4 Tips on How to Pass Comprehensive Exams

Comprehensive Exams are terrifying. Your entire educational career's value is being determined by your ability to answer a few random questions.
But you can pass! You can do it! And I'm going to tell you how.

The Key is Think about comps REALLY EARLY. Congratulations on your acceptance to grad school. What's the comps situation? Most of the tips for success are all to do with early action!

4 Tips on How to Pass Comps

1. Take all of the subjects for comps the semester of comps or the semester before comps. For comprehensive exams at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, I had 3 questions on three different subjects: Semantics and Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, and Translation. I took them in the order listed, one years before, one a semester before, and one the semester of. My scores reflected their proximity to test day. By waiting to take the classes, the course material is fresh in your mind. 
2. When in class, take notes like you're studying for comps. I did flashcards. When in translation, I took notes like it mattered. One important part of comps is citing scholars, so that was my constant question: "Who said that? What year?" Doing so, you can make sure you cover everything in manageable doses and make sure you understand what you're writing. 
3. Get the course notes before class. If you can teach yourself, going through the notes before the class starts and making flashcards will do bundles to help you. When it's being discussed in class, you'll be working to fill holes in your understanding rather than building from scratch. Additionally, your professor will be there to answer any questions you may have. (i.e. "What does that mean?" "Who said that? What year?"
4. Get a study group. Maybe you can't study in a group. But the accountability of meeting every week and having to be prepared for that will make sure you study on your own time. Furthermore, there may be members of your group who grasp concepts that you can't and can word them in a way you can grasp. Your study group can also be great for your emotional health!

**Bonus** Stock up on coffee. 

So grab your academic adviser and ask:

What is the form and content of comps?

and

What is the grading rubric?

And apply the above information.
When you have all that sorted, check the next step: 5 Tips on Studying for Comps

You can do it!!