Saturday, May 10, 2008
An Intellectual Marathon
102 hours and approximately 12,000 words after I received my general exam questions last Monday morning, I can now claim with reasonable certainty that I have completed one of the most intense experiences of my academic life. I have been told by people in other departments that the general examination system in the history program here at Old Ivy is an anomaly. That for the most part, qualification for a master's degree is not a madness-inducing, sleep-depriving ordeal.
But for some reason the history department, and the history of science program of which I am a part, decides to take the road less traveled by making what used to be a single-day exam into a week-long endurance trial. According to one Soviet specialist with whom I chatted after turning in my test, the department was reluctant to change what had been a time-honored format, but the widespread use of computers ultimately forced its hand. Too many people were simply cutting and pasting answers they had prepared in advanced. The test difficulty had to be ratcheted up to keep techno-savvy grad students from making a mockery of the department's tradition of academic hazing.
So now instead of two or three essays, there are between six and nine. Not that it matters in terms of total word count. Everyone is expected to clock in at approximately 12,000 words. Write too few and your essays won't be taken seriously. Write too many and they WILL STOP READING or at least, so says the memorandum I received on the subject. Of course the twist is that it's 4,000 words per field no matter how many essays are assigned. So if you are given 3 essays, you only have 1300 words a piece to say anything coherent about what is by nature a very "general" theme in the history of whatever it is the field covers. Things like "Describe how American liberalism changed in the 20th century." or "Can technology develop separately from science?" You know...big, sweeping themes with no right or wrong answer. Arguments and questions that people have devoted multiple books to answering.
You have 1300 words. Don't waste time.
Based on previous exams, I had expected at least one of my fields to have three questions, but instead I had six. My professors gave me a choice in each case from a group of between three and five options. I tried to pick ones which didn't have overlapping content between essays. Things got a little redundant in my American history minor field, but I'm relatively confident my professors won't mind too much. In my other two fields, overlap was less of an issue. I am annoyed at my technology minor field exam having no questions related to the dozen or so books I read on the industrial revolution in England. (All those hours trying to figure out how a water frame, a spinning jenny, and a mule were related! And before you ask, the mule is not a literal mule...)
The most challenging of the three fields was my major field: the history of modern science. There were only two groups of two questions from which to choose and none of the choices were exact duplicates of questions from previous examinations, so the few outlines I had made were rendered pretty much useless. Not to mention that my professor, who is incredibly cool to work with, shares my love of the occasional mind game--like asking, I kid you not, a question consisting of only two words---which would be fine with me if someone else's general examination were involved. Needless to say, I saved this field for last, devoting most of Wednesday and all of Thursday to hammering out answers, including one for that two word question.
Whether or not that strategy paid off remains to be seen. The oral exam, consisting of a 2 hour interview session with my professors to follow up on my responses is on Tuesday. Only then will I know whether or not my hard work this year, and last year now that I think of it, have paid off and whether or not I will be on my way to earning a doctorate from a prestigious Ivy League institution or out the door with a master's degree and no particularly detailed career backup beyond returning to my old teaching job.
Here's hoping it's the former. I'll let you know in either case.
102 hours and approximately 12,000 words after I received my general exam questions last Monday morning, I can now claim with reasonable certainty that I have completed one of the most intense experiences of my academic life. I have been told by people in other departments that the general examination system in the history program here at Old Ivy is an anomaly. That for the most part, qualification for a master's degree is not a madness-inducing, sleep-depriving ordeal.
But for some reason the history department, and the history of science program of which I am a part, decides to take the road less traveled by making what used to be a single-day exam into a week-long endurance trial. According to one Soviet specialist with whom I chatted after turning in my test, the department was reluctant to change what had been a time-honored format, but the widespread use of computers ultimately forced its hand. Too many people were simply cutting and pasting answers they had prepared in advanced. The test difficulty had to be ratcheted up to keep techno-savvy grad students from making a mockery of the department's tradition of academic hazing.
So now instead of two or three essays, there are between six and nine. Not that it matters in terms of total word count. Everyone is expected to clock in at approximately 12,000 words. Write too few and your essays won't be taken seriously. Write too many and they WILL STOP READING or at least, so says the memorandum I received on the subject. Of course the twist is that it's 4,000 words per field no matter how many essays are assigned. So if you are given 3 essays, you only have 1300 words a piece to say anything coherent about what is by nature a very "general" theme in the history of whatever it is the field covers. Things like "Describe how American liberalism changed in the 20th century." or "Can technology develop separately from science?" You know...big, sweeping themes with no right or wrong answer. Arguments and questions that people have devoted multiple books to answering.
You have 1300 words. Don't waste time.
Based on previous exams, I had expected at least one of my fields to have three questions, but instead I had six. My professors gave me a choice in each case from a group of between three and five options. I tried to pick ones which didn't have overlapping content between essays. Things got a little redundant in my American history minor field, but I'm relatively confident my professors won't mind too much. In my other two fields, overlap was less of an issue. I am annoyed at my technology minor field exam having no questions related to the dozen or so books I read on the industrial revolution in England. (All those hours trying to figure out how a water frame, a spinning jenny, and a mule were related! And before you ask, the mule is not a literal mule...)
The most challenging of the three fields was my major field: the history of modern science. There were only two groups of two questions from which to choose and none of the choices were exact duplicates of questions from previous examinations, so the few outlines I had made were rendered pretty much useless. Not to mention that my professor, who is incredibly cool to work with, shares my love of the occasional mind game--like asking, I kid you not, a question consisting of only two words---which would be fine with me if someone else's general examination were involved. Needless to say, I saved this field for last, devoting most of Wednesday and all of Thursday to hammering out answers, including one for that two word question.
Whether or not that strategy paid off remains to be seen. The oral exam, consisting of a 2 hour interview session with my professors to follow up on my responses is on Tuesday. Only then will I know whether or not my hard work this year, and last year now that I think of it, have paid off and whether or not I will be on my way to earning a doctorate from a prestigious Ivy League institution or out the door with a master's degree and no particularly detailed career backup beyond returning to my old teaching job.
Here's hoping it's the former. I'll let you know in either case.
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