Preparing for Your Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam

Most doctoral students have to complete a written and/or oral comprehensive (comps) exam to enter candidacy. The comprehensive exam’s purpose is to determine if the learner is adequately prepared to enter the dissertation research stage of their education.

“This past August, I sat my doctoral comprehensive exams. It was a grueling, exhausting process, and the months leading up to the exams were some of the most stressful of my life. I don’t think that I have ever cried so much in my life; from exhaustion, stress, fear, and from the worst bout of impostor syndrome I had felt since beginning grad school.”

~Stephanie Hedge, a PhD Candidate at Ball State University

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The comprehensive exam is a test of your preparation to work as an independent scholar at the highest level. These are typically completed after the learner has completed coursework. The learner must be able to demonstrate :

competency and mastery of concepts in the field of the learner’s academic discipline.
expertise in the breadth of the literature the learner’s field/specialty.
knowledge of the research methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods) and how to apply them in the learner’s areas of specialization
theories and concepts that contribute to the body of knowledge in the learner’s discipline.

What your written exam will look like depends on your department. You may be asked to respond to a series of questions to test your broad knowledge of your field. You may be required to generate a grant proposal or prepare full articles for publication. The key is to talk to your supervisor and find out what is expected. Then prepare!

Ways to Prepare for Comps

1. Take notes. Establish a note-taking system, do this when you begin your studies. Some people organize their notes in a spiral notebook, while others use a digital system. Tag each entry with keywords. If you have an open book exam, or if you end up writing a proposal for your written component, these digital systems can be extremely helpful. When you’re looking for an article or book during an exam, these tags can save you time.

2. Keep your literature organized. Organize your literature in the way you learn best. That may be a file box with paper copies, or electronic copies of each article. In Ph.D. programs, you will read thousands of articles, therefore, you need to begin your program of study with an organization method and stick to it throughout your program.

3. Educate yourself. As you read and take notes, try to determine where you need to fill knowledge gaps. Are you up on the latest research in the field? Do you need to look for more sources?

4. Study. Review your previous written papers (with faculty feedback on them), and re-read articles on specific topics. Pay special attention to concepts that you are less familiar with or feel unsure about.

5. Gain the Support of Others. Get your support group together. Tell them how they can support you as you move into this milestone. Find a study partner or group, they do not need to be experts in your specific field, but if they can be there to bounce ideas off of, it helps. Ask other students about their exam experiences. It is easy to feel isolated and alone when studying, but including others in your study plan can help make studying easier (and more fun!)

Once the Written Portion is Done, Begin to Get Ready for your Orals

1. Once you have completed your written exam, begin to practice for your oral exam. Practice answering aloud, speaking slowly and deliberately. If you’re nervous during your exam, you’ll naturally speed up a bit. Come up with different ways to ask your committee clarifying questions. When you get a question you don’t understand, or you draw a blank, ask for clarification, or say you do not know, but can find out and will get back to them. Use a water bottle or beverage to give you time to think of your answer. Take a drink and think through your response.

2. Rephrase. Rephrase questions before answering. This saves the questioner from interrupting you with a rephrasing of the question or, worse, you not answering the question.

3. It’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” The oral exam is meant to find out what you know…and what you don’t. When you get a question that’s beyond your area of knowledge, you might say something like, “I haven’t thought about that, but I will look into this concept further.

4. Keep some brief notes. Keep a few notes at the ready and a copy of your written exam answers if allowed. You can look down at those papers when you are formulating your response, or verify the definition of a word or two.

5. Know Your Literature. You will not, of course, be expected to provide detailed citations. But, you should demonstrate familiarity and facility with a range of the literature. You should be able to appropriately reference the scholars whose arguments are relevant to a particular issue. You may occasionally include the name of a book or article and the date of its publication.

“The interview process in this exam is challenging, but it is generally a collegial experience. The examiners are looking to test, but not destroy your confidence. By the time you get to that point, if there is a question about your overall competence it should have surfaced on the written portion of the exam.”

~Andrew J. Spencer