Table Of ContentORAL EXAMS
ORAL EXAMS
Preparing For and Passing
Candidacy, Qualifying, and
Graduate Defenses
A. L F
EE OOTE
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Acknowledgments
There are many people to thank in a work like this. First and fore-
most, I thank the graduate students, both my own and those who gave
me the honor of sitting on their evaluation committees, for making me
think hard about how to evaluate their research. I learned more from
them than vice versa so this is my attempt to return the favor to the
generations of students who follow.
Asanelectedjudgefor 30years,myfather,George M.Foote,demon-
strated how to ask probing questions and keep an open mind for asses-
sing answers. I hope some of his insight rubbed off on me. For the love
of words and story-telling, my mom, Antonia Voelker Foote, reinforced
the joy of language—she could really tear up a scrabble board in her
day! Over thousands of breakfast tables, kilometers of discussion, and
late night glasses of wine, my wife, Dr. Naomi Krogman, an accom-
plished scholar of sociology and exceptional student-mentor in her own
right, has hugely influenced my views on the pivotal role of epistemol-
ogy in exam questions (and she helps keep us all fed and happy too!).
My daughters are my light, air, and water and they have endured my
holing up in my study for writing more than any of us wanted but they
still entreated and lured me out with music, coffee, and perfectly timed
interruptions.
My own PhD supervisor Dr. John Kadlec and PhD mentors Drs. Dave
Balph, Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Phil Zwankand BarryGilbert and Jim Grace
all demonstrated academic rigor with a humane streak and a little wry
humor on the side. My colleagues in the field, at the coffee shop, and
around the backyard fire pit have debated and enlivened my thoughts
abouthowweassessstudentcompleteness,comprehensiveness,andcom-
munication.ManyofthequestionsinAppendixIaretheirhandiwork.For
this, I thank B. Shotyk, V. Adamowicz, M. Luckert, K. Tierny, E. Foote,
J. Bisanz, H. Keshani, C. Wilkinson, N. Krogman, C. Maclean, L. Siegler,
N. Nations, M. Kostelsky, N. Lemphers, L. Siegler, N. Kav, and
S.Zwicker.
Finally, I thank David Foote for his editorial eye and Ms. Mary
Preap, editorial professional at Elsevier who read my prospectus and
saw sufficient promisein this topic to urge me to keep writing.
If you have comments, corrections or suggestions for future editions
of this book, please send them to [email protected].
ix
C H A P T E R
1
Introduction
Success is a science. If you have the conditions, you get the results. Oscar
Wilde
Why do grooms sometimes faint at the church altar? Polite women
in labor make exorcist sounds and curse like a sailor? Tough football
players sob like a child after championships? Or highly trained gradu-
ate students blush and bluster under questioning? It is partly because
each of these situations is rare, unpracticed and because the individuals
care so deeply about the outcome. The immersion into the experience
places the participant into a new zone of emotional and psychological
investment and expectation. Thinking through these exams carefully
and systematically preparing can help channel the energy, emotion,
focusand responses constructively.
Oral exams leading to the MSc or PhD degree are mysterious and
unique exam types to many students and a source of anxiety for most.
Virtually all graduate students experience tensions and concerns while
preparing for their graduate oral exams and, of all the milestones of
one’s career, these may represent the most intense intellectual crucible.
To many, walking into an oral exam can feel like marching into a firing
squad where students will face five austere professors armed with
papers and computers ready to fire questions for 3h before dismissing
the exhausted student from the room so the committee can pass judg-
ment on the performance. The pressureand implications can rattle even
the most secure students because these are evaluative exams with a
pure focus on the student’s knowledge and communication; there is
truly no place to hide, and faking it is not an option. Consequently,
moststudents enter oralexams on pins andneedles.
Indeed, there are the very real opportunities for a tremendous career
step up toward holding an advanced degree as well as finding doors to
employment and social approval opened to the student for life. It is
1
OralExams. ©2016ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.
2
1. INTRODUCTION
helpful to focus on this positive outcome and how to achieve it. Still,
understanding the downside, what can lead to less than stellar perfor-
mance and how to avoid problems is the glass-half-empty portion of
this book. There are also repercussions following the occasional failure
leading to embarrassment, economic hardship, a great deal more work
and sometimes abandonment of a body of work and years of one’s life
endeavors. Thus, the stakes are quite high. Then there is the perception
of what it means to fail. Because the oral exams come sometimes a year
or years into the program of study, the sunk costs in concert with the
ungrounded worries about failure can lead students to conflate their
own sense of self-worth with the outcome of the exam. This linkage
needs to be spelled out as two clearly different components.
Unfortunately, many graduate students (and professors!) have their
identities wrapped up in their degree-holding academic credentials.
Consequently, the elevated prospects of success or failure are seen as a
knife edge between being a success or enduring banishment, rejection,
andpersonal failure atthe hands ofthe very peers one seeks to join.
Simply knowing that it is possible to fail an oral exam for many dif-
ferentreasonsisterrifying.Anoutrightfail,althoughrare,caninfluence
one’s entire career trajectory. Given the high stakes, it is essential that
you learn what is expected, strategies on how to prepare and how to
exercise your options at each stage of the process. This book can be
very helpful in that process. Holding knowledge of the examination
process, personalities, and your own strengths can convert the oral
exam from a chilling ordeal into one of flow, validation, and comple-
tion. Oral exams can become, if not a pleasant, at least a rewarding,
stepping stone into an elite circle of academia. Ultimately, I hope this
book is part of changing the culture of fear and mystery that has need-
lessly surrounded these exams for thelast 3001 years.
My personal experiences in my own three oral exams in graduate
school helped motivate this book and added to my empathy and an
awareness of needs faced by many graduate students we see facing a
paucity of information on oral exams. Further experience accumulated
from serving as an examiner, chair, external or committee member in
over100oralexamsinthelast15yearsasaprofessoratalargeresearch
university. Shared experiences with my own 25 successful graduate stu-
dents(nofailuresyet!)andtheadviceandsuggestionsofover30profes-
sional colleagues, scholars, and reviewers confirm the scarcity of
guidance and training for oral exams. These same experts produced
manyoftheseveralhundredexcellent(andafewlame)oralexamques-
tionsrecordedoverthelastdecade(listedbydisciplineinAppendixI).
The text is written in a casual, readable style replete with anecdotes
andcharacterstokeepthereadingconversationalandaccessibleinstead
of dense and slogging—you will have plenty of that in your topical
ORALEXAMS
3
INTRODUCTION
preparation! Please read this book and keep in perspective that neither
these exams, your ego, nor even your degree is the most important
thing at stake here. These are just progress markers on a life journey,
not the traveler themselves. Your dignity, value as a human being, your
loved ones, and your life’s contributions in all forms come first. In
stressful oral exams, it helps to remember there really are more impor-
tant things in life even if it doesn’t seem the case as you walk into that
examination room. If you can’t see this prior to the exam, I assure you,
it willbecome obviousin thefullness of time.
Patternsofsuccessfulandunsuccessfulcandidatesemergefromlarge
numbers of test-takers and these patterns are generalized to help read-
ers recognize syndromes or personality types that often lead to
predictable outcomes. One of my graduate students liked to say
“Hind-end sight is always 20:20”. In virtually every problematic exam,
hindsight reveals ways that could have converted the outcome into a
successful and gratifying test had the student or their supervisor
prepared differently or been more strategic. Please know that brilliance
is not essential to earn a PhD, though discipline and hard work
certainly are. Advanced degrees are more of a grunt than a flash. A
recent study (Burmeister et al., 2014) found grade point averages at
admission were poor predictors of graduate student success in medical
physics for example. They found that analytical and communication
skills werebetterpredictors of success.
This book will help you capitalize on strengths and skip many traps.
Students preparing for their oral exams should be able to benefit from
the mistakes that have occurred in the past, burnish winning strategies
of preparation and communication, and frame the oral exam in a posi-
tive light. Unfortunately, until now, there have been no good compiled
sources of this kind of guidance. We will examine some heartwarming
stories of success and some exam train wrecks, then outline how each
came to be.
Few students reach the oral exam stage in graduate school without
adequate intellect, aptitude, and knowledge and it is heartbreaking and
utterly unnecessary for any of these highly qualified students to fumble
oral exams for simple, preventable reasons.
There is one important caveat I will repeat throughout this book
however;oralexamsvarygreatlybycountry,institution, andevencom-
mittee membership so students must research the examination criteria
specific to their institution, faculty, and department. There is guidance
in this book that will be helpful to all, for example, managing nerves,
nutrition, composure, practice, question types, etc., but understand that
microbiology MSc defenses differ from Sociology PhD qualifying
exams, which differ from European arts vivas in their structure, con-
tent, committee membership, duration, question order, and expectation.
ORALEXAMS
4
1. INTRODUCTION
Still, despite my drawing heavily on North American examples and
questions, the guidance in this book will assist all oral exam takers.
I have added a trio of chapters toward the end to bring some useful
oral exam concepts to bear on job interviews,medical board oralexams,
judicial cross-examination, andoral testimony beforegoverning bodies.
The three objectives of this book are to (i) provide abundant guid-
ance and material for student use in a thorough preparation for oral
exams, (ii) help gain control and comfort with setting, emotions, inter-
personal dynamics, and other exam-crushing distractions by demystify-
ing the process, and (iii) assist professors to become better examiners
and mentors in preparing graduate students (and themselves!) for oral
exams.
Thecontent,dynamics,andpsychologyoforalexamsmakethemdra-
matically different from conventional written exams. Although the most
caring professors offer much great advice and preparation by actively
mentoring their students, far too many cannot, or do not. Equally as
troubling is that for students who feel lost, under-advised or needing
moreperspective,thereisapaucityofwritteninformation;however,one
excellent UK-focused book by Murray (2003) focuses on the viva, a
specialized European style of oral exam. Although they may disappear
into the digital vacuum at any moment, there are also websites and
blog sites about preparing for oral exams listed in Appendix II. A word
of caution however, some bloggers have posted cynical or even
fear-inspiringpersonalstoriesthatIdon’trecommend.
This book is designed to fill a pressing need of providing a compre-
hensive and systematic treatment of oral exams. Professors are also
valuable teachers of this process and most will eventually learn success
strategies through trial and error, but what about the fates of great
students who bear the brunt of helping the inexperienced assistant
professor make those learning mistakes? Therefore, this book is also for
professors who care about their graduate student’s welfare and would
like additional perspectiveson how to helpthem. There are many paths
to themountaintopbut having a choice of routes up isvery nice.
By the end of this book, you will better know options at each step of
the exam process which is hugely valuable for erasing the irrational
fears and uncertainties about this process. You will also have a well-
promptedlist ofquestionstoaskandassumptionstoexplorewiththose
who will decide upon your performance. We will go step by step
through everything from managing your nerves, influencing the
committee makeup, understanding your committee’s expectations, pre-
paring and arranging your content, mental preparation, question
framing, structuring answers, practice, and the major types of questions
you can expect. There are many sample questions in Appendix I sorted
by representative disciplines that you will be encouragedto use.
ORALEXAMS
5
EXAMTYPES
Thisexampreparationandpresentationadvicewillalsobenefitthose
preparing for other types of intensive oral delivery of qualifying or
certification exams, job interviews and heck, maybe even that all-
important oral exam upon first meeting your future in-laws!
Throughout the book, I will try to provide true stories, metaphors, and
examples from my own students. I have changed names to provide
anonymity and in some cases have combined components from differ-
ent situations to illustrate helpful points. Although I recommend stu-
dents read all of the chapters because they build on each other, each
chapter is also a free-standing treatment of the topic for readers with
specific information needs.
EXAM TYPES
There are distinctions between the various types of oral exams. In
the United Kingdom, Scotland, Germany, and a few other European
countries, the more common term for the PhD oral exam is viva voce,
literally translated as “living voice” or “word of mouth”, while
undergraduate oral exams are just called oral exams. These European
exams, sometimes shortened to vivas (pronunciation almost rhymes
with “fiver” said with a Brooklyn accent), are the precursors and
models for the more recently created oral exams, though they differ in
someimportant waysoutlined later.
In most of North America, the family of oral exams includes the MSc
thesis defense exam, preliminary exams or qualifying exams,
Candidacy exam, and the PhD defense. Oral exams are also used in
some undergraduate honors theses. Various institutions may convert
someofthesetowrittenexams andmaycombineorsubstitutethequal-
ifyingand candidacy exams. Be sure to examinethegraduate handbook
or guidelines of your specific institution for the format details and
expectations. If you don’t check your university’s specific arrangement
you may end up being surprised at what you will face. Still, all oral
exams share certain needs such as content preparation, composure
management, awareness of committee dynamics, synthetic thinking,
well-structured answers, and responsive interaction under questioning.
Although some graduate programs incorporate written exams, those
are not treated here beyond saying sometimes oral questions are drawn
from thestudent’s answers on writtens sobe warned.
Professors are encouraged to keep a copy of this book kicking
around their labs or to provide copies to incoming graduate students.
Conversely, it may be wise for graduate students to make sure their
professors have read this as well so everyone is on the same page!
I take a few pokes at my colleagues in text and encourage us all to not
ORALEXAMS
6
1. INTRODUCTION
be “That guy!” on committees. Lab groups might find the sample ques-
tions in Appendix I a good starting point for practicing collegiality and
helping quiz their lab mates so all can grow and succeed. Some discus-
sion of the Web site content listed in Appendix II would make a good
beer and pizza night too. I am confident that every student following
this book’s recommendations can move their oral exams further from a
traumatic episode and closer to a gratifying experience of Socratic
discussionof their project!
Let’s get onwith it.
CHAPTER NOTES
ORALEXAMS
