PhD Comprehensive/Qualifying Exam Study Tips

[bdon19]

Hi all, long time since I've frequented this forum.  I thought I'd reach out to y'all to see if anyone has any groundbreaking tips or techniques they'd like to share when it comes to studying and note-taking for comprehensive/qualifying exams.  I just started my "reading semester" and I'm struggling to find the time to take any sort of exhaustive notes (or any notes at all, really).  Anyone have any advice they'd like to offer?

[ProfLorax]

I imagine this thread will get lost in the application season hubbub, but I too am preparing to study for comps! What does your exam entail? My comp exam is oral; we have no written component. The first hour, we present an answer to one of the five questions our committee submitted a week prior to the exam. The second hour, we answer questions from the committee. Any text on our reading list is fair game.

 

As for prep, I plan to use Evernote to sort my notes. I like that I'm able to sort notes into folders and search for terms. Some of my colleagues also suggested creating a theme map, so that I can more quickly make connections between texts. I'm trying to keep my reading list manageable, so whenever a committee member suggests adding a text, I ask which text I should remove in its place. As I get closer to the big day (which isn't until September), I will organize a mock exam with my colleagues. Some of my classmates also suggested using the pomodoro method to study more efficiently.  

 

I'd love to hear how others are preparing!

[bdon19]

Proflorax, thanks for the tips! I'm jealous of your exams -- we choose a major and minor, then have 6 hour written exams for the major, 3 hours for the minor (spaced a week apart) prior to oral exams.  Our department JUST mandated (as of like two weeks ago) that we include no more than 200 texts total on our reading lists, but even that is a bit frightening.  So far I'm trying to manage between trying (and failing) to take notes electronically versus in a small notebook or something of the like.  I just recently got the following tips from a committee member for how to take notes, though, and I thought the advice is worth sharing:  

 

1) Begin chronologically, but feel free to switch plans if this doesn’t work for you. It is important not to get bogged down by a text or period – keep moving!

2) Read the entirety of the text, only marking pages that are interesting/important.

3) Take notes. Write down 5 main characters, 2 major plot elements, 5 interesting things and a 5-page section for discussion.

4) Take the 5 interesting things and/or 5-page section and identify your “centers of gravity”. Come up with 10-15 categories or umbrella terms.

5) Using your 10-15 categories, form your exam questions.

[lyonessrampant]

Hi!  I did my comprehensive exams almost a year and a half ago (September of my third year).  For ours we have a book list that covers canonical texts that you could expect to teach in the first part of the survey of British literature (I'm an early modernist), and then we add texts for our particular areas to get to a total of around 200.  We submit a rationale with a booklist to our committee who adds/removes books and suggests possible revisions on the rationale until the advisor says it is fine.  The three people in the department each submit a written question.  We get the questions and one week to pick a question and write a 20ish page paper.  Two weeks after that, if the written passes, there is a 2-hour oral exam that is part response to written/part quiz on booklist/part discussion of dissertation project.  I say all this to preface my tips since I used them for this format of exam.

 

1. Take notes in an electronic format so that it is searchable.  You might want to build an excel spreadsheet that has each text and then a column for main argument/main characters/main plot (or multiple columns for these areas if your list is most primary material) and then a column about why it is useful to you.  This seems similar but in a compressed format as the professor's recommendation.  To me, that amount of notes sounds overwhelming in terms of the time it takes to generate them.  I had long-form and short-form notes, but even my long-form notes were generally not that extensive.

 

2. Make a flash card for each text that has the text name and/or author on one side and then one notecard of important details on the other.  Use these cards once you're read your list, have longer/more extensive notes, and are really just preparing for a timed exam.

 

3. Know your weakpoints because a committee probably knows them too and will likely ask you about them.  I specialize in epic romance and poetry more generally.  I definitely don't do drama.  I know my committee knows that, so I knew I'd get some drama questions.  I tried to preempt them by talking about drama in my response to the written comments, but I also made sure that I was pretty familiar with the dramatic texts on my list.  

 

4. Know what your committee members do/are interested in at the time of your exam.  You can predict the types of questions they might ask you if you know that.

 

Try not to stress out too much.  Easier said than done, I know, but they wouldn't let you take the exam if they didn't think you will pass.  Be confident in yourself and you'll do better.

 

Good luck!