This is the best academic advice I have ever received! To think I was even in a fellowship designed for training early-career academics to prepare for finding academic jobs... Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!
I'm just starting to prep for quals at UCLA, to be taken sometime next spring, hopefully, so this is great! If you could do another video on how exactly to prep for Quals/Comps/Orals/Generals. tbh I've been doing grad school for a while now, and although I think I read relatively frequently and broadly, I usually read pretty slowly, and have never read as much in a year as my reading list seems to assume I can. I guess a broader question is, since it's often said that no one reads everything they are assigned in grad school, how do you actually read for grad school? Or rather, choose what to read and what not to read? What to skim? etc. Thanks
Tom, you missed one important category, namely, "How would you design a course on X"? Students should be prepared to answer what essays and assignments will do well in classes of various levels, how to introduce methodological issues, how to scaffold a course, etc. Some graduate programs don't include such questions in their comps/orals, which is too bad. IMO, any research should also be conducted with an eye to how it can be communicated to students. Moreover, graduate students are likely to face such questions at job interviews, so it's good to start early and methodically. Most importantly, undergraduate teaching should be treated as key to academic life and scholarly growth, and integrated into each step of mentoring graduate students. (Stepping off my soap box.)
Very good point. Absolutely. I've seen this more often in job/campus visit pedagogy sessions, but I have seen it in a few Comps exams before, definitely.
Great vid, thanks! I am starting to prepare to defend my PhD thesis and this is quite helpful. I think these questions cover STEM exams as well, but I believe that the amount of papers read (and used) in STEM will on average be significantly lower than in the humanities. Thus the focus of the exam will be on the understanding of the methodologies presented in those papers and of-course those developed/used in the PhD and explaining the progress of the 'state of art' can only be done once and shows that you are capable of giving an overview. Do you think this latter point is valid, or am I kidding myself here? Because I can for sure also envision that the committee does not have time to look into the specifics of my research and will be asking more general questions - especially on the progress of the SoTA which they lived through.
I think this makes a lot of sense, and is a great point. I can't speak for STEM exams directly, of course, but I have to imagine that STEM fields do not ask their students to reflect as much on, say, what was going on in the field in the 1880s, 1930s, 1960s... The window of concern seems to be much shorter than that, whereas in the Humanities (and many Social Science disciplines), it's often considered essential to be aware of what one's field was arguing/omitting/etc even 1 century ago or more.
This is extremely helpful and I will have to rewatch it multiple times. Thanks for sharing the pdf. (Hook Me Up!) By the way, I like your bookshelf (and the typewriter on it).
Thank you for the helpful tips, Tom! I have recommended your vids to my friends going to have their viva voce examination! I will also rewatch them before mine.
So for the factual question, if you know the answer, you are still shooting for a six minute answer in three parts? Or is it meant to be a quicker answer with relevant author citations?
I’d propose: For a straightforward factual question, where you know the answer, shorter and tighter is better. But still always good to cite a source (ahem, name drop) to score additional points.
Yes, please don't start BS'ing. All of the people in the room will start squirming, hoping your adviser will put them out of their misery by moving on. And, speaking of those people in the room, they are thinking probably almost as much about what their colleagues think of the questions they are asking than about your answers. Keep in mind they have complex relationships with each other, which might help you. I remember so clearly when Ernest May asked me, at the very end of my exam, if I thought WWII would have happened if WWI had not--causing me to look like a deer in the headlights. Alan Brinkley, bless his heart, interposed, "Well, that's an easy one," and everyone laughed (me very nervously). Also, Alan had me in a week before and, without telling me this was what he was doing, actually asked me all the questions he planned to ask during the exam itself. You might consider asking your profs if they would be willing to do a short mock qual session in advance. They may not ask the questions they will ask in the session itself, but maybe they will....
Since PDF "link" was a trick to get you to sign up for his newsletter here are the four questions: Literature Review Question What is X Question that can be reframed for lit review or empirical question Comparative Question Factual Question that can be answered or speculated on.
To get a hold of this free giveaway, please use the following link instead (the one in the video is no longer operational): bit.ly/tommullaney
I can't get the link
My children passed thier oral examination ❤
This is the best academic advice I have ever received! To think I was even in a fellowship designed for training early-career academics to prepare for finding academic jobs... Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!
These are great, super high quality videos, not sure why they don't have more views. Thanks! I'm in my master's degree now, considering doing my phd
This is the most educative video I have ever watched on this subject matter .
Thank you Mr. Mullaney, this was very helpful.
I'm just starting to prep for quals at UCLA, to be taken sometime next spring, hopefully, so this is great! If you could do another video on how exactly to prep for Quals/Comps/Orals/Generals. tbh I've been doing grad school for a while now, and although I think I read relatively frequently and broadly, I usually read pretty slowly, and have never read as much in a year as my reading list seems to assume I can. I guess a broader question is, since it's often said that no one reads everything they are assigned in grad school, how do you actually read for grad school? Or rather, choose what to read and what not to read? What to skim? etc. Thanks
Great idea - I’ll get to work on that!
IF ONLY I had had this. priceless info. 50+ years ago!
Tom Mullaney how to skim effectively too 🙏
Thank you sir 🙂
Tom, you missed one important category, namely, "How would you design a course on X"? Students should be prepared to answer what essays and assignments will do well in classes of various levels, how to introduce methodological issues, how to scaffold a course, etc. Some graduate programs don't include such questions in their comps/orals, which is too bad. IMO, any research should also be conducted with an eye to how it can be communicated to students. Moreover, graduate students are likely to face such questions at job interviews, so it's good to start early and methodically. Most importantly, undergraduate teaching should be treated as key to academic life and scholarly growth, and integrated into each step of mentoring graduate students. (Stepping off my soap box.)
Very good point. Absolutely. I've seen this more often in job/campus visit pedagogy sessions, but I have seen it in a few Comps exams before, definitely.
Great vid, thanks! I am starting to prepare to defend my PhD thesis and this is quite helpful.
I think these questions cover STEM exams as well, but I believe that the amount of papers read (and used) in STEM will on average be significantly lower than in the humanities. Thus the focus of the exam will be on the understanding of the methodologies presented in those papers and of-course those developed/used in the PhD and explaining the progress of the 'state of art' can only be done once and shows that you are capable of giving an overview.
Do you think this latter point is valid, or am I kidding myself here? Because I can for sure also envision that the committee does not have time to look into the specifics of my research and will be asking more general questions - especially on the progress of the SoTA which they lived through.
I think this makes a lot of sense, and is a great point. I can't speak for STEM exams directly, of course, but I have to imagine that STEM fields do not ask their students to reflect as much on, say, what was going on in the field in the 1880s, 1930s, 1960s... The window of concern seems to be much shorter than that, whereas in the Humanities (and many Social Science disciplines), it's often considered essential to be aware of what one's field was arguing/omitting/etc even 1 century ago or more.
@@tsmullaney Thank you, I will keep this in mind and try to ask a bit more around my Faculty :)
This is extremely helpful and I will have to rewatch it multiple times. Thanks for sharing the pdf. (Hook Me Up!) By the way, I like your bookshelf (and the typewriter on it).
Thank you for the helpful tips, Tom! I have recommended your vids to my friends going to have their viva voce examination! I will also rewatch them before mine.
So glad they are helpful, and here’s wishing you a great exam when the time comes!
@@tsmullaney Thank you, Tom!
So for the factual question, if you know the answer, you are still shooting for a six minute answer in three parts? Or is it meant to be a quicker answer with relevant author citations?
I’d propose: For a straightforward factual question, where you know the answer, shorter and tighter is better. But still always good to cite a source (ahem, name drop) to score additional points.
@@tsmullaney Thanks so much for the reply!
Yes, please don't start BS'ing. All of the people in the room will start squirming, hoping your adviser will put them out of their misery by moving on. And, speaking of those people in the room, they are thinking probably almost as much about what their colleagues think of the questions they are asking than about your answers. Keep in mind they have complex relationships with each other, which might help you. I remember so clearly when Ernest May asked me, at the very end of my exam, if I thought WWII would have happened if WWI had not--causing me to look like a deer in the headlights. Alan Brinkley, bless his heart, interposed, "Well, that's an easy one," and everyone laughed (me very nervously). Also, Alan had me in a week before and, without telling me this was what he was doing, actually asked me all the questions he planned to ask during the exam itself. You might consider asking your profs if they would be willing to do a short mock qual session in advance. They may not ask the questions they will ask in the session itself, but maybe they will....
You are now, officially, co-host of this channel
@@tsmullaney Ha! I had (the opportunity) to team-teach with Shel Garon once, and so I know the dangers of appearing next to a star....
Awesome tips!!
Since PDF "link" was a trick to get you to sign up for his newsletter here are the four questions:
Literature Review Question
What is X Question that can be reframed for lit review or empirical question
Comparative Question
Factual Question that can be answered or speculated on.
I think you should write in lct about all thinh that you teaching 😊
Question 5. How do you feel having wasted your life getting a pHd?
What if that's not part of your work...and not even in your thesis. Can't you say I dont know?:)
Ahaha if anyone can answer “what is gender” they get a PhD instantly in my book