The Second Qualifying Exam Tests Your Knowledge of Your Project

In general, it can be said that preparing for the second qualifying exam and researching the prospectus are the same thing.

As described in the Graduate Handbook, the second qualifying examination is “a two-hour oral exam based on the dissertation prospectus and a three-part reading list designed by the student in consultation with the orals examining committee.” The second qualifying exam is easier and more difficult than the First, and for the same reason. Unlike first qualifying exams, for which reading lists are standardized and assigned by the English Department Graduate Committee, the material of second qualifying exams is determined to a great extent by you, the examinee. It is of course necessary for all reading lists to be approved by your Dissertation Committee as well as the Department Graduate Committee, and members of either may recommend additional texts be added to your list. By and large, however, the material you will be asked to discuss in your second qualifying oral exam will be included because you have decided that material is relevant to your dissertation topic, as described in your prospectus. Be sure to refer to Section 10 of the English Department Graduate Student Handbook for complete details about steps leading up to the exam and how to determine the contents of your reading lists.

Tips for compiling your reading lists:

Consult with your advisors before, during, and after creating your reading lists. They will know who the prominent scholars in your field are and can direct you to important readings that relate to your topic.
Your advisors will also probably have a few additions that they particularly want you to include (and it's good to get those additions sooner rather than later).

In addition to using research databases, check the bibliographies and works cited of books and articles that you have found useful. Surveying bibliographies will give you a good sense of the current field of research and might also help you discover material that didn't come up in your database searches.

You'll find yourself possessed by an urge to put every title you find on your reading lists. Resist this impulse. Be realistic in the scope of your selections so that your list is both relevant to your project and manageable.

After you've created the preliminary lists, sit down with your advisor to discuss a reading strategy.

The second qualifying exams are less about proving yourself a good student (if you've got this far in the program it's generally assumed that you're smart and that you do your reading) and more about demonstrating your facility as a competent research scholar: second qualifying exams are about you and your project. This is where the two-headed beast of ease/difficulty appears. Theoretically, writing the prospectus and putting together your second qualifying exam reading lists should be less burdensome than attempting to acquire facility in all the periods, genres, and methodologies that are surveyed by first qualifying exams. The reading lists for second quals are, to a large extent, actually bibliographies generated in the course of researching and writing your prospectus. This brings us to the next step in preparing for the Second Qualifying Exam:writing your prospectus.

This page written by Zia Isola, July 2004.