A number of graduate students who took the qual Feb 1 2013 agreed to share their experience and tips for preparing for the exams.
Some key points:
- Plan ahead.
- Know thyself! Identify your strength and weakness, and develop a strategy.
- Balance group study time with individual study time.
- Take advantage of the senior grad students (esp. the ones in your group!) and ask questions.
Here is a list of questions and responses that will hopefully give you an idea of what to expect:
1. How long did you study for? For instance, how early did you start, and how intense was the studying. Would you recommend more studying, less studying?
Pun
0-1 month before quals around 8-12 hours a day; 1-6 month before quals around 10 hours a week average
Becky
Started in the summer to try not to lose what was learned from 211 and 106. Meet about once a week to go over 106 and 101 during the summer for a couple hours. We started a little late as a group doing review for 211 and 312 and ran out of weeks before exams in the fall semester to get through the last couple topics. For those two each person was the lead for a topic and brought study guides. It worked well for some things and not so well for others but doing practice problems was always good. It was good to review early, get your mind refreshed, get organized. That way in January every thing feels more like a review because hopefully anything you needed to relearn or learn in the first place was done before xmas break. I think I studied about the right amount because I feel like I reached saturation and couldn't absorb/learn/memorize any more at the end.
John
I basically studied intensely for the month of January, but I had started reviewing in the months leading up to the test.
Mareena
I started studying for the qual about 8 months before, in July. During the summer, my studying consisted of rereading notes and looking over problems. I found it difficult to keep focused while I was away on internship and reviewing by myself so I consider my summer the time I got myself into the right mindset.
The real studying started that fall before the qual. Literally day one, my office mates and fellow study group partners came up with a weekly study schedule that we stuck very close to. Having the schedule helped keep our momentum up and keep us accountable for the material. We would review the lecture notes, in depth! The main goal of studying is to plug the holes in our understanding and make sure we see the larger picture each course is trying to tell us.
During that fall, our studying was pretty intense but we were still taking classes so we had to divide our time. Once IAP started, all we did was review for quals. Literally starting for 8AM to 10-11PM, we reviewed old homeworks, old exams and all the old quals multiple times. I think seeing all the possible ways someone can ask the same question really helped drill the point home. Even with all this studying, they still found a new way to ask it.
Some of my study partners made note cards for each class. I made post-it notes that I stuck them all over my office and also made QuickRead guides for each class that summarized the main points.
In terms of more or less studying, it's person dependent. The important thing is that you are honest with what you do and do not know, swallow your pride and fill the holes. Everyone taking the qual is a potential resource, whether for material or a different type of explanation of a concept. Working as a team toward learning the material helped me stay focused and acquire a comprehensive review packet.