The Prelim Exam Game Plan

By Andrea Porter

Reading two books on experimental design, which is enough to put 10 people to sleep per night or one person to sleep for a whole week, is not the right game plan. Let me put that out there first, in case it’s your first thought too.

Prelim exams differ by degree, but interdisciplinary engineering assigns students a topic outside of their research realm and asks them to prepare a literature review, find knowledge gaps, and design three experiments. The deliverable is a paper due in five days, with no outside help or Chat GPT allowed.

Going in I was confident; I knew I could do most of it and could figure out the rest. Here’s how my five days went:
 

• Day 1: Got topic at 8:00 a.m. Apologized in advance to hubby for ogre behavior that was probably coming. Spent rest of the first day reading about welding helmets and biosensors (my assigned topic).

 

• Day 2: Read about OSHA welding regulations, the history of MIG welding, welding art, metals used in art, metallic jewelry, the history of Kendra Scott, and ended the day buying jewelry. (I don’t even like jewelry.)

 

• Day 3: Started writing resignation from program. Went for a run to clear my head. Decided maybe Grand Canyon University would be a better choice because they probably don’t have prelim exams. Back to writing. Pondered why I willingly left my nice job only to take tests like these. Thought about becoming a welder. Barked at husband way too much.

 

• Day 4: A blur spent drowning in Mountain Dew.

 

• Day 5: Considered my future as a Starbucks Barista. Proofread my paper. Drew visualization of paper’s flow, then sent it and the paper in four hours before it was due, like a barely-beat-the- buzzer champ.

Coming out of the test, I was a haggard ogre and brainless wreck. I found husband similarly haggard from gorging on chips and cookies but thankfully still living with me.

By the grace of my committee, I passed. But it makes me wonder if these prelim exams are to expose your  weak points so when you go through the next gauntlet, the committee knows where to go in for the kill….I’m saving that worry for another day and my new therapist.

If I ever have to do this again, this is the plan that I would use:
 

• Day 1: Read topic, get on treadmill with laptop and think through ideas, writing them down as they come. Start “prelim thoughts” document.* Spend time reading a little on each idea, then read in depth on those with merit.

 

• Day 2: Begin drawing the flow of the paper. Research best ideas from previous day and add to visualization. Get in some exercise during the day.

 

• Day 3: Begin writing, which is to say just write, even if its hard and not the right words. Keep mouth shut when desiring to bark at hubby.

 

• Day 4: Finish writing, finish visualization, proofread and turn paper in like a true champ

 

• Day 5: Go to the beach. Take hubby too.

*This is the most important document of the whole process. Write down all the thoughts that are useless to this process—ideas about what you should be doing with your life instead of a PhD, why you don’t belong in the program, why you aren’t smart enough, etc. Scribing these thoughts is very important for two reasons. First, you can take those thoughts out of your head and put them elsewhere to rest and not take up brain power (kind of like Dumbledore puts his thoughts away in his sieve). Second, you have something funny yet insightful to read later. Much later.