Tom: “Tell me everything you know about this work.” Me: “I’m pretty sure this is a nightmare caused by exam stress – Da Vinci isn’t on my Orals bibliography…..”
It’s Boxing Day. After two days of rest, great food, and much-anticipated family time, it’s the moment I have (not) been waiting for: Orals Exam Preparation. I handed in my last ever paper of graduate school (bar the dissertation) two weeks ago. It was a pretty great feeling. My next hurdle is drawing up the schedule for four months of revision before my Oral exams which will take place in late spring. On January 1, the real test will be starting the schedule and sticking to it.
To say I am slightly nervous at the prospect of this PhD rite of passage would be a gross understatement. I am terrified. But – like all the exams I have taken for my program – a stiff British upper lip, plenty of tea, and some strategic planning early on in the game should give me a fighting chance of passing well. Unlike previous exams that promoted panicked rote memorization rather than deep, thoughtful leaning, this exam feels like an opportunity to really cement knowledge of my subject as an academic and an instructor.
For those wondering, the Oral Exam tests knowledge of three main subject areas and, when successfully completed, marks the stage where the PhD student becomes a PhD candidate. Once Orals are over, the last hurdle is the dissertation. It’ll be a busy semester in spring. I can’t (and don’t want to) give up work, so it’s time to make a strict schedule to balance teaching, exam prep, other work, and a little relaxation too. So, for a few months I’m bidding farewell to Open Enrollment until I’ve passed this final rite of passage: my last higher education exam.
Come January (six days away, gulp) I’ll be prepping for discussion of my specialized area (post-war Western urban social housing), a major area of concentration (Architecture Since 1750), and a related minor area of concentration (Art Since 1900). I’ll be sending out an email to close friends and family telling them I’m going into hibernation (this really helped during my last exam cycle), and my social life will dwindle from “embarrassing” to “zero.”
The three professors who have agreed to be part of my committee will meet me in April or early May and grill me for two hours over any image, topic, historiographic or thematic concern relate to these areas. If they’re satisfied, I’m a little closer to being able to graduate back to the real world. If not, well… the power of positive thought means I can’t contemplate that. My mantra? Go big or go home. And my significant other will be awfully sad if I come home without a pass, because I’m not sure he can go through much more of me living in the library and bursting into tears when I forget the exact dates of the construction of every major building in the Western Hemisphere since 1750. So it’s settled. I’m passing this exam, if it kills both of us and our cat.
Happy New Year when it comes, good luck with your own projects this spring, and see you in a few months time!
