That's an estimate of how many words I've written over the past ten days... boy are my eyes, fingers, and neurons tired. But (fingers crossed) I'm finished with written prelims. And I give you a photo-documentary of the process...
March 16th. It starts. 48 hours on the clock for two questions from my advisor.
Those obsessive organizational habits served me well. Every time I needed a source, it was right there at my fingertips. The textbooks were highlighted for easy skimming. Thanks, first-year me who took the time to read everything for every class.
I slept Wednesday night (a notable accomplishment during prelims) and awoke to St. Patrick's Day! The only celebration I'd be having was a few minutes of fanfare before Jonathan and Evelyn were out the door to let me work all day. So I forced Jonathan to hold props for a few pictures with my lil' Leprechaun.
I relocated to the living room for some reading and note-taking and thinking... Or, actually, for some K-State basketball watching. We lost, and I was a little relieved so that I could focus on my own March Madness. I paid the price for my unfocused evening by staying up through the night to finish prelim numero uno. It was off to the prof at 6 AM Friday... two hours before deadline!
Then I went to school in full zombie/robot mode with the intention of working on a manuscript review for prof numero dos. But dos accidentally deposited a stack of blank papers in my mailbox in place of a manuscript, and dos was not responding to my frantic calls and emails! I laughed, I cried... I took the weekend off. Not a big deal, in hindsight. I got the manuscript on Monday and got a pass for some extra time to finish the review.
Monday night after Evelyn was all snug in bed, tick tock. The clock was on for numero tres. At least I had some companions to keep me company that night.
And the next day, I spent some quality time in the living room and on the hammock reading, note-taking, and thinking. By this point, location change-ups were not just a good idea; they were mandatory, according to my creaky and caffeine-laden body.
Oh and I forgot to note that so far both of my timed questions were secretly a little bit fun to tackle. I got to pull together knowledge from various courses, exercise some creativity, and perfect my google scholar search skills.
On Thursday, the real fun began with my final questions. There was some confusion about the time constraints on this one, but it ended up being less intense than I'd planned which was a nice surprise to encounter. I just had to log the time I spent reading, note-taking, and writing and make sure I didn't pass the 16-hour mark within a 48-hour period. It forced me to sleep, and it freed me up to walk the dog, see a couple clients, have a meeting about my dissertation, and chat with some other Poegatory folks.
And listen to some Guster...
And release some pent-up organizational compulsions on Evelyn's toy area.
But then it was back to work.
I finished where it all began, in Poe Hall. Fueled by coffee and Jimmy John's.
Well, kinda. I finished the timed questions at least. And then I spent most of today finishing that manuscript review. Evelyn helped with the statistics, which I think is allowed since she can't talk (but she might understand them better than I do).
Now we wait. I should know by Friday whether the profs passed me on the writtens. If so, my oral exam is Monday, April 4th at 11:00 AM.
Onward!
March 16th. It starts. 48 hours on the clock for two questions from my advisor.
Those obsessive organizational habits served me well. Every time I needed a source, it was right there at my fingertips. The textbooks were highlighted for easy skimming. Thanks, first-year me who took the time to read everything for every class.
I slept Wednesday night (a notable accomplishment during prelims) and awoke to St. Patrick's Day! The only celebration I'd be having was a few minutes of fanfare before Jonathan and Evelyn were out the door to let me work all day. So I forced Jonathan to hold props for a few pictures with my lil' Leprechaun.
I relocated to the living room for some reading and note-taking and thinking... Or, actually, for some K-State basketball watching. We lost, and I was a little relieved so that I could focus on my own March Madness. I paid the price for my unfocused evening by staying up through the night to finish prelim numero uno. It was off to the prof at 6 AM Friday... two hours before deadline!
Then I went to school in full zombie/robot mode with the intention of working on a manuscript review for prof numero dos. But dos accidentally deposited a stack of blank papers in my mailbox in place of a manuscript, and dos was not responding to my frantic calls and emails! I laughed, I cried... I took the weekend off. Not a big deal, in hindsight. I got the manuscript on Monday and got a pass for some extra time to finish the review.
Monday night after Evelyn was all snug in bed, tick tock. The clock was on for numero tres. At least I had some companions to keep me company that night.
And the next day, I spent some quality time in the living room and on the hammock reading, note-taking, and thinking. By this point, location change-ups were not just a good idea; they were mandatory, according to my creaky and caffeine-laden body.
Oh and I forgot to note that so far both of my timed questions were secretly a little bit fun to tackle. I got to pull together knowledge from various courses, exercise some creativity, and perfect my google scholar search skills.
On Thursday, the real fun began with my final questions. There was some confusion about the time constraints on this one, but it ended up being less intense than I'd planned which was a nice surprise to encounter. I just had to log the time I spent reading, note-taking, and writing and make sure I didn't pass the 16-hour mark within a 48-hour period. It forced me to sleep, and it freed me up to walk the dog, see a couple clients, have a meeting about my dissertation, and chat with some other Poegatory folks.
And listen to some Guster...
And release some pent-up organizational compulsions on Evelyn's toy area.
But then it was back to work.
I finished where it all began, in Poe Hall. Fueled by coffee and Jimmy John's.
Well, kinda. I finished the timed questions at least. And then I spent most of today finishing that manuscript review. Evelyn helped with the statistics, which I think is allowed since she can't talk (but she might understand them better than I do).
Now we wait. I should know by Friday whether the profs passed me on the writtens. If so, my oral exam is Monday, April 4th at 11:00 AM.
Onward!
Comments
Myrna
Gratz and sleep tight, soon!
xo