Well, now that CCCC is over, it’s time to tackle the exams…which officially start tomorrow. Our department’s procedure is pretty different as I think I’ve written before. After reading for about 3 semesters or so for 3 different reading lists on 3 different fields or subfields, you receive 3 different questions and write 3 papers. You also put together syllabi for upper and lower level classes based on each of the syllabi. Then after 6 weeks of writing all that, there’s an oral exam and BAM. You’re done. (or rather, BAM: you’re ABD).
My general plan (which I’ve spent weeks perfecting…and probably won’t stick to more than 4 days…):
- Make Outline for Exam Essay 1 (EE1): 2 days
- Gather quotes for EE1: 3 days
- Write EE1: 5 days at about 3 pages/day
- Relax a day
- Develop Killer Syllabus 1 (KS1): 1 day
- Make Outline for EE2: 2 day
- Gather quotes for EE2: 3 days
- Write EE2: 5 days at about 3 pages/day
- Relax a day
- Develop KS2: 1 day
- Make Outline for EE3: 2 day
- Gather quotes for EE3: 3 days
- Write EE3: 5 days at about 3 pages/day
- Revisit KS1 and KS2 to tweak and finalize: 1 day
- Last 7 days (revise and/or finish each essay)
I usually work well with a schedule–I guess we’ll see how disciplined I can be!
2 Comments
March 28, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Wow! Good luck! Your exam schedule is much more intense than mine…but since you’ve been preparing and organizing I know you’ll do great! Sorry I didn’t get to track you down at Cs; I was very sick the whole week before and barely made it to NYC! Hope to meet you at a conference sometime soon!
March 28, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Thanks Daisy! I hope you feel better soon–and I know we’ll meet at next year’s Cs–yay NOLA! It’s about time.
