Preliminary Examination
What lies ahead of you when you finish your
coursework? The Preliminary Examination.
Finishing up the coursework is just the first step in the PhD
(or MA) degree seeking process. According to the Graduate
Student Manual, there are 8 necessary steps for a successful
completion of the PhD. So after you have finished (or close to
finishing up) your coursework for both your primary and
secondary areas, the next step to take in order to remain in the
ring is to take the preliminary examination. This, however, only
pertains to PhD students. M.A. requirements after the coursework
can be found here.
An important note: the preliminary exam procedure is changing. For more accurate information, check the Graduate Study Guide.
Set of Three Papers
Writing the papers is not just that: sitting down, doing the
research, and writing three papers. A lot of bureaucracy is also
involved with deadlines you don’t want to miss, and steps you
want to follow.
After you decide on this option for your prelims, you need to
figure out what is that is actually required from you. Here is
what the “Graduate Study in ESL: A Guide for Students and
Faculty” tells you:
- Three 20-page (5000-word) papers written over a period of several months
- Each paper topic corresponds to one of the core areas: theory, quantitative research, qualitative research, and curriculum
- Students are encouraged to relate the focus of these papers to their particular areas of interest and research for the dissertation
- The papers are new projects, not extensions or revisions of prior work (p. 10)
To begin, you need to meet the professor you took the respective course with (ENGL 516, 518, 565, and 618) and decide on the issues you could successfully discuss in the paper, also trying to figure out how the respective topic will later on fit into your dissertation. At this time you should also discuss when your professor expects you to hand in the possible drafts and/or the final paper, as well as any other special requirements your professor has.
The first important deadline for you in the paper process is the registration for the exam in the English Graduate Office, which should be done at the beginning of the semester you choose to be the first semester of you prelim. From this time on, and no later than the end of the fourth week of the semester, you also need to write a 250-word summary of each paper for the particular professor and give the professor a copy. Here are
some samples of such summaries.
When all three summaries are completed, the Graduate Office secretary will mark down the official starting point (date) of your prelim exam period. At this point, you also need to submit to your major advisor the form: “Checklist for the Three-Paper Preliminary Examination” that can be found in the “Graduate Study in ESL: A Guide for Students and Faculty” or the “English Graduate Manual”. Both these manuals can be found online on the departmental website.
Now you have several months to successfully pass your prelim exam by writing and handing in the three papers. Successful completion of this process means a grade of “Pass” on each paper. However, not meeting the required deadlines may result in a “No Pass.”
What you need to keep in mind regarding deadlines is that the paper you consider the final version might not be the actual final version. Therefore, you need to submit it at least four weeks prior to the submission of the version considered final by your professor. This way you get the chance to revise or address any problems your professor might find in your paper.
Wow! You submitted all three papers? Great job! Now each professor will evaluate and comment on your papers in two weeks after receiving them. If your paper is in good shape and no more revisions are required, your professors will present the grade they assigned to your paper to the ESL program director, Prof. Margie Berns who will forward the final grade to the English Graduate Office.
Now, you still don’t know what is going on behind the scenes? No
wonder. You are not supposed to be notified by any of your
professors of where you stand. The English Graduate Office is
the official party who can notify you of the final grade.
A tip to help you get by:
When writing the three papers, you may think to give yourself one month for each paper. This could work, but in my experience, the first paper takes the longest, while the second and third papers take a little less time. The reason for this is because you need to read A LOT before starting on these papers. But, once you’ve done A LOT of reading for the first paper, you may be able to pull from those readings for the second and third papers as well; so the reading load becomes less. Also, plan on having a guilt-free low-productivity week in between each paper.
One more tip: Reward yourself!
Writing these three papers will be stressful! (Understatement of the century). I recommend putting a reward at the end of each paper, whether that be drinks with co-prelimers, or a trip to the salon. You will need to relax periodically to make it through this process! And don’t forget to breathe! :)
Sit-Down / Take Home
There is the second option to take the prelim exam which
resembles more to actual exams than the paper form. This is
composed of two separate parts: a 24-hour exam and a 7-day exam.
You basically take both exams home and work on them at home,
however in a much more shorter time period.
A basic restriction of this type of examination is that you can
only take it in two months of the year, either August or March.
August can probably work very well with your schedule since many
students do not teach in the summer semester, thus you can
really focus only on the exam. I see no such advantage with the
March date.
Similarly to the four papers, the 24-hour part examines your
knowledge in the four core areas: theory, curriculum,
quantitative research and qualitative research. Studying for the exam seems pretty
straightforward. You get a reading list of books and articles to
prepare from. Then you will get four questions based on those
four areas.
The 7-day exam is similar to the four papers in respect that you
get to choose the topic you want to write about. Basically, you
suggest several topics that are related to you research
interests and dissertation area, and then your professor picks
one of them. Your job is to write an essay on the respective
topic.
Both 24-hour and 7-day exams are then evaluated and you need to
get a “Pass” on both of them. The rest of the process is similar
to the four-paper exam. The final result of your efforts will be
announced to you by the English Graduate Office.
Tips and Tricks
Now here are some tips and tricks from former ESL students who
have successfully passed their prelims, either recently or
several years ago:
Anonymous PhD
candidate
If you’re trying to decide whether or not to take the
year-long paper option, start off by asking
yourself this question: do you have a fairly good idea about
where you’re going with your
dissertation? If you do, then it’s easy to write papers that
will be useful to you down the road—
something that you can use directly in your prospectus and
dissertation. If you don’t have a clear
idea, though, it’s best to stick with the more traditional short
answer exam. Assuming you are
relatively clear about your dissertation and you choose the
year-long paper option, it’s crucial
for you to check in with each of your prelim readers often. Let
them see your work often, rather than waiting to give them an
entire draft. If your thinking doesn’t match your reader’s
thinking, it’s best to catch the mismatch early, before you’ve
gone too far in the wrong direction.
Anonymous PhD candidate
Prelims?! I never thought I'd hear that horrible word again!
Here are two pieces of advice for the year-long prelims that are
sort of obvious, but are very
easy to neglect: start working on the prelims right away, and
try fulfilling a personal quota of
work every day. As a (semi)independent researcher, it is far too
easy to put research and writing
off until later, and to let things slide into the future. Being
able to be productive early not
only gives you more time to revise the prelim if necessary; it
will also serve you exceptionally
well when you move beyond the other "P Word" (prospectus) into
the dissertation.
Martha Moraa Michieka, Purdue ESL Alumna,
Assistant Professor, East Tennessee State University
It will depend on the prelim option one chooses. Both
options have their advantages and I believe the choice is based
on each individual's circumstances. I did the year long prelim
and that is what I can comment on. Due to its flexibility, the
four paper prelim option gave me an opportunity to read widely
on my dissertation topic and prepare for my research. I was also
able to pace myself and complete the prelims on time. A word of
caution however, a year sounds like a very long time to write
four papers but once the clock starts to tick, and you are
teaching a class and maybe still taking some courses, days move
faster than one can think.
-Discuss the prelim options with your advisor and with post
prelim friends.
-these are exams so try to create time to work on the papers
like you could with other exams.
-Set clear goals/ dead lines for yourself and push yourself to
meet them. It might sound like a good idea to ask for extension
of a dead line and maybe our very kind and understanding
professors will give you the extension but they cannot extend
your official prelim time.
- The paper option does not have to take you a whole year, you
can finish much earlier.
- Aim at turning those four papers into publications. I wish I
did that.
Brita Banitz, Purdue ESL Alumna,
Universidad de las Américas Puebla, MX
I guess the advantage of the exam is that you can get
through it quite quickly (if you study hard, of course) and get
on with your work for your dissertation. The disadvantage is
that you waste a lot of time studying for that without being
able to use your knowledge in your dissertation. At the same
time, the disadvantage of the prelim papers is that you spend a
whole year with them, you might have to revise and re-revise
until they are accepted; so it could take actually longer. The
big advantage that I see is, and that's exactly what I did, to
already know your dissertation topic (in agreement with your
advisor) and actually write those four prelim papers on your
chosen topic and then to simply include those papers in your
dissertation. This requires a LOT of careful planning
beforehand, but it'll also save you a lot of time in the long
run.
Scott Baxter, Purdue Alumni, Lecturer,
University of Minnesota
I took the exams rather than write the papers. For me, that
was a good choice. I spent the summer reading and studying, and
was done with them and ready to move on to the prospectus in the
fall.
Studying for the exam was pretty straightforward. There was a
reading list I got from Jill Quirk. I read all those books and
took detailed notes. I went through my notes and materials from
classes too, but reading the books on the reading list was the
most useful thing for preparing for the exam.
There were four areas that corresponded to the core courses, and
there was a fifth question that demanded a longer answer. I was
able to suggest two topics for this. I would say that it would
be most helpful if you pick a topic as close to your planned
dissertation topic as possible. This is the area of the exam you
have the most control of and it is to your advantage to shape
the topic to resemble your dissertation area.