Quantcast
Channel: English Graduate Student Organization @ UW » GSO Wiki
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 7

GSO Wiki: PhD Exams

0
0

DISCLAIMER: This information is taken from the now defunct GSO Wiki (circa 2007) and is a starting point and by no means intended as a definitive guide.  It is always a good idea to talk with your advisor and check in periodically with the Director of Graduate Studies and Kathy Mork to ask questions and get advice.

The term “discipline” has many meanings—many of them not particularly pleasant or humane—and they all intersect under the rubric of Ph.D. exams.  Yet the expectations for passing these exams is incredibly fluid across the department. Discuss in detail with your committee members what a passing exam looks like early and often, and, as best you can, build consensus across your committee on this score.  If there’s one thing you want to make sure your committee agrees on, it’s what a pass looks like.

Students typically formally prepare for their exam over the course of several quarters (though don’t forget that you’ve been reading, a lot, for a while!). Unlike at some other institutions and departments, the UW English department requires students to craft their own reading lists. Each student produces three lists; while the contours of these lists are flexible depending on the student’s committee, for literature exams, they are often broken into Major Period, Minor Period/Special Topic, and Theory. Language and rhetoric exams are divided into Major Approach to Language Study, Second Approach to Language Study, and Textual Focus. Many students include the titles of these lists on their vitae. The contours of these lists are incredibly malleable, so the project of crafting these lists can be ongoing, exciting, and incredibly daunting. Your committee has an interest in these lists—they’ll need to ask you questions based on these texts—so consult with them often.

There is no “typical” number of texts on a given list, though rumor has it that somewhere between 150 and 225 is about average. Consider starting with texts you’ve found particularly generative in your coursework, in writing seminar papers, texts you re-read routinely, texts you’ve always wanted to read and write on. The content of these lists must be agreed upon by all members of the committee. You’ll convene a meeting with them altogether to discuss the lists and some of your most salient concerns with these texts. They’ll sign a standardized document produced by the department that lists the titles of your lists. This meeting will happen towards the end of the reading process.

The exam itself has two parts: a written portion and an oral portion (which you’ll work with Kathy Mork to schedule three weeks after completing the written). You have two choices for the written exam: You can take a single, 72 hour exam (typically Friday morning to Monday morning) in which you respond to 2 (or 3, depending on your committee) of the 6 questions your committee has posed. Alternatively, you can take two 8-hour exams, a week apart, in which you answer 2 of the 4 questions posed in total. Whatever the format, answers are typically in the 10-15 page range for each question. These are seminar-style essays you produce under extreme time pressure; some students already might have a lot of experience with these writing conditions. Sleep and food are still important. Again, by this point you should know what your committee will be reading for: Sustained close readings? Creative arguments? Acknowledgment of the breadth of a particular set of scholarship? Many footnotes? Familiarize yourself with the written answers of your friends and colleagues who’ve come before you, particularly those with whom you share committee members.

Also, at the time you submit your written answers, you’ll turn in a syllabus for an undergraduate course that utilizes a small constellation of texts. Use this document to help formulate the most salient through-lines that connect these texts.

The oral portion happens about three weeks later. During the interval, you should have received comments from your committee about the content of your answers, and you might have been lucky enough to meet face to face with each of them. They will likely telegraph the issues they’ll bring to the table. Expect to discuss your writtens a fair bit, be ready to explore some of the issues raised in the questions you didn’t write on (these are often adjacent issues to ones you’ve already discussed), and expect to talk about your syllabus. The discussion can be a wonderfully productive space: for perhaps the first time, you’ve got the full attention of some really smart and really experienced folks.

Passing these exams means you’ve become a full-blown “doctoral candidate.” Congrats!

Tips

  • You may start out reading fairly generally and then begin to read following specific lines of inquiry. Some of the best reading advice was that the more you read, the more you read strategically. The beginning of the reading process might involve exploring the general contours of a field, while the last months and weeks are far more focused. Take notes in a way that’s comfortable, sustainable, and flexible—you’ll likely be referring to these often under extreme duress. And while you have a heart-stopping number of texts on your lists, most exams range over a set of 30-50.
  • Familiarize yourself with other lists and questions. Padelford A-105 has an incredibly thick archive of Ph.D. exam reading lists and questions (the archived questions are limited to exams of students who have already graduated so may be a few years old). Familiarize yourself with the lists of students with similar interests and similar committees.
  • Don’t go it alone! Find a colleague who’s also reading, and read together, talk smack about your committee, bemoan your fates, share your insights. Likewise, talk to people who’ve already gone through the process!
  • Let your committee know your interests. It’s not unusual to lobby your committee about what you want to write on. If you’re really drawn to a specific set of questions, let them know early and often.
  • Write your syllabus before you take your exams. You can create the syllabus element of your exams before the clock starts on your writtens. Do it. It can even be a version of syllabus you’ve taught from.
  • Remember that your committee wants to help you. Your committee has your best interests in mind. They want you to pass. And most likely, they’ll want to expose you to the pressures of job interviews and campus visits. Allies might sound like adversaries at times, but as long as you know what they expect of you, just ride the wave!

Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 7

Latest Images

Trending Articles



Latest Images