Study for Comprehensive Exams
What is a comprehensive exam? Simply a PhD degree's most stressful moment. At no other point in the PhD program are you required to operate at such a broad level completely from memory. However, if you study well you can not only survive your comprehensive exams, but ace them and set up your dissertation proposal for success.
Unfortunately, many PhD degree programs offer very little if any assistance on study for comprehensive exams. Here's a step by step guide to fill that gap.
Instructions
1. START STUDYING FOR COMPREHENSIVE EXAMS THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS.
You have to keep the mindset in your PhD program that comprehensive exam studying starts day one. If you do, your comps preparation will be much easier. Take good notes and save each set of notes digitally. Take your laptop to class and type as you go. If you are a handwritten notes person, be sure to write legibly and organize your notes into a file. Don't fool yourself thinking 'I will remember that later' because you might not. Then you have to take hours rereading a book or researching in the library. Take good condensed notes that you can review later.
2. FILL OUT YOUR OWN PERSONAL PHD DEGREE SUMMARY FORM FOR EVERY BOOK.
Here is what you should consider including:
* Name of scholar
* Best known work
* Bibliographic information on this book
* Key sources/scholars used by this book
* One paragraph summary of book's major premise
* Several sentence analysis of book's importance for the field
* Several sentence critique of the book's argument
* How, if at all, it helps your dissertation project
You can fit all of that information onto one page usually. If you do this for every book you read, your comprehensive exam study will be well underway.
3. WRITE EACH FINAL PAPER TOWARD YOUR PHD DISSERTATION TOPIC.
You might ask, 'Why is that important for comprehensive exams?' You remember best what is important to you and connects with other relevant information. If every paper you write is disconnected from the papers you will have a hard time remembering much from your research. It's okay to have a project and to keep working on it in every class. Tweak and stretch every assignment so that you can faithfully write on your project. You will remember more, so you have to study less at the end. AND you will move forward on your dissertation sooner.
4. GET SAMPLE COMPREHENSIVE EXAM QUESTIONS FROM YOUR PHD DEGREE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE.
Someone keeps a file of the comprehensive exam questions. Getting a copy of these early in your program helps you understand what your professors are really teaching toward, and looking for at exam time. Having these in the back of your mind keeps you from expending energy in unhelpful directions. It also reduces the anxiety of PhD exams. You know what you are up against.
5. MEET WITH YOUR COMPREHENSIVE EXAM WRITER TO FEEL OUT THE EXAM.
Some exam writers allow you to personalize your exam questions. If you can, fantastic! Hopefully you have already written on some of this material in your class papers and now you have a paper sized study guide for that question! If not, then get a good idea of the bounds of the exam. What will be asked, what not? How many surprises should you expect? How many pages are they looking for in the answers? If they don't want to tell you say some extreme page number to get a reaction.
6. WRITE OUT PROVISIONAL ANSWERS TO YOUR EXAM QUESTIONS EARLY.
Don't get trapped in re-reading every book several times without answering any questions. Even if you only have sample questions, answer those sample questions on paper. Then you can move on to the real business of exam preparation, memorization.
7. MEMORIZE YOUR EXAM ANSWERS IN A WAY THAT YOU KNOW WORKS FOR YOU.
These are just like any other exam you have ever taken, just bigger. They are essay exams, so how do you study for essay exams? Here are some ways some people have tried that work well:
1. Outline each question in detail and then reproduce the outline over and over until memorized.
2. Record yourself answering the question out loud and listen to that recording until memorized.
3. Meet with another student and wrestle with the questions together taking notes and sharpening each other.
4. Write out each question en toto. Then reduce to a detailed outline. Reduce that to a simple outline. Memorize the simple outline. Then attempt to reproduce the essay from that memorized outline either verbally or in written form.
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