Merry Christmas to you too!

So, as one more hoop to jump through in Purdue's hoop-filled graduate speech pathology program, this winter break we have to complete "comps."

"Comps" are "comprehensive exams" which have to be passed in order to graduate. (By "exams" I mean multiple 5-10 page long answers to a clinical questions posed by an expert in that field.) Should you fail to pass, there are all sorts of horrible terms that are hinted at, like "remediation." And you'll wind up doing even more work, hoping to prove to the professor that you actually know your stuff.

Now, we all groan over "comps," and apparently they're not that much fun for the faculty either.

Yesterday, in the grad room, one of the professors divulged that he tries to make his question as hard as possible so that no one will pick it and he won't have to grade any tediously boring papers. It just so happens, he's not the only one. Apparently many of the faculty compete to see who can submit the hardest question so that the students will pick someone else's question. (We are required to answer 5 questions total.)

So, in the end, what we as students wind up with is a massive exam packet, full of tedious, long, intense questions, all of which require research paper level work to answer...

THAT'S what I get to do over Christmas break.

Delightful.

Thank you, Purdue.