RECAP: COMPS Demystified

Today, the GOC held a Q&A program in DAC 407, re “COMPS Demystified”, during common hour. Students who have passed their comprehensive exams to those who are in the throes of their dissertation, passed on information and shared their experiences on “How to tackle the COMPS”.

Some major questions ignited the conversation, such as “How do you go about choosing faculty to be on your committee?”, “What is the process of selected your reading list?”, “How was the preparation vs. the reading?”, “How do you move into the dissertation phase post comps?”, and “Are the comps three separate conversations or one large conversation?”

Here are the recommendations that what provided:

choose faculty that have focus in your main interest(s)
you can change committee members
choose faculty members who are willing to give time to work with you – and nurture your growth through your interests//research
go to your book shelves, skim major themes/concepts, what works with your research, study bibliographies
analyze what is circulating scholarship relevant to your research
practice memorization tactic
take notes while reading
CITE EVERYTHING – especially, major quotes relevant to your focus
you must know where information can from
seleect professors/committee members allow you to take notes/list in
make information lighter
study academically as if preparing a paper
use website/web recommendations of books that have algorithms and relevancies
don’t think of this as an exam
think of it as a conversation
have no plan going in, no plan ever actually comes to fruition – having no plan is better to not have a plan
have fun – it is actually a very supportive process – despite the “Academic Rumor”, the Department’s professors are looking to support you rather than tear you down
breadth vs. depth
practice communicating what you’re studying within your discipline “non-academically”, so that you can debunk and easily relay and articulate your research
use your three lists as a starting point for your dissertation
stay to the course
stay positive
find each new idea as a thread
the things you do in your comps might not be translated to your dissertation
allow flexibility and change to occur
be ready to narrow the focus from the broad scope
sometimes you have to look at this process as exploratory
read no less than 100 pages a day to pace yourself!
if you need the full year, take it
you can’t and won’t cover every book
find commonalities in the books on the each of the three lists
don’t work in a vacuum – keep in conversation with your committee members
comps is not a solitary process – although reading as solitary
YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY READ
time management, slef-monitor, set timers
comps depends on your committee members and their preferences