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WTF are grad qualifier exams for?

Anonymous Sun 13 Dec 20:54:26 2020 No.12461532 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>12461545 >>12461558 >>12462383 >>12462450

/sci/, I'm really puzzled by this. The qualifier exam tests your bachelor's level knowledge. Why? Didn't these retards admit me because I knew my shit and was good enough for grad school? Is my diploma not enough?
Another reason may be weeding out, but I asked my advisor and she said it is not for that. I am given 4 tries to make sure I don't fail.
So why the fuck am I wasting a month preparing for this 8 hour exam about shit I was already tested on in undergrad?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 13 Dec 2020 20:58:34 No.12461545 Report

Quoted By: >>12461556 >>12462442

>>12461532
I got pissed off when i heard i had to take a GRE and decided not to go for a PHD. Fuck them, they should be luring me in. I had my grades, thesis and letters. Should be worth more than a gay test

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 13 Dec 2020 21:01:42 No.12461556 Report

Quoted By:

>>12461545
the GRE is also infuriating as fuck. At least I don't have to pay ridiculous money for the qualifier.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 13 Dec 2020 21:01:59 No.12461558 Report

Quoted By: >>12461582

>>12461532
I am not sure about your program, but at my school (and all the others I have heard from) the quals/comps usually test on whatever the "core" of your grad coursework is (read: everything but the electives). Sure, I had taken some coursework related to the classes I was tested on, but the grad courses went into the subjects in more detail. I digress, the purpose of the exam is to make sure you have a basic enough competency in your field to conduct research, I am not sure why they would test you specifically on "undergrad level material" unless it was something that you presumably covered in the required course material for your program.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 13 Dec 2020 21:05:44 No.12461582 Report

Quoted By: >>12462407

>>12461558
I think you're talking about what we call "preliminary examination" in my school. It's quite different. For us you need to take prelim at the end of your second year, and it tests you on all the grad ancillary courses. The test I'm talking about is taken before you even start grad school and tests your bachelor's knowledge. It was supposed to be conducted this August for me, but the cunts cancelled it because of corona. Guess what, we're taking it this January, it's online, I have to have my webcam on at all times (no invasion of privacy whatsoever), there's 10 times more stuff that could go wrong, and I have practically no winter break. What a fun time to be had for a pointless test.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 01:58:54 No.12462383 Report

Quoted By: >>12462442

>>12461532
I wrote the GRE when I was applying to grad school, it was easy as fuck. I spent a solid three days cramming for it and ended up with percentile scores in the mid to high 90's. And I'm not some kind of genius or anything. My IQ is like 110 (done through a legit IQ test, not some website that I redid a hundred times until I got a score I liked), I was a straight B student all throughout highschool and my undergrad. If you have trouble with the GRE test you truly are a brainlet who doesn't deserve to go to grad school. As for the purpose of it, I don't know for sure. Maybe they do it so they can get a feel for whether your transcripts are actually representative of your abilities, and as a sort of way to rank different schools or countries. There might be three applicants, one from Princeton, one from university of Toronto, and one from some Indian school, all of which have a 4.0 GPA by their schools standards. A difference in a universally standardised test like the GRE might be a good way to compare the three students, or the three institutions.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:05:03 No.12462407 Report

Quoted By: >>12462424

>>12461582
>Webcam on the whole time
>Invasion of privacy
They need to monitor what you're doing so you don't cheat you dumb fuck. If you agree to do the test it's not an invasion of privacy. When you write the GRE in person they have you in a cubicle in a room with a video camera pointed at you to monitor what you're doing. Just be thankful you get to do it at home instead of in a smelly room with a crusty keyboard and some computer that looks like it was originally bought with windows vista on it. Walking into that room I felt like I was transported to a call center in the middle of Mumbai. Everything was sticky. The desk, the chair, the mouse, the earmuffs they gave me to muffle the sounds of everyone else typing and breathing.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:09:20 No.12462424 Report

Quoted By:

>>12462407
>They need to monitor what you're doing so you don't cheat you dumb fuck.
no shit. Doesn't mean I'm not uncomfortable with some kike looking at my personal space.
>If you agree to do the test it's not an invasion of privacy.
I don't really have a choice. It's either this or bye-bye, phd.
>just be thankful you get to do it at home instead of in a smelly room with a crusty keyboard and some computer that looks like it was originally bought with windows vista on it.
I'd rather do that in a controlled environment then have anxiety over my scanner and have some shill breathe down my neck while I do it.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:13:42 No.12462442 Report

Quoted By:

>>12461545
>>12462383
>people in this thread think I'm talking about the GRE
I'm not, you idiots

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:14:53 No.12462450 Report

Quoted By: >>12462457

>>12461532
Because the US system stresses breadth of knowledge in its PhD candidates. The UK system (and the systems of most other countries) emphasise depth in a specific area, so they don't care about stuff like the GRE.
The idea with the US system is that the whole thing should be integrated with a masters programme so that overall, the PhD candidates which are produced in the end have a stronger knowledge of their fields than those who focused on something too particular too early. The latter tends to hit the bedrock of their specialisations too early and then stagnates when things go badly (although they can also go very well) - because they don't have broad enough knowledge to make any connections with other areas.
Personally, I think this is one of the few points where the US system is better.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:16:31 No.12462457 Report

Quoted By: >>12462463

>>12462450
Qualifying exams are part of this philosophy by the way. People were talking about the GRE so I referred to that, but you get the idea.
You can think of it as a pleb filter. It's not hard, just meant to test that you have mastered the basics so you aren't an overspecialised nerd.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:18:42 No.12462463 Report

Quoted By: >>12462479

>>12462457
why is my diploma not enough for this? Supposedly I got admitted because I know my shit. Why admit me in the first place if you're going to test that shit again and I have to waste my winter break preparing for it. Isn't it just testing for the sake of testing?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:24:44 No.12462479 Report

Quoted By: >>12462487

>>12462463
In programmes without this, it's common for PhD students to just go directly into research and neglect anything else. This leads to PhD students forgetting large amounts of the basics. I commonly see this firsthand, and it's a real benefit of the American qualifying exams that the PhD students are forced to stay sharp if they want to continue.
Having said that, I do think that the classes often re-do too much material you probably covered already as an undergrad. And there may be more effective ways of getting people to hold broader foundations in their subjects.
But that's the idea behind it.
Also
>Supposedly I got admitted because I know my shit
this is kind of true, but you can think of quals as the second layer of the pleb filter.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:28:15 No.12462487 Report

Quoted By: >>12462505

>>12462479
fine, I guess I have to suffer. My mom suggested I do a PhD in the US because the EU sucks in that regard, and the UK is even worse. Your post is a good complement to this.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 14 Dec 2020 02:34:50 No.12462505 Report

Quoted By:

>>12462487
Your mother is right. As a whole, unless you're going to a place like ENS Paris or you have a particular supervisor you want, or you're some force of nature yourself, the US will make you a better scientist overall.
You'll probably just hurt a bit more in the process.

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