How to Pass Comps with Flying Colors: The Ultimate Guide for Doctoral Students to Keep Their Sanity
Comps, or comprehensive exams, are what keeps doctoral students up at night. For those of you who will never know the pain of taking these exams, they are designed to test your knowledge on the curriculum over the last two plus years. This pertains to research methodologies, theories, concepts, culture, leadership, or other related topics to the institution’s curriculum. Comps are brutal, absolutely brutal. I have personally seen people mentally break under the pressure because if you don’t pass, you will never finish your doctorate. Luckily, this didn’t happen to me and I owe it all to a strategy I devised.
Now before you go any further, please know that this guide is long. Why? Because your doctorate takes a long time, your dissertation takes a long time, and studying for your comps will take… you guessed it… a long time. Therefore, you are about to read a massive brain dump of years of experience into one article. If you or someone you know is about to go through comps, please share this guide with them because this did not exist when I took mine and it would have saved me hundreds of hours. Adopt what I learned, make it your own, and pass your comps with flying colors!
Let’s begin!
Understand How your University Administers Comps
Each university has their own way of formatting these exams. Some will do a written exam while others will do an oral exam. I, unfortunately or fortunately (depending upon how you look at it), had to do both with the written comps first, followed by defending my reasoning in formal oral exams.
My advice would be to ask every colleague, professor, and advisor in your program about the setup of comps. The more details you can get, the better. Ask them what it was like to take/administer the comps and sit there quietly and listen. You’ll pick up clues with every story. Some of my own questions I was able to answer for the written portion were:
What was the location like?
Did you type or hand write your answers?
Was it timed?
What happens if you don’t finish on time?
What was the average written length?
Moving on to the oral exams, I asked about:
What was the presence like in the room?
How many people interviewed you?
Were you able to change your mind from the written exam?
What happens if you disagree with a faculty member’s perspective?
What types of questions did the faculty ask?
Which faculty members are known for having tougher reputations?
If you can, try to get both perspectives of a faculty member’s view and a student’s view. This will help you understand both perspectives and will create a more complete picture of exactly what to expect on the day(s) of your comps.
Identify the Types of Domains
First, let’s talk about the types of domains and what I mean by this. Most institutions will ask you to answer questions divided into three domains: research methodologies, sociocultural issues, and a particular subject matter. Noticed how I did use the word “most” because it is entirely possible for your institution to use other domains. You can openly ask which domains are on the comps and this is a standard process for faculty members to help you prepare for these exams. Some institutions will also list which domains they will ask about on their website. Here is a quick overview of the three domains I was tested on:
Research Methodologies
One comp domain is usually research methodology. A majority of your curriculum covers research so you can count on this for your comps. This means having a firm understanding on quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods.
If you are able to, ask your colleagues who have taken comps previously if there were options to answer the research question with picking only one approach. From my comps, there were multiple questions allowing us to answer with one particular research methodology. This means that it was more time effective to focus all of my attention on becoming the expert on one or two models of qualitative OR quantitative research and not on both. Faculty are not looking for well-rounded knowledge on all types of research. They want to see a mastered level of a particular research method. For instance, if I was going to dedicate my time to studying qualitative research, I would have a vast understanding of two of these: case study model, narrative model, phenomenological method, ethnographic method, historical model or grounded theory method. I wouldn’t try to study literally all of them.
My advice: pick whichever you are already most comfortable with and build upon them. If you select quantitative, you will most likely have an easier time given that there isn’t as much variation in quantitative research, compared to qualitative. This isn’t to say that one is naturally easier than the other, but it’s more about having an easier time defending your reasoning. Remember that you are expected to quote researchers, studies, dates, etc. to defend your reasoning so taking a qualitative approach would mean memorizing more since there are more types of qualitative methods.
I also intentionally left out mixed methods as an option because many institutions are unsure of mixed methods and don’t know what to do with this approach. Even though it has been well documented (Caracelli, Graham & Greene (1989), Creswell & Plano Clark (2011), Teddlie & Tashaakkori (2009)), it’s rare to find faculty members well versed in this approach. Since they are the ones grading your response and their grading is going to be subjective, I would steer away from mixed methods. I did not take my own advice for my comps and still answered the research question using mixed methods. I had a hell of a time defending my reasoning for my selection. As much as I love this methodology (my dissertation was explanatory sequential mixed methods) would advise against it for comps.
Sociocultural Issues*
Why is there an asterisk on sociocultural issues? Depending upon your curriculum, this could be a different domain. A Ph.D. in Psychology is going to have different domains compared to an Ed.D. in Higher Education. Once again, ask your colleagues and professors about the types of domains that will be on your comps.
So, what does the term sociocultural mean? Think of social and cultural factors that have now created issues for you to solve. These will be issues directly linked to your program’s curriculum. Since my doctorate is in educational leadership, my program’s curriculum consisted of several K-12 issues including:
Closing the achievement gap
White privilege
Toxic school cultures
Poverty and behavior
These issues are all complexed and do not have a simple answer. As a researcher and scholar, it’s your job on these comps to be able to explain in explicit detail your step by step process of trying to address these issues.
Leadership
Leadership was the concentration for my studies. Maybe your doctorate will be in elementary education, special education, secondary education, or something else. Whatever it is, be sure to become a subject matter expert on this domain. Leave no stone unturned and know this topic and the appropriate researchers inside and out.
Identify the types of questions on the exams
Since you have already identified the domains and themes, now you should craft how you are going to answer the question. It is not enough to only know about a subject matter. You need to know how to utilize this information. Let me explain. Your questions on your comps will have a written problem or scenario for you to answer. The questions are never something as simple as saying, “Tell me everything you know about qualitative research.” The questions will be crafted for you to apply your knowledge to a problem and the faculty members will be evaluating how you solved the problem and how you will defend it in the future.
For instance, here are a few questions on each of the domains I mentioned above:
Research – Assume you are responsible for conducting qualitative research to solve XYZ problem. Discuss your reasoning for selecting a specific qualitative research methodology. Outline the qualitative research process. How will research inform your practice as an educational leader?
Sociocultural - Describe what is meant by the achievement gap and identify a solution for the achievement gap.
Leadership - Compare and contrast a classic theorist to a contemporary theorist and discuss how these theories are applicable to educational leadership.
Notice how each of these hypothetical questions are more intricate than just writing everything you possibly know about one area. They all require several steps to answer the question properly.
Collect and Scrub Your Research and Notes
Since you know what you are in for, it’s time to collect your data. Create a Google folder for each domain and place all of your notes and materials in the appropriate folder. If you are fortunate enough to be a part of a cohort, send each other all of your materials. This will be crucial for you to see other perspectives and read additional notes on a topic you may have missed or were not that interested in. This is a simple step to become more organized. Don’t skip it!
Okay, how are you feeling? Are you hanging in there? I know, this is extremely long for a blog post, but I hope it’s been helpful so far. You may want to grab a cup of coffee for the next part, because this is where the magic happens. Moving on!
Apply, Apply, and Apply
Here. We. Go. This is why you clicked on this link and this is the heart of my strategy that will help you pass your comps. After you have read and studied your materials, it’s time to practice what a comp will be like! Open up a new Word doc. Craft up a hypothetical comp question and place it at the top of the page. From here, create an outline on how you will answer the question. Here is an example of how I outlined one of the previous hypothetical questions:
Question: Describe what is meant by the achievement gap. Identify a solution for the achievement gap.
Outline:
Introduction - Noguera and Wade’s two themed tiers
Technology in the classroom
Emergence of learning theories with technology
Adaptive Learning
Concepts of adaptive learning
Examples of adaptive learning being used in US (Harvard Study - Dreambox)
Examples of adaptive learning being used in China
Conclusion
Next, write down quotes, dates, researchers, or anything else needed to help your craft a thorough outline. Create hyperlinks to these resources to help refresh your memory. For now, you can use these resources and materials to create an outline. Think of it like cheat sheet, which some comps do allow you to have! Mine, not so much.
With all of these resources at your fingertips, answer the question as best as you can. You can see an example of how I actually answered this practice comp here. The steps could be summarized as:
Write down the hypothetical comp question
Use open resources
Create an outline to answer the question
Write as much as possible
Do not time yourself
As you can see, I created an outline to help me break down the question, provided quotes and resources to defend my reasoning, wrote as much as I could building upon the outline, and then proofread the paper to ensure everything made sense. Once you have written your draft, stop writing. Be proud of your accomplishment and do not think about comps for 24-48 hours. I’m making you practice a concept called, “spaced” education (Kang, 2016). This will allow your brain to interpret and retain information in a more effective way over a period of time. If you did attempt to keep on writing draft after draft, you would burn yourself out and would not retain as much information. Practice this style of writing for at least one week.
After a week has passed with multiple written drafts, now comes the fun part. Replicate the same first few steps with writing down the hypothetical question and creating your outline. This time though, you cannot use any resources or materials to help you. You must type up the answer to the practice comp question by memory alone. You’re also going to time yourself. Most comps will give you 2-3 hours to answer each question and you need to become comfortable with feeling timed. Time stamp each section of the outline to give yourself an idea of how long every section takes. Time yourself for 1 hour and write as much as you possibly can from memory.
From now on, this is how you will practice. Each time you write, space out these practice sessions by 24-48 hours and continue to not use any notes or resources, and just write as much as possible. Gradually increase your time limit to the 2-3 hour mark. It is amazing how much you can progress with this strategy. Do you remember my first attempt? Well, this was my third attempt using this method. You can see the progress with my time stamps and how much better my writing became every time. I also practiced this way for weeks with every week increasing the amount of time I would write. I promise that if you do this for each domain over a number of weeks, you will be the most confident scholar walking into comps.
You can download my step by step guide to practicing for comps here.
Defend Your Answers Out Loud
If you have oral exams after your written exams, this is the strategy for you. Even if you don’t have oral exams, you should still practice this next technique as the combination of written and auditory methods are more powerful for learning. Give your written answers to colleagues for them to scrutinize your work. Have them comment all over it with pen or use comments from a Google doc. Yes, it’s going to be painful, but this will prepare you for your oral exams. The faculty members will not hold back as they are trying to test your knowledge. Be sure to ask for brutal honesty from whomever is reading your work. Read their comments and answer their questions out loud. If you do this enough, you’ll become more creative with answering the questions and can shape a clearer depiction to the problems.
Remember that it’s all about answering the questions fully and speaking confidently to the processes. You must be able to explain and defend what you said and why you said it. Also, be sure to focus on remaining calm during this time frame. Having a faculty member criticize your work and ask you to defend your reasoning is stressful. You are basically walking into an academic debate. Notice how I wrote debate, and not full-blown argument. Be cool and level headed and remember that you are the one who practiced these questions for literally hours and hours. Be confident and eloquent when you speak. Cite as many credible scholars as you need to for defending your reasoning. Also, it’s okay to push back! Comps are testing your mettle. If you disagree with what a faculty member says, you can respectfully disagree and raise counterpoints. This actually happened in my comps and while it felt awkward, I gained more respect for defending my perspective. I sincerely hope you do not have this happen to you, but this is the real world and debates in academia are quite common.
Ask for Feedback
You need an outside perspective for your written and vocal work. Have someone read your written rebuttals and provide feedback. If you are part of a cohort, I would strongly advise to send your practice comps to them. You can also send these to your advisor or professors. They can provide more unique insight and let you know if you are on track. For the oral practice exams, you have two options. The first is to have someone else listen in on your conversation with another person. This could be done face to face or using Zoom, WebEx, Bluejeans, etc. The other option would be to record yourself on video and carefully observe how you handle yourself. Look for cues with your body language and tone. Remember that it’s the professionalism that will help you with a debate.
That’s it my friends. This is my guide for you on what worked for me and for other colleagues who have gone through doctoral programs. All of my above words are a guide and will certainly help, but representatives and colleagues from your institution will know more about your specific comps. This whole process is also a once in a lifetime event and anyone who has taken comps will gladly tell you about this experience. I was told by a colleague that when I was studying for comps that this was going to be the smartest I’ll ever be in my life, and I can confidently say that she was right. You will go through odd emotions of feeling nervous, to vulnerable, to exhausted, to confident, back to nervous, to then feeling like a superhero. It’s a roller coaster of emotions.
In case you need to hear, know that I am proud of you for sticking to this process. A doctorate is the hardest thing you will ever do in your life and comps are arguably harder than your dissertation. So, go out there, study, practice, conquer those comps, and go make the world a better place.
References:
Caracelli, V. J., Greene, J. C., & Graham, W. F. (1989). Mixed-method data analysis: Strategies and issues.
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Kang, S.H.K. (2016). Spaced repetition promotes efficient and effective learning: Policy mplications for instruction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 3(1) 12–19
Tashakkori, A. & Teddlie, C. (2009). Foundations of mixed methods research: Integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and behavioral sciences. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
