If you’ve ever read the About Page on this here blog, you’ll know that somewhere on my extensively planned path to the land of the Perfectly PhD-ed Career, I was derailed (mostly voluntarily) by my own personal efforts to ensure the continuation of the species (Mommyness replaced my dream of Tenured Professorness).

I’ve been a mommy for less time than I spent thinking my future held a stunningly windowed office in an ivory tower. Which is why, although I’m stupidly happy in my kid-laced life (the animal instincts make it biologically impossible not to like your kids), I still have barfy feelings when I think about sitting for the orals I never actually had to take.

If you spend enough time thinking that the years of school will all culminate in your standing before the brainy version of a firing squad, it will be difficult to convince yourself that it’s okay to just let that fear go. As I had been imagining this for myself since I was in about the fifth grade, and didn’t derail until I was about 26, you can see why I’d have a hard time leaving the nausea behind.

If you’ve managed to stick with your goals of being educated to some point nearing ridiculousness (which I fully support, by the way) and you’re nearing the orals portion of your PhD, then I would suggest reading An Orals Survival Kit. It’s up on Tomorrow’s Professor blog, and was written by three UC Berkeley PhD candidates (which means they’ve recently passed their orals and know of what they speak).

It is like standing in front of a firing squad. Your executioners are four professors who are experts in their fields. You writhe before them as they take turns posing questions almost beyond your grasp. The threat hangs constantly over your head: Fail to satisfy them, and your graduate career will end.

That’s how many graduate students imagine their oral exam. But the reality doesn’t have to be that bad.

While it’s true that a Ph.D. oral exam can be the most terrifying hurdle in graduate school, it can also be a positive and rewarding experience. Truly. For many students, the stress associated with preparing for orals is largely because they will experience the exam format for the first, and last, time. Too often, no one explains what to expect or how to prepare. More…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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