A Soprano's Scratchpad

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Milestone reached!

I have just finished my comprehensive exam! The comprehensive exam (AKA "comps") consists of five essay questions related to topics from the three required music education courses for Master of Music Education candidates at UNC. Historically, students received the questions in advance and then showed up on a given day to write the exam in one sitting without notes. The Music Ed department at UNC has decided it would rather administer the exam as a take-home exam, allowing students to take advantage of a great variety of resources, with the expectation that the final product will be of much higher quality and greater educational value. This is the first semester they have tried it this way - my classmates and I are the guinea pigs. Personally, I am glad to have been given the opportunity to turn in something I can be proud of, but I haven't even looked at my other two research projects for two weeks because I've been entrenched in my comps, and this is a scary thing. BUT -- I'm done with the comps! I emailed an electronic copy to my professors just a few minutes ago and will hand in the hard copy tomorrow morning. It's soooooo refreshing to have that behind me. Now I just need to put my nose to the grindstone for another five weeks and finish this baby up!