Exams for COMPS

[jlr1228]

Hey, for those of you who have exams for COMPS (rather than a paper), about how long did you study before taking your exam? And how many hours did you study a day on average? 

 

Thanks! 

[surefire]

Hi there!

 

I'm not quite sure that my experience is directly applicable to yours - the comp/quals stuff seems to vary greatly across disciplines and programs - but I can give you a general idea of how mine went.

 

We have two separate comp exams that we need to take in my department. You can either sit a four hour exam or do a five-day take home version. I did the take-home (most people I know do this option). The exam is based off of a reading list that consists of between 200 and 240 "units". An article that was less than 100 pages counts an 1 unit, and article/book/book excerpt that is between 100 and 200 pages is 3 units, and anything in excess of 200 pages is supposed to be 5 units.

 

I studied for about 4 months for my first exam. In my program, you have to give at least a month's notice of your intent to take the exam (but most give notice much earlier, so that they can meet with comp committee members a handful of times whilst studying). I aimed to complete 3 "units" a day (so, between 100 and 200 pages): and by "complete" I mean read and do a write-up. I spent about 5 or 6 hours a day (sometimes 4 if the unit was "easy" or familiar, sometimes 8 if it was painful). I did some RA stuff at the same time and tried to take at least one day off per week.

 

That was my experience. I know some people who spread it out quite a bit more (an hour or two a day for six months, say). I haven't written my second one yet, but I had success with the first, so I might duplicate the method, where possible.

 

Good luck!