For those who are curious, here's how our prelim exams work. At the end of coursework (two years for most people) you declare three areas of specialization: a primary teaching field and two supporting fields. Mine are 20th. c. American lit, 20th c. Southern lit and culture, and "Religion, Literature, and Modern Culture" (I put that one in quotes because my advisor and I changed the title about twenty times before settling on that one). Then you make three lists, one for each field, which are approved by the committee. Spend about a year reading the list, then take the exam.
The written exam happens on one day--it's four hours long in a little room with only your list, a dictionary, and a computer. The exams vary tremendously; mine consisted of four one-hour essays. Officially, you turn in a diss proposal on the same day as the written exam, but my advisor wanted my proposal earlier. A week after the written comes the oral, which is two hours long. First hour is about the written exam and the reading list, second hour is a discussion of the diss proposal.
Boring post, but since I'm writing about my exams so much, and since Academom asked, I thought I'd offer a description.
P.S. Every time I title
a
post with all lower case let
ters, I like to imagine I am
e.
e.
cummings. It
brings me a small moment of
joy.
I have almost shared
that with you
many times.
Glad to
get it off
my
chest
now
.
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1 comment:
i always like to write with no capitals. people always think it's because i love e.e. cummings. that's not really it (although he is fine). i'm just lazy.
the prelims sound way different than ours (science). we just wrote a fake grant proposal and defended it and then wrote a real thesis proposal and defended that. those were our exams.
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