This is how the SYE game is played...
At the beginning of the summer you get a big long reading list, which is segmented into four groups. Each segment on the reading list contains readings that will be helpful to answering a question on the exam. You are to pick three of the four segments on the list, and read all the publications and books throughout the summer, along the way finding other academic papers that seem relevant. However, while you have this reading list, you do NOT have the questions you need to answer. The strategy is to pay close attention to each reading, take careful notes, and try to find other related publications (and hope for the best).
It's a harrowing summer journey through scientific literature, and much like any other journey of epic proportions, requires a journal to record findings along the way.
Lewis and Clark's Journal
Part of what makes summer reading hard, is that it requires you to have a high level of self-regulation and goal directed behavior without the support of intermediary deadlines...while the sun is shining and I'd rather go swimming. In other words, I had to approach the reading list like I was teaching my own course to myself. Two weeks would cover certain readings, another two weeks focused on something else. The goals were hard to stick to. Mostly because I had no pressure to stick to them. Furthermore, by August I was having a hard time remembering what I had read in June!
Needless to say, the week before the exams were distributed, I was feeling on-edge.
After getting the reading list for the summer, the faculty of the cognitive program distribute the second year exams. These are four essay questions, of which you are to select the three that match the segments of the reading list you covered. From there, you get 7 days to address the questions, each of which warrant anywhere from 12-15 pages each, and encompass both the readings you did during the summer AND the readings you were supposed to find independently. If you don't address the question adequately, you have to edit heavily, and sometimes even rewrite one, two, or all three in order to pass the exam.
I'll be honest, it's the worst and best week ever. Psychology is lucky that I like it so much, or that would have been the end of my time here. I learned much more than I ever have in those 7 days of wrestling with the material and organizing it coherently. Furthermore, in order to really focus, the idea is that you lock yourself away like a hermit for the full 7 days as to not be distracted by the outside world and focus as much as possible on the task at hand.
For me, this is physically and emotionally impossible. So I cheated, and took a couple of walks...
Got some Chinese food, called Eric, and even wrote one of the papers in a Starbucks by my house. Did all of these things make me feel guilty? Yep. But I don't regret these little distractions, because two AMAZING things happened after that week of exam writing! The first was that when it was all over, my five best friends in the world came and picked me up in a giant SUV, and we went camping in Colorado Springs for a week.
P.S I cannot WAIT to write all about our trip, and be that annoying blogger that shares all the vacation pictures. Be warned. Here's a preview -- this is us at Seven Falls.
The second was that two weeks after coming back from Colorado, I found out that I PASSED!! AND I DON'T HAVE TO REWRITE ANY OF THEM!
which is a massive relief, because I have a lot to do, and rewriting 15 page papers just wasn't going to fit very well into my schedule of teaching, research, and coursework...and full nights of sleep :)
...ok full nights of sleep for now.
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