Re: Would like to find study group for computer science comprehensive exams.

On Oct 21, 11:16 am, Patricia Shanahan <p...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
eternalsqu...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
All,

I am a displaced software engineer who is presently applying to enroll
in a Ph.D. program next fall.

I already have a master's degree from 20 years ago, but I did not come
from a university that required comprehensive exams for that degree.

I have looked at sample comprehensive exams from different
universities and they appear quite daunting in terms of theory.

I would like to find someone in an existing Ph.D. study group who I
can communicate with on the Net, until I am formally enrolled about a
year from now in either regular or special status.

Failing that maybe there is one individual among you who has already
passed the comps (candidate, post-doc, or adjunct faculty) who would
be able and willing to provide some guidance and possibly even some
tutoring while I study on my own

I can provide a few $ to the right person.

Please respond with your email address, and I will reply directly.

Thank you all for your time in reading this.

I have a somewhat similar background. After over 30 years in the
computer industry, in 2001, I decided I wanted a change and applied to
the UCSD Ph.D. program for Fall 2002 admission. [Having such a good CS
school within 10 miles of my home made the choice easy.]. I'm now a
Ph.D. candidate, doing dissertation research. My previous formal CS
education was limited to a master's degree awarded in 1975.

I can't help you with a study group, but I can tell you how I dealt with
the problems you are facing.

The first hurdle from my point of view was the Graduate Record Exam. I
did some practice tests for the general test, but skipped doing any
vocabulary work for the verbal part. For the computer science test, I
used the ACM undergraduate CS curriculum recommendation (seehttp://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations) as a study
outline. I used a mixture of web searches and books to try to get up to
speed on most of the material.

UCSD does not do comprehensive exams for the Ph.D. program, but does
require a theory course which seems to give some systems people a bit of
trouble. As far as I can tell, the difficulty is being able to prove
theorems. I had an inherent advantage because my bachelor's degree was
in mathematics. If you are finding theory daunting, maybe an extension
course in undergraduate mathematics that requires proofs?

One oddity - I found I had to practice fast, legible writing for
extended periods. Except for occasional form filling, in my normal life
I rarely do any handwriting that other people need to read. That made 3
hour exams with no computers tough.

I found a digital camera very useful in those courses where the
professor wrote a lot on the blackboard, rather than providing
PowerPoint slides.

Course prerequisites were interesting. I remember, when starting on the
Operating Systems course, going up to the professor and telling him the
bad news, that I had never taken an OS course, and the good news, that I
had worked for over 8 years as an OS developer.

Patricia- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Excellent suggestions! Did your professors have any initial problems
with your use of a
digital camera?

.