My comps experience

Finally, my comps is done! After two months of hard work, occasional breaking down mentally and emotionally (!) it was done. The first day was for interpersonal communication theories and concepts: six hours, with a one hour break in between. Second day was for methodology: four hours and no break. The first day was harder than the second day. We were given two sets of question; in the morning questions were relatively straightforward and in the evening, it was slightly more applied. Most of what I studied came out, but I did mess up some stuff on research trends because I wasn't really memorizing journal articles due to time constraints but I did have one or two favorite articles I liked but am not sure if it was good enough or not. Second day methodology, all of us were drained mentally. I think I made at least three obvious mistakes with definitions and overall, my methodology exam paper was far from perfect. Next week, I have the orals to make up for it. It's definitely not over, yet! However, I tried my best and overall I think I did OK. Lets see how strict my committee members are next week. I shall have to do my best to correct my mistakes then.

If I could go back in time, I definitely have some advice for myself (and for others) going through comps. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Make sure you have enough rest and sleep; exercise is important too! I had very near brushes with flu, infection, really bad migraine etc which would all have been mitigated had I taken better care of myself

2. Make sure you pace yourself and organize your time; I had just two months but I made sure I scheduled and organized my material and study time

3. It's hard to know everything. I would have made sure (if I'd known how the questions would be) to really focus on a few areas that I knew very well (in my case, read well on uncertainty theories) and a few that areas that I just had a slight grasp off. It's OK not to know everything. Just make sure you know a few stuff, really, really well

4. There is no point worrying and stressing; it's not as bad as you think it will be (I swear!)

5. Relax and have fun when you can. I think that really helps. Especially commiserating with classmates who were going through the same thing. It helps you realize that you are not alone, and feeling nervous and stressed is really part of the package. I still have really high bouts of impostership syndrome. 

Hopefully, I will know the results by next week, and it will be what I hoped for. Wish me luck!