Friday, April 30, 2010

Doctoral Comprehensive Exams

Hey everyone. For those who have wondered where I have gone, I have been diligently preparing for 'comprehensive exams', which started on Wednesday and finish up Monday morning.

Comprehensive exams test the breadth and depth of students' knowledge in their fields of study. Wednesday I wrote my 'comp' for Apologetics & Worldview; this morning I wote my World Religions comp; Monday morning I will write my Philosophy comp. For each comprehensive exam, you are expected to be able to pull information together from a broad range of reading and research, and provide competent, comprehensible answers to fairly broad questions. Each comprehensive exam lasts four hours. For both exams I have taken thus far, I have had to write three essays within those four hours.

I thought it would be interesting and thought-provoking to post my comprehensive exam essays up on my blog - unedited and unmodified. Initially, I was not sure that this was allowed - but I received no instructions or commands to the contrary, so I will go ahead and do so! Please keep in mind that these essays are entirely unedited. Some of them do not flow as smoothly as they would if I spent more time on them. Anyways, I'll post them up one at a time over the next week or two. Any thoughts or feedback that you have would be appreciated! Hopefully, I pass these comps and move on to the next stage - the dissertation process.

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