It's over
Praise Bob and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I passed!
I talked to one of the profs specifically afterwards, and he said that I answered all of the knowledge questions well, but my problem was that I tried to jump past the obvious answer and start digging for details, when they really were just looking for the "duh" response.
The other problem I had during the exam was the things that one prof brought in for me to identify. I kinda just looked at them, recognized them, and ran with it. Except that I was wrong. Like one that looked like a canid skull, but had too many teeth, holes, and flanges, none of which were readily obvious. It turned out to be a thylacine, a Tasmanian tiger, I think, but definitely a marsupial. Once they got me looking at the teeth, my line was, "that's a hell of a possum", and then it was easy.
The other major problem had nothing to do with the exam, but was kind of a prerequisite, that my advisor hadn't realized. I knew I needed to write up a dissertation proposal, and knowing my advisor and the way his tendencies ran, I wrote up a short description, most of a single-spaced page, not including references. The department doesn't require, but "strongly encourages" something more on the order of 8-12 pages, that will serve as the introduction/first chapter of my end dissertation. So I have to copmletely rewrite that, but I've got a few weeks.
Now I'm just hanging out and waiting to see who shows up to meet me.
I talked to one of the profs specifically afterwards, and he said that I answered all of the knowledge questions well, but my problem was that I tried to jump past the obvious answer and start digging for details, when they really were just looking for the "duh" response.
The other problem I had during the exam was the things that one prof brought in for me to identify. I kinda just looked at them, recognized them, and ran with it. Except that I was wrong. Like one that looked like a canid skull, but had too many teeth, holes, and flanges, none of which were readily obvious. It turned out to be a thylacine, a Tasmanian tiger, I think, but definitely a marsupial. Once they got me looking at the teeth, my line was, "that's a hell of a possum", and then it was easy.
The other major problem had nothing to do with the exam, but was kind of a prerequisite, that my advisor hadn't realized. I knew I needed to write up a dissertation proposal, and knowing my advisor and the way his tendencies ran, I wrote up a short description, most of a single-spaced page, not including references. The department doesn't require, but "strongly encourages" something more on the order of 8-12 pages, that will serve as the introduction/first chapter of my end dissertation. So I have to copmletely rewrite that, but I've got a few weeks.
Now I'm just hanging out and waiting to see who shows up to meet me.