another one of graduate school’s most horrifying episodes are thankfully now behind me. unfortunately, I can’t say that about all of the folks that took the exam– which is testament to how difficult this thing really was.
the short rundown on the exam: it was made up of three committees, each one of them testing a different subject area. I had the first examination slot in the morning along with two others standing ahead of separate committees; my first assignment was applied mathematics. In this section, the primary subjects tested are knowledge of tensors and linear algebra, differential equations, complex variables and applications, and advanced multivariable calculus. I got five questions, with varying degrees of difficulty– some of them requiring some prompting, but all in all doing alright. There was a moment there, though were Hui was shaking his head at what I was writing. That was a little depressing.
Solid mechanics was next, and boy was this part of the exam easy. Two questions in total, both of them considerably in-depth but typical first-year graduate level continuum mechanics stuff. Some people got tripped up on this part because they forgot definitional equations, but I breezed through it.
Dynamics, supposedly “my best” subject, was last. THE MAN Rand, my advisor, was chair of the committee– and at the end, I was feeling like I may have been a disappointment to him. The first two questions were no problem for me, but as soon as Prof. Peck started asking his question I knew that I would start getting tripped up. There were ambiguous terms, questionable drawings, and all in all I think by the end of my 8 minutes trying to figure out the question most of the audience was thoroughly confused. It did not help that there were six people in this committee, and honestly I didn’t know who to address first or when to move on. It was just miserable.
So, by the end of the exam I wasn’t feeling too hot about it all. I went home, took care of some errands, and tried taking a nap. Failing to do so, Anita and I went to see District 9 at Ithaca Mall, which diverted my attention well. After the film was over, I took her back to campus– and on the way saw Prof. Strogatz walking out of Thurston Hall. Being that this was a good sign that the results for the exam were ready, I quickly parked and hustled up to Prof. Sachse’s office.
“Congratulations,” he said, as I felt my knees give out. To say I was apprehensive about that would be an understatement– and the sense of relief was overwhelming. We sat and chit-chatted for a bit about what this means for my future academic career, and I promptly left his office to go spread the word around that the results were ready.
This ends one chapter of hardship, but honestly I don’t feel too happy about it all. I really feel disappointed at how I performed during the exam, and I personally wonder why I got the grace of a pass when others did not. While I know I’ll never learned what was discussed as the faculty was voting to pass me or not, I feel like a sense of disappointment probably spread across them as well… and I guess that’s a little depressing for me to think about. But, onward and upward– it’s time to buckle down on research.
Now off to San Diego…