separate ones. That seems a lot but I was wondering if anyone else has done the coms while taking a seminar course for which you have to write a 20-page paper.  

I think it's possible, but personally, I'm glad I didn't do that!  My exams were the most difficult and stressful thing I've ever had to do...and took up at least 12 hours a day for about 4 months solid.

 

But I had 3 exam papers over the course of a week, in 4 hour chunks...a total of 150 sources, and 34 pages written altogether.

 

It's your call, but if you can avoid it, I think that's probably best...

[lyonessrampant]

Since exams vary so significantly from field to field and even department to department, I'd recommend talking to someone in your field and program for specific advice, but as someone in English (we do a one-week written exam of about 20-30 pages followed by, if we pass, a 2-hour oral exam that is a mix of defense of the written and quiz-on-your-list time), I pretty much prepared for and passed my exams with distinction in a 3-month period.  I was teaching a course during that period.  This all meant I read and studied and taught a lot, slept little, and had no life.  I wouldn't recommend it generally, but from that experience, I'd say it is possible to prep for and take exams whilst in a class.  If the class directly overlaps with your dissertation topic or exams list, it can actually be helpful in terms of covering your list.  I was teaching a lit theory course, which is a strong secondary interest but not well represented on my approximately 200-text list.  However, I think my approach to the written was better because of what I was teaching, which might be true for you in terms of the course you'd be sitting in on.  In general, my thoughts as a cross-disciplinary scholar is that points of connection--even and sometimes especially those that seem totally extrinsic--can be the most inspiring.  Best of luck!  But if you go this route, be prepared for a lot of work and reading, little socialization, and much exhaustion.  I'm so glad I'm past the exams. . .