Prelim down, here come comps!

Alhamdulillah, I passed my prelims. So did two of my friends. :-)

 Next up is comps. I have a meeting next week maybe to discuss my comps question. My exams are due at the end of November. I really hope it goes well. It's a 12 hour test, with ten hours of written and 2 hours oral. From the 10 hour written test, I think you have a choice to break it up into in class written exam (closed book),take home or in class written (open book). Will know more by next week. And oh, they might question you on your prelim paper during the two hour oral test.

I am grateful for the guidance of my advisor, and also grateful that after my exams, I have only my thesis to dealt with. Alhamdulillah...

 

Timeline

Just got an e-mail recently conforming the dates for prelim & comps.

1. Prelim paper submission (31st August 2012 by 5pm; first Friday of the semester)

2. Comprehensive exams (sometime in November, subject to passing the prelim)

I have so much work to do!! Pray that I pass both my prelim & comps; there will be one less thing I have to do....

Summer update

My progress is still slow. But I'm working on it! I wanted to submit my prelim over summer but that didn't work out. Most of 'em will be gone during summer so I decided to delay the submission till August. My advisor was OK with it, and she just reminded me that come August, I won't have much time for the comps, which is scheduled in October or December. I know the risks so I am thinking if I don't do my exams in October it shall have to be in December. It is a risk because I don't know if I will pass my prelim or not. It's not a guarantee but my SV thinks I will be OK. So we'll see. 

At the moment my prelim paper is like 80% done. But I don't think I shall be getting much work done during the summer because of personal reasons. You do your best but you don't know how things will turn out. Plus, I only have another two years (1 year in the official time + 1 year extension) left so I am trying very hard to get it done. But you realize that it not only depends on you but on other people. At least that's how it works in my department. He he he.

I did manage to appoint committee members so that's good. I think I can work with the people I have on my committee so probably I will stick with it for my dissertation too. We had a doctoral defense last week and I met up with my seniors. They are in their 5th and 6th year! Isn't that scary? But like Dr. H tells me 'your dissertation if you think about it, it's just another study'. He certainly thinks I can finish under 5 years. I hope so.

Anyway, these past few months I've come to appreciate my supervisor. She's been very helpful (as much as is expected) and I appreciated her dry humor and her relaxed stance on things. I mean it doesn't help if your advisor is just as stressed as you are right? She certainly is more confident in me than I am! Ha ha ha. This is my last post I think for spring/summer. I will be back again in August and hopefully will be able to submit my prelim paper, pass it and sit for my exams! Wish me luck!

 

Prelim paper: Halfway mark

I am now halfway through my prelim paper. After a bout of restlessness and fighting my flagging motivations, I got my thoughts organized and starting reading. And writing. A lot of people read and read and then start writing. I do the writing while reading. It is easier to get my thoughts down that way and I get stressed at looking at the blank computer screen! Do what's comfortable for you! I got tired of working on the Intro, so I moved to the LR. When I got tired of the LR, I started with criticisms of the theory. I ended up with 30++ pages or so after two months. 

I was worried though that I was not on the right track so I met with my SV last week to finally confirm my topic and specify a few things. Luckily, she was OK with it and added a few helpful remarks. She wanted a last look at my outline, and that would be the last time I would have the opportunity to discuss the paper with her. I think she also wanted to see the outline first before I start writing, and to see if I could provide the right rationale.

Yesterday, I submitted the outline to her and she said she will get back to me ASAP. Hopefully, it will be OK so I can finalize my paper. Like it or not, I only have less than three months to finish it. She sounded confident with me 'it's not a big deal' 'I think you can do it, you are hardworking' but I still have seeds of doubts. She probably said that because she thinks I am worrying too much! He he he he. I think my PhD path has been littered with unexpected things and all I can do is just focus and try not to let it distract me. And oh, revise my timeline if and when necessary. Time flies by really fast though, and I am trying my best to settle things as fast as I can. Insya-Allah it will get done...

Argghhh writer's block!

This is it. I am finally done with my coursework. Now begins the second phase of my PhD studies, the prelim paper writing. And I am having SO much trouble putting my thoughts down. If only my thesis had to do with blog writing. Ha ha ha ha. Anyway, I have so much to read and so many things going through my head that I get overwhelmed. I have a meeting due with my SV soon (actually to discuss a research project she wants me to help her in) but I think I will squeeze in some room to ask her a few questions. But here are things that she told me before, that I need to follow strictly, but have yet to: 

1.  Make sure I read from really good, reputable journals; in Comm some of it would be the Journal of Comm, Human Comm Res, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Journal of CMC, Comm Reports etc
2. Read a few articles very closely to find common threads and contradictory findings. And pick the ones that most closely resembles your topic of interest 
3. Keep a file to jot down important ideas that suddenly strikes you. Who knows when it might come and how much it would help. 
4.  This I am adding myself... try to discuss your topic with colleagues or friends in the same discipline. I think it would help, at least to make sure your ideas sounds rationale and testable.

I know the prelim is slightly different than the prospectus defense, but its horribly difficult too. I am struggling because I am still not clear what I want to do. At the moment, I am just trawling through the literature that I have, summarizing them and trying to build the model in my head. It's also very, very hard to keep motivated. I have to discipline myself and it's tough! That means no TV, no casual browsing, no Twitter and no music for at least a couple of hours. And if I can read a few articles per day, and get at least one page down everyday, there's no reason I can't complete it in two months. Right? Sigh.