Qualifying Exam
It's done! Grand totals: one full week, five questions, and seventeen typed pages written including almost four pages for the 64 entries in the references list. And countless iced chais chugged.
Frankly, I'd rather have spent the time and energy doing, well, the actual publishable research that this is supposedly testing my preparation to do. I often wish that the Ph.D. could simply be granted after you've published enough peer-reviewed first-author papers. Given that those would all have passed evaluation by many (hopefully impartial) external experts, I'd think it'd be pretty good proof that you know your field well enough at that point.
Frankly, I'd rather have spent the time and energy doing, well, the actual publishable research that this is supposedly testing my preparation to do. I often wish that the Ph.D. could simply be granted after you've published enough peer-reviewed first-author papers. Given that those would all have passed evaluation by many (hopefully impartial) external experts, I'd think it'd be pretty good proof that you know your field well enough at that point.