My prelims involved a week of writing in-depth responses to a number of questions (5 or 6, IIRC) that covered quite a bit of the breadth of my field (educational psychology). It wasn't very stressful - sorry - but it was a very helpful exercise in integrating several years' of coursework. A couple of the questions were very directly related to my dissertation interest, and a couple were the kind of thing I'd have ignored completely had I not been required to write about them. There was no requirement that I do any statistical analyses as part of the prelim, though if I remember correctly I did a few correlations on data taken from the literature to support some points I wanted to make.
It struck me as an excellent way to make sure that I had really learned something in a general sense about the field rather than having simply picked out some little narrow topic and eked my way through a bunch of courses without ever really learning about the field as a whole. I think that there probably is a general problem to be addressed there, of students finding ways to avoid learning about their fields while still managing to complete their coursework (for example, by writing about essentially the same topic in each course, padded out with some questionable arguments for the relevance of that topic to the subject matter of the course). I certainly could have written a passable prelim exam in a 4 hour block in front of a computer, and in fact the norm in my department looked like that. When it came time to schedule my prelims, I suggested to my committee that I write a much more extensive exam over a week at home, and they agreed without any real argument, because they knew it would be more useful. It may have helped quite a bit though that they knew me well already because I spent a lot of time in class challenging (rather than just repeating) the things we were reading. Through all of my coursework I probably talked in class as much as the instructor did, so they all had a pretty good idea about what I did and did not know by that point. Paul Smith Alverno College Milwaukee ----- Original Message ----- From: Annette Taylor, Ph. D. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 9:31 AM Subject: Re: Doctoral Preliminary Exams > Interesting reply because it suggests a trend that has developed after I > finished my grad training. > > We actually sat, for 4 3-hour time blocks and took "EXAMS" This business of > writing papers is a new deal--I think not stressful enough at all!! > > Annette > > :-) > > Quoting "Erin A. Kennedy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > > > Question #1: Is the purpose of >prelims to > > >test competency in a solid knowledge base (i.e., content exam) prior to > > >doctoral work or in a general skill set (i.e. stats and > > >methods)?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p> > > > > > > In my department, the answer is the latter. We must show competence in 6 > > areas: > > specialty (e.g., Developmental), non-specialty (e.g., Social), > > stats/methods, > > history and systems, ethics, and diverity. We develop and write 3 large > > scale > > "papers" that show our knowledge in these area while also demonstrating the > > generation of novel ideas and information. > > > > > ><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span > > >style='font-size: > > > > >10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>> > > > > > ><p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span > > >style='font-size: > > > > >10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Question #2: If it is content >based > > should > > > > >the content be broad (e.g., any topic from PSYC 101) or narrow (in the > > >test > > > > >takers specialization? > > > > As above, the specialization is a part of it. > > > > For what it's worth, I think this format is pretty good. My advisor wrote a > > very specific paper in a very specific area for her prelims and basically > > never > > wants to think about that subject matter again. By making the exam broader, > > we (I am still a student and did this last spring) are able to demonstrate > > our > > breadth of knowledge and to demonstrate our ability to add to the field. > > > > Erin K. > > ***** > > Erin A. Kennedy > > Department of Psychology > > Saint Louis University > > 3511 Laclede Avenue > > St. Louis, MO 63103 > > (314) 977-2262 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. > Department of Psychology > University of San Diego > 5998 Alcala Park > San Diego, CA 92110 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
