I wrote a previous blog post on how I prepared for my doctoral programme’s comprehensive exams. I did my PhD at The University of British Columbia, in Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada). Their graduate office has a very clearly written set of guidelines for comprehensive exams, but in the end, I strongly believe that it is each unit/faculty/department/doctoral committee that ends up generating the exact format in consultation with the student.
As I noted on my Twitter thread, I was very naive in the way I approached my comprehensive exams, and while I did ask for guidance, it wasn’t enough to prepare me for what was coming. So this morning, while reflecting on the question, I wrote a Twitter thread providing a few ideas to prepare for comprehensive exams.
I have a post on preparing for doctoral comprehensive/qualifying exams: https://t.co/3SbJCv3kgi NOTE: as I was preparing to respond to this tweet, *something* occurred to me (which is why I’ll recommend my other posts on what’s a PhD). Comprehensive exams are meant to show…
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 26, 2019
Personally, I started preparing for my comps very early in year 1 of my PhD. I knew this was a requirement, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write for my doctoral dissertation and I already had talked to potential committee members and supervisors. Not everyone can/should.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 26, 2019
I worry when I see people recommending “skim everything” without mentioning the key part of the heuristic: “until you find something that really needs to be read in depth – fully engage with those works”. https://t.co/dQvzmr9lZx that’s why we triage https://t.co/BqSpnoLfiL
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 26, 2019
Personaly, I absolutely loved preparing for my comprehensive exams.. For an entire year, I read what I loved studying and I spent time literally reading and writing (you’ve probably read my extensive rants on the importance of legitimising reading as part of the academic enterprise). But I understand why the process is stressful. Not knowing what to expect is something that makes preparing for qualifying/comprehensive exams extraordinarily hard.
KEY PIECES OF ADVICE ON PREPARING FOR COMPREHENSIVE/QUALIFYING EXAMS:
Now that I had time to reflect on this, here are a few suggestions:
5) As you read, look for the connections across literatures (citation tracing, conceptual saturation) https://t.co/hihmBsjlFZ
6) Build mind maps of the literature
7) Seek guidance from professors/committee/read the guidelines for comps
8) Backcast your exams, set goals— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 26, 2019
… you’ll see repeated and I absolutely agree: WRITE MEMOS. Write chunks of text that link different parts of the literature and map how these linkages work, and where your own work is positioned. You may use those memos for teaching purposes down the road, or for papers/thesis.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 26, 2019
I want to re-emphasize what I said in my Twitter thread but now on the blog post:
ASK FOR GUIDANCE. ASK QUESTIONS.
Asking questions is better than going into a comprehensive exam without knowing exactly what to expect and how to approach them.
A quick list of links on comprehensive exams preparation
– https://t.co/GbXritqico
– https://t.co/aG4uqSMWSH
– https://t.co/lXdYENtY7o
– https://t.co/iPZQOZl7R3
– https://t.co/oMW0KeaFiyALERT: Sample comps responses https://t.co/dRiUh27Cfi (from MSU Education Dept)
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 26, 2019
+ This is a great guide by UWaterloo Environment and Resources on comps https://t.co/QyPKgfXHPA
+ Sample questions (education/literacy) https://t.co/K3tAG8uIEw
+ For historians, AHA has a guideline for comps https://t.co/Mfwkezd5yn
</end thread>
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 26, 2019
Something that I’ve realized is that Masters programs may also have comprehensive examinations.
Addendum: some Masters programs also have comprehensive exams. I found these sample statistics questions online for an MA comprehensive https://t.co/Mp9UkFdkxO </fin>
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) August 26, 2019
Hopefully this blog post and the linked resources will be useful to those who are in the throes of starting their preparation for these exams.
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