Showing posts with label comprehensive exams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comprehensive exams. Show all posts
Thursday, November 5, 2009
I Passed!
I did my orals on Monday. That is possibly the most intense hour and a half I have ever spent. There were definitely some rough points - especially the poets and some questions about my "methodology of history" - I think I babbled for five minutes about "um, the rise of the middle class, and the rise of the novel, you know, intertwined, and um, the middle class, yeah." But towards the end I talked about specific novels and some things I want to do for my dissertation, and I felt much better. And I passed! It was a much bigger relief to have this part done, even more so than when I finished writtens. It is done! I can now move on with my life. Which means the dissertation. Hopefully I'll have a nice draft of the prospectus before too long.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Comps Week
Yesterday, I took the first part of my comprehensive exams. After reading and studying since February, it is a relief to have this part of my graduate program underway. Now, I just have to make it through parts 2 and 3 on Wednesday and Friday.
I felt pretty good about the questions I got yesterday. I had to answer three out of five, and fortunately, three were ones that I had approximately prepared for. I felt good about the questions while I was answering them - of course, afterward there is the temptation to second-guess - mostly worrying about whether I wrote enough. However, I am trying to minimize that impulse.
Favorite things from comps: Middlemarch by George Eliot and the poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
Least favorite: Lukacs (did I even spell that right? anyway, he is incomprehensible)
Best strategy advice: start early, make a calendar, read a little bit each day, take notes immediately; also, having the notes of someone who had a similar list is great
Mistakes: taking notes in the book without transfering them to the notebook - you won't remember what the poem is about
Extra advice: don't labor over a text that is just too difficult or boring - you're eating into your time - read enough so that you have an idea of the content and style, then find a summary or someone's notes on it - chances are, you are not going to be asked about that specific text anyway
I felt pretty good about the questions I got yesterday. I had to answer three out of five, and fortunately, three were ones that I had approximately prepared for. I felt good about the questions while I was answering them - of course, afterward there is the temptation to second-guess - mostly worrying about whether I wrote enough. However, I am trying to minimize that impulse.
Favorite things from comps: Middlemarch by George Eliot and the poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
Least favorite: Lukacs (did I even spell that right? anyway, he is incomprehensible)
Best strategy advice: start early, make a calendar, read a little bit each day, take notes immediately; also, having the notes of someone who had a similar list is great
Mistakes: taking notes in the book without transfering them to the notebook - you won't remember what the poem is about
Extra advice: don't labor over a text that is just too difficult or boring - you're eating into your time - read enough so that you have an idea of the content and style, then find a summary or someone's notes on it - chances are, you are not going to be asked about that specific text anyway
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)