Freitag, 10. April 2009

Old Provençal Nursery Rhymes

Not only did I just successfully pass my comprehensive exam, but my examiners were highly complimentary about my work as well!
*bounces around excitedly*

Which puts me one step closer to earning my masters' degree. (Eventually I may even get around to finishing my bachelors'...)

I am so relieved to have this over and not have to worry about it anymore. The anticipation (let's say 'Vorangst,' rather than Vorfreude) was definitely the worst part. I panicked several times at various stages in the process because I was terrified not so much of the exam itself, but of doing something wrong. Not knowing what to expect, and being afraid that I wouldn't be able to perform when I needed to.
The oral part of the exam was exciting in a way. The chance to talk about what I've silently been obsessing over all this time. I learned something from it as well; a couple of times someone suggested a line of thought which hadn't occured to me at all, but which had intriguing possibilities for pursuing further. And that, it seems to me is ideally what the oral examination should do: not just demonstrate competence, but provoke further exploration.

Also, I am informed that 'graduate student' is a very practical career choice with the current economic situation. So maybe there's hope for me yet.

Oh, yes, the post title: one of my committee members threatened that he was only going to ask me about this topic. (Naturally, I did my homework accordingly.) Just in case anyone is curious, this seems to be virgin territory; a google search doesn't turn up a single hit for the phrase -- or rather, it didn't until I posted this. (The internet equivalent of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle: the act of making an observation actually changes the data being observed.)

2 Kommentare:

Anonym hat gesagt…

LOL, "The internet equivalent of the Heisenberg principle" ^_^
Hope your studying for finals is going well!

Brenda hat gesagt…

Likewise. I just have one paper to finish & about 500 lines of Greek to review, so I'm doing pretty well for this time of semester.

I'm glad you posted -- I've been meaning to ask you what your LJ address is!

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