See post for details on what I’m doing to prepare for my 5-day written Qualifying Exam and all the steps that lead to this process! I’ll post another post-Quals to reflect on the process as a whole.

What the Qualifying Exam is

5-day written exam! Questions are developed by your committee members, and committee members may provide you with a reading list of literature, textbooks, or books to study and prepare for their question.

Most students take 8-10 weeks to study, sometimes longer.

How it all began

October 2025:
Prior to the committee meeting, I sent around my ROUGH ROUGH draft of the PhD Proposal and the agenda for the meeting.

November 2025:
The meeting was held early November and we went through slides I prepared to go over the various aspects of the proposal and the different chapters. We discussed the chapters and I also stated that I would like to take my Qualifying Exam in Winter 2026.

Planning the exam

I requested my readings in late January for an exam slated for March 16-20. In my email requesting my reading list, I also listed my idea of how questions might shake out from my committee members: Steven Solo Q; Steven and Drew Co-write a Q; Drew solo Q; Chelsea solo Q; and Chelsea and Jen (GSR) co-write a Q. I also stated my goals of what I’d like to feel like and what skills I’d like to have once I complete my PhD to provide some ideas of things they might test me on. I received the readings throughout the first week of February, giving me about 5 weeks of study time.

I came down with the flu and it knocked me out Feb 13-22… huge loss of reading time!! By the time I came back into the real world, I only had ~3 weeks of study time. I chatted with peers who have taken the exam themselves and they all recommended I request a postponement so that I can properly study and digest the material.

New exam date: April 20-24, giving me about 8 weeks post-flu of study time! This is more in line what folks give themselves… anywhere between 2 months and a whole quarter of preparation time.

My Reading and Study Process

I’m going through this process for each Question/set of readings one at a time. I am averaging anywhere from 2-4 hours of study time per day (so far just weekdays, but this weekend I’m starting to add in weekend reading/lit review time).

I scheduled out every day between then and the exam, assigning myself papers to read from the lists, a few days at the end of each reading set to do further literature review, with the last 1.5 weeks prior to the exam as overall review time of all my notes and ideas.

1. Reading

I’m reading the papers on Zotero, and using color-coded highlighting. I highlight in red the statements that are about the field in general. Yellow are statements/claims made by the paper. Purple are supporting evidence for the statements/claims made by the paper (yellow highlights). Green are new terms that are provided with their definitions in the text. Blue are things I need/want to look further into - some are citations I want to go read for myself, others are concepts or terms I want to learn more about.

2. Typing up notes

After I’ve read through and highlighted a paper in Zotero, I then type up the highlighted sections into a google doc organized by question/reading list so that on exam day, I have the capability of “control+F” any terms or concepts and be able to quickly pull up my notes. In transferring over the highlighted sections while typing, I’m re-reading the key points of the paper, and summarizing them into the document. The notes are not highlighted, but I DO highlight in bright blue the things that I want to look further into, so that I remember to do that.

3. Handwriting key concepts

Then, after I’ve read and highlighted the paper, typed up the key points into a google doc, I then write down in a notebook (I know that I remember things best when I physically write them down) the MAIN concepts or themes from the paper and any reflections or thoughts I have on it and any ties I see to other readings or concepts I know. This is where I do some network/mapping of concepts to tie things across papers.

4. Further literature review

After I do steps 1-3 for each paper the reading set, I do the further literature review by going back into my notes to the citations I highlighted in blue, concepts I wanted to learn more about, etc., and compile papers and take quick notes on them to synthesize the concepts, and add them to my google doc and any new insights into patterns into the notebook notes.

What I’m NOT Doing

I am not using chatgpt or any AI for this. As a general rule, I avoid using chatgpt and all AI except for a very rare few times when doing research when I want to see if it can help me troubleshoot a coding issue or understand a code chunk, though I always prefer to read into the manuals and online forums for help. I personally am avoiding using chatgpt and AI for environmental, humanitarian, and academic reasons.

I want my brain to be what synthesizes information, reads the papers, and makes connections. Studying for this exam (and doing my own research) is important to me. So it may take a little longer each day than if I were to use some form of AI to study, but this is how I want to do it, so that’s what I’m doing.