Our editor, Dr. Alex Ketchum, wrote this post about creating comprehensive exam lists in response to questions from graduate students over the years. It is important to make resources available and break down the opaque barriers that sow confusion during graduate school. This post is part of our ongoing series on Graduate School that we started in 2018.
Comprehensive Exams: What are they?
Comprehensive exams (aka Comps) are a series of required examinations in many graduate programs, particularly doctoral programs. They are particularly common in Canada and the United States. You may have heard them referred to as "comps, "qualifying exams,""quals," or "major field examinations." I cannot stress this point enough: every single graduate program has different requirements for their comps. If you are a graduate student, the first thing you should do is check your program requirements. Hopefully your department or program respects its students enough to have created a website with information regarding graduation requirements or has provided you with a student handbook. No student deserves the added stress of faculty within a department or program not agreeing on the requirements for your examination. Be warned: this does happen.
Comprehensive exams take many forms. They often, but not always, include some form of formal oral examination and some form of written examination. The process of preparing for these exams often includes a form of informal examination which can take the form of meetings with supervisors or informal papers. There are some programs where you have weeks to write your papers and have access to all of your texts. In other programs you have a few hours and must write with a pen and paper.
Typically your comprehensive exams will be divided into areas of focus. In some departments or programs you may do all at once; in others, you may be studying for the exams one at a time.
My experience for context:
I did my comprehensive exams in May of 2014 as a first year doctoral student in the Department of History. I was required to have 1 Major Field and 2 Minor Fields. Spread over these 3 fields, I read around the equivalent of 200 books, beginning in August of 2013. My major field was "Women's and Gender History in Canada and the United States," which was supervised by my PhD supervisor. My minor fields were "Food History and Food Studies of the United States and Canada" and "Environmental History in the Americas (including Latin America)." My supervisor for food studies was not from my own department. I was required to make my own reading lists, which the supervisors approved, edited, or added upon. I would read a set of books and meet with each supervisor individually every few weeks and we would discuss the books. Some supervisors had the style of quizzing me on the books, whereas others preferred a more relaxed style and wanted me to put the books in conversation. After reading through my lists, I had 3 written exams for which I wasn't allowed to bring in any notes (including a list of book titles or articles- so I memorized the entire list including date of publication- a task that I would argue was a bit unnecessary). Following the 3 written exams, I had a formal oral examination. My 3 comps supervisors,an external chair, and I sat around a table where they grilled me with questions for a few hours. Afterwards we had lunch.
Major Fields vs Minor Fields:
You will likely be required to have a "major field" in which you read more books focused on the area of expertise that you wish to concentrate upon. You will likely also have 2 or more "minor fields." You still read A LOT for your minor fields. It is common to have a breakdown such as 100 books (or the equivalent) for your major field and 50 books for each of your minor fields. I say, "the equivalent," as you will likely also read articles. Some supervisors will count 2 articles as a book. Others will require 3 articles to be the equivalent of a book. Some programs you read more; some programs you read less. It is common to have a different supervisor for each of your fields. It is typical that your main PhD supervisor will supervise your "major" field and you will have other supervisors for your minor fields. These professors may not all be in your program (depending on your program requirements). They will all be part of your comprehensive exam committee. This committee is not the same as your dissertation writing committee or your dissertation defense committee, though they might be. There is a benefit in having supervisors outside of your PhD writing committee as you have the opportunity to work with different people at your university (or even in some cases, with a professor outside of your university). If you need to ask someone to supervise one of your fields, I recommend adapting this form letter (How to Contact Potential Supervisors) and ask early. Show that you have thought about the list and are prepared.
Teaching Fields vs Research Fields:
Depending on your program, your comps fields will either be teaching fields or research fields. Teaching fields mean that you read more broadly. The idea here is that you are able to draw on more texts from which to teach in the future. Research fields pertain to a reading list shaped based on your PhD dissertation itself. I chose to do all teaching fields because I wanted to use this period to learn as much as I could. While you write your dissertation, you will keep reading. If you are a scholar (at least one who wants to stay up-to-date with their fields and grow intellectually), you will keep reading. One of my peers did all "research fields" and he used his comps strategically as a way to prepare for 3 articles. As I teach 7 courses a year in my current position, I am glad I read as broadly as I did because I have a wealth of books and articles to draw upon. My teaching fields have been useful for the 14 unique courses I have developed over the years. I still keep reading and updating my syllabi, but the comps lists provide the backbone, especially when I made my earliest syllabi as an adjunct professor.
Alone or Together:
I did all of my comps fields alone, functioning as kind of independent studies with my supervisors. However, your supervisors are busy. Maybe you and another doctoral student both are interested in a similar field. You may work together to create a shared field for examination. The benefit of this is that you might have a study-buddy. The downside is that scheduling meetings might become harder.
Making the Lists:
Your supervisors might already have a list in mind. I recommend speaking to other doctoral students (particularly ones at your institution) who may have done related fields. Below I have also included my own comprehensive exam lists. These lists may be a negotiation. My environmental history field included Latin America as that was my supervisor's expertise.
How to Read:
Your comps require A LOT of reading. I wrote a longer piece as part of the "So You Want to Go to Grad School" Series, on the topic of reading. To pull a few tips from there (though I recommend you read the whole post), the key to success is to create a note taking system.
Have a Template and Take Notes (adapted from the longer How to Read post)
Having a template is key. It will make it easy for you to find the information that you need, will speed up the studying process, and will save you time later when you want to reference these texts in the future.
A. Create a template document with topics listed in bold (thesis, methodology, epistemology, etc). Talk to your supervisors about what information is important for you to know.
B. Fill out one page of notes for every book you read. You can also create an addendum with notes from the books about things that might be useful for your research.
C. Email this document to yourself and save the email in a special folder (in Gmail you can create organizational folders). This way you have a backup in case your computer dies.
D. Eventually you will have read so many books you may not be able to remember if you read a book before. Or you might need to reference a particular book but can't remember every detail you would like to recall. Type the book title into the search bar on your email account and BAM there is the information at your fingertips, already typed.
Does this Sound Stressful?
Some people hate their comprehensive exam year or years. It is a lot of work and you often have other things to deal with in life at the same time because you are a human being that needs to pay the bills, cook, eat, clean, socialize, and might also have family/ care work. During this time I took one class a semester and TA'd one class a semester. I also had other outside commitments. I did some archival research work that spring. That was the year I also adopted my dog. Going out 4 times a day with Bubbles kept me grounded.
My comps year was actually my favorite year of my PhD. When else in my life was I ever going to get to read this many books?! I also had the pleasure of waking up each morning, knowing I had to read a book, finishing it, and having a sense of accomplishment. Writing a dissertation takes a long time. It is rare to enjoy the feeling of completing a task during the years of researching and writing your dissertation. The written exams felt more annoying than anything. The formal oral exams were a bit stressful, but as I had been having informal mini-oral exams throughout the year in my meetings with my supervisors, I knew what to expect.
You will never be as up to date with the literature of your fields as you will during your comps year. It is pretty exciting.
Comprehensive Exams: What are they?
Comprehensive exams (aka Comps) are a series of required examinations in many graduate programs, particularly doctoral programs. They are particularly common in Canada and the United States. You may have heard them referred to as "comps, "qualifying exams,""quals," or "major field examinations." I cannot stress this point enough: every single graduate program has different requirements for their comps. If you are a graduate student, the first thing you should do is check your program requirements. Hopefully your department or program respects its students enough to have created a website with information regarding graduation requirements or has provided you with a student handbook. No student deserves the added stress of faculty within a department or program not agreeing on the requirements for your examination. Be warned: this does happen.
Comprehensive exams take many forms. They often, but not always, include some form of formal oral examination and some form of written examination. The process of preparing for these exams often includes a form of informal examination which can take the form of meetings with supervisors or informal papers. There are some programs where you have weeks to write your papers and have access to all of your texts. In other programs you have a few hours and must write with a pen and paper.
Typically your comprehensive exams will be divided into areas of focus. In some departments or programs you may do all at once; in others, you may be studying for the exams one at a time.
My experience for context:
I did my comprehensive exams in May of 2014 as a first year doctoral student in the Department of History. I was required to have 1 Major Field and 2 Minor Fields. Spread over these 3 fields, I read around the equivalent of 200 books, beginning in August of 2013. My major field was "Women's and Gender History in Canada and the United States," which was supervised by my PhD supervisor. My minor fields were "Food History and Food Studies of the United States and Canada" and "Environmental History in the Americas (including Latin America)." My supervisor for food studies was not from my own department. I was required to make my own reading lists, which the supervisors approved, edited, or added upon. I would read a set of books and meet with each supervisor individually every few weeks and we would discuss the books. Some supervisors had the style of quizzing me on the books, whereas others preferred a more relaxed style and wanted me to put the books in conversation. After reading through my lists, I had 3 written exams for which I wasn't allowed to bring in any notes (including a list of book titles or articles- so I memorized the entire list including date of publication- a task that I would argue was a bit unnecessary). Following the 3 written exams, I had a formal oral examination. My 3 comps supervisors,an external chair, and I sat around a table where they grilled me with questions for a few hours. Afterwards we had lunch.
Major Fields vs Minor Fields:
You will likely be required to have a "major field" in which you read more books focused on the area of expertise that you wish to concentrate upon. You will likely also have 2 or more "minor fields." You still read A LOT for your minor fields. It is common to have a breakdown such as 100 books (or the equivalent) for your major field and 50 books for each of your minor fields. I say, "the equivalent," as you will likely also read articles. Some supervisors will count 2 articles as a book. Others will require 3 articles to be the equivalent of a book. Some programs you read more; some programs you read less. It is common to have a different supervisor for each of your fields. It is typical that your main PhD supervisor will supervise your "major" field and you will have other supervisors for your minor fields. These professors may not all be in your program (depending on your program requirements). They will all be part of your comprehensive exam committee. This committee is not the same as your dissertation writing committee or your dissertation defense committee, though they might be. There is a benefit in having supervisors outside of your PhD writing committee as you have the opportunity to work with different people at your university (or even in some cases, with a professor outside of your university). If you need to ask someone to supervise one of your fields, I recommend adapting this form letter (How to Contact Potential Supervisors) and ask early. Show that you have thought about the list and are prepared.
Teaching Fields vs Research Fields:
Depending on your program, your comps fields will either be teaching fields or research fields. Teaching fields mean that you read more broadly. The idea here is that you are able to draw on more texts from which to teach in the future. Research fields pertain to a reading list shaped based on your PhD dissertation itself. I chose to do all teaching fields because I wanted to use this period to learn as much as I could. While you write your dissertation, you will keep reading. If you are a scholar (at least one who wants to stay up-to-date with their fields and grow intellectually), you will keep reading. One of my peers did all "research fields" and he used his comps strategically as a way to prepare for 3 articles. As I teach 7 courses a year in my current position, I am glad I read as broadly as I did because I have a wealth of books and articles to draw upon. My teaching fields have been useful for the 14 unique courses I have developed over the years. I still keep reading and updating my syllabi, but the comps lists provide the backbone, especially when I made my earliest syllabi as an adjunct professor.
Alone or Together:
I did all of my comps fields alone, functioning as kind of independent studies with my supervisors. However, your supervisors are busy. Maybe you and another doctoral student both are interested in a similar field. You may work together to create a shared field for examination. The benefit of this is that you might have a study-buddy. The downside is that scheduling meetings might become harder.
Making the Lists:
Your supervisors might already have a list in mind. I recommend speaking to other doctoral students (particularly ones at your institution) who may have done related fields. Below I have also included my own comprehensive exam lists. These lists may be a negotiation. My environmental history field included Latin America as that was my supervisor's expertise.
How to Read:
Your comps require A LOT of reading. I wrote a longer piece as part of the "So You Want to Go to Grad School" Series, on the topic of reading. To pull a few tips from there (though I recommend you read the whole post), the key to success is to create a note taking system.
Have a Template and Take Notes (adapted from the longer How to Read post)
Having a template is key. It will make it easy for you to find the information that you need, will speed up the studying process, and will save you time later when you want to reference these texts in the future.
A. Create a template document with topics listed in bold (thesis, methodology, epistemology, etc). Talk to your supervisors about what information is important for you to know.
B. Fill out one page of notes for every book you read. You can also create an addendum with notes from the books about things that might be useful for your research.
C. Email this document to yourself and save the email in a special folder (in Gmail you can create organizational folders). This way you have a backup in case your computer dies.
D. Eventually you will have read so many books you may not be able to remember if you read a book before. Or you might need to reference a particular book but can't remember every detail you would like to recall. Type the book title into the search bar on your email account and BAM there is the information at your fingertips, already typed.
Does this Sound Stressful?
Some people hate their comprehensive exam year or years. It is a lot of work and you often have other things to deal with in life at the same time because you are a human being that needs to pay the bills, cook, eat, clean, socialize, and might also have family/ care work. During this time I took one class a semester and TA'd one class a semester. I also had other outside commitments. I did some archival research work that spring. That was the year I also adopted my dog. Going out 4 times a day with Bubbles kept me grounded.
My comps year was actually my favorite year of my PhD. When else in my life was I ever going to get to read this many books?! I also had the pleasure of waking up each morning, knowing I had to read a book, finishing it, and having a sense of accomplishment. Writing a dissertation takes a long time. It is rare to enjoy the feeling of completing a task during the years of researching and writing your dissertation. The written exams felt more annoying than anything. The formal oral exams were a bit stressful, but as I had been having informal mini-oral exams throughout the year in my meetings with my supervisors, I knew what to expect.
You will never be as up to date with the literature of your fields as you will during your comps year. It is pretty exciting.
It's important to be gentle with yourself. Your timeline may look a little different and that's okay.
My Comprehensive Exam Reading Lists
Feel free to build upon these lists for your own comps fields. Remember- they are 7 years old at this point. The links will take you to Google docs.
My Comprehensive Exam Reading Lists
Feel free to build upon these lists for your own comps fields. Remember- they are 7 years old at this point. The links will take you to Google docs.
Food History and Food Studies of the United States and Canada (google doc here)
Women's and Gender History in Canada and the United States (google doc here)
Environmental History in the Americas (including Latin America) (google doc here)
