Return-Path: sendmail 8.6.4/UCSD-2.2-sun Mon, 6 Dec 1993 15:56:50 -0800 for socgrad-list Mon, 6 Dec 1993 15:56:46 -0800 for From: blovitts@nsf.gov To: socgrad@UCSD.EDU Subject: Hiring and Prelims Date: 6 Dec 93 16:25 EST One trap to AVOID at all costs in a dual hiring situation is accepting 1.5 FTE for a wife and a husband package. It is a fairly common ploy to get two full timers for less than the cost of two -- both end up undervalued financially. As for prelims, at the University of Maryland we take qualifying exams in two areas of our choice after taking three specified courses in each area. The exams are closed book, 6 hours long, and 4 questions each -- so those of you who get 8 hours for 3 questions consider yourselves lucky. As someone who works in the field of education and is aware of the authentic assessment movement, I have mixed feelings about qualifying exams. They do force you to learn and understand a body of knowledge in a way that you would not do otherwise. My major objection to them is that at no time in my professional career has anyone or will anyone ever lock me in a room for six hours and tell me to answer four questions without notes. I work full-time in a professional position and I never write anything of substance without notes nor does anyone I know. Therefore, the method is not exactly authentic. Personally, I would have preferred an oral exam because it is more characteristic of what you will encounter in the real world, i.e., being able to think on your feet in public. But I suspect that 99.9% of those reading this would have paryoxyms at the thought of orals. Another alternative, which I think I've heard a few examples of, is giving students articles to critique. This, too, is a more realistic assessment of what one is capable of doing and will be asked to do in the real world. Hints for those who haven't taken comps yet (I took them in October): The BEST thing that I did in preparation for my exams was to sit down under comps conditions (6 hours, no notes in the 9-3 time slot) and take a practice exam in each of my areas *2* weekends before my exams. (If you don't have access to old exams, talk to students who have taken them and make up and answer your own questions.) This gave me sufficient time to reflect on what I had written, uncover my weakness, think about what else I could of said and who else I could have cited. The practice also gave me a good sense of what I could do in 6 hours, i.e., I discovered that I only needed to write barebones outlines and that I could knock each question off in an hour and a half or less -- timing is a major trap for lots of comps takers, they spend too long on the first and then race through the rest. In addition, I found one person on each of my committees who was willing to read what I had written and give me feedback. (I wasn't pleased to be told to go read another book one week before the exam, but with the help of Evelyn Woods, I did and it made a BIG difference.) Another hint: While comps questions may change, the answers don't. I was able to reuse (and enhance) LARGE chunks of my practice exams on the real thing. Barbara